Survey Co-ordination Act 1944

Survey Co-ordination Act 1944

This Act may be cited as the Survey Co-ordination Act 1944.

This Act shall come into operation upon a date to be proclaimed.

In this Act, unless the contrary intention appears –

central plan office means the central plan office established under this Act;

central plan register means the central plan register established under this Act;

Commonwealth survey authority means any Department of the Commonwealth, or any section or branch of the Defence Force of the Commonwealth engaged upon surveys for the triangulation and mapping of Australia;

Commonwealth survey officer means any person authorized, in writing, by the officer in charge of the Commonwealth survey authority;

plan includes every plan, map, aerial photograph, or description made or obtained as part of any survey or surveys;

proper officer means – in relation to an Agency, within the meaning of the State Service Act 2000 – the Head of that Agency; and in relation to any other public authority – any officer of that public authority appointed by it as the proper officer thereof for the purposes of this Act;

public authority includes any Agency, within the meaning of the State Service Act 2000, and the council, and any board, commission, trust, or other body, whether corporate or unincorporate, established by or under any Act for any public purpose, whether in respect of the whole or any part of this State, which is authorized or required by any Act to make surveys, or the functions of which are such as to require surveys to be made by, or plans of surveys to be lodged with, it;

registered plan means a plan of which a record has been entered in the central plan register in pursuance of this Act;

registered surveyor means a person registered as a surveyor under the Land Surveyors Act 1909;

survey means the act or process of determining the form, contour, position, area, height, depth, or any other similar particulars of any part of the earth's surface, whether on land or water, or of any natural or artificial features on, below, or above any part of that surface, or the length and direction of the bounding lines of any part of that surface, or of any such natural or artificial features thereof, and includes the making or obtaining of a plan or plans thereof;

surveyor includes any – registered surveyor; and person who carries out or superintends any survey on behalf of any public authority.

For the purposes of this Act there shall be established, in the Department, a central plan office.

The Minister administering the State Service Act 2000 may appoint a State Service officer or State Service employee, who shall be a surveyor registered under the Land Surveyors Act 1909, to be Surveyor-General and that officer or employee is to hold that office in conjunction with State Service employment.

The Surveyor-General appointed under this Act shall perform such of the functions and duties of the Director-General of Lands as the Minister may appoint and the acts of the Surveyor-General when so doing shall be deemed to be those of the Director-General of Lands.

Every act of the Surveyor-General so appointed shall, except in proceedings between the Crown and the Surveyor-General for breach of duty, be deemed to be in pursuance of the Minister's appointment.

The proper officer of every public authority shall, within six months after the commencement of this Act – cause to be compiled a list setting out the prescribed particulars with respect to all plans in the possession of the authority at the commencement of this Act which were compiled after the thirty-first day of December 1910, whether made by or on behalf of the authority or lodged therewith; and cause a copy of the list, certified by him to be correct and complete, to be forwarded to the Surveyor-General.

Every public authority shall, upon being so required by the Surveyor-General, appoint a fit and proper person as the proper officer of that authority for the purposes of this Act.

No survey shall, after the commencement of this Act, be commenced by or on behalf of any public authority unless a notice in the prescribed form of intention to commence such survey has been delivered or forwarded to, and received by, the Surveyor-General at least five days before the survey is commenced: Provided that where it is impracticable by reason of the urgency of any particular survey to give the notice required by this section notice of intention to commence, or as the case may require, of having commenced, the survey shall be given as early as is practicable in the circumstances, and shall be accompanied by a certificate of the proper officer of the public authority concerned setting out the reasons for the failure to give the prescribed notice.

Without limiting the generality of the provisions of this Act relating to surveys in or contiguous to proclaimed survey areas, the Surveyor-General may, by writing addressed to the proper officer of any public authority, require, in relation to any survey being carried out or proposed to be carried out by or on behalf of the authority, that – the survey shall be connected to an existing local or general survey or based upon a specified datum as to levels or otherwise; and the surveyor carrying out the survey shall cause permanent marks of the prescribed kind to be established within or adjacent to the area surveyed as the Surveyor-General directs, and that the survey shall be connected with any permanent mark or marks already established; and the original, or a true copy of, any plan made or obtained as part of the survey, showing the date of the survey and certified as correct by the surveyor who carried out the survey, together with a separate sketch plan certified as correct by the surveyor showing the position of any permanent marks established and the connection, if any, of the survey with any local or general survey or with any permanent mark or marks already established, shall be forwarded to the Surveyor-General within one month after the completion of the plans.

The proper officer of the public authority shall cause the survey to be carried out and plans to be prepared and forwarded in accordance with the requirements of the Surveyor-General and any plans so forwarded shall be lodged in the central plan office.

Every survey, not being a survey carried out for the purposes of the Land Titles Act 1980, commenced by or on behalf of any public authority after the commencement of this Act, whether the subject of a requirement by the Surveyor-General under the foregoing provisions of this section or not, shall be carried out in accordance with the standards of measurement and accuracy prescribed by regulations under this Act relating to surveys of the appropriate kind.

Any plan (whether or not made as the result of a survey), not being a plan prepared for the purposes of the Land Titles Act 1980, which is prepared by or on behalf of a public authority for the purposes of, or in connection with, the description in an Act, proclamation or other instrument of a legislative character of an area or boundary, shall be prepared in accordance with the requirements of this section and in such manner as the Surveyor-General considers necessary to achieve an accurate and, as near as possible, an unequivocal definition of any boundary on the ground.

The proper officer of every public authority shall, in each year, within fourteen days after the last day of June and December respectively –

cause to be compiled a list setting out the prescribed particulars with respect to – every plan prepared by or on behalf of the authority or lodged therewith during the period of six months in respect of which the list is compiled; and every survey carried out by or on behalf of the authority during that period of which a plan has not been made; and cause a copy of such list, certified by him to be correct and complete, to be forwarded to the Surveyor-General.

For the purposes of this Act there shall be established and maintained in the central plan office a register, to be called the central plan register, which shall be in the form prescribed and shall contain the prescribed classifications and particulars.

The Surveyor-General, after such inquiry as he thinks necessary, shall cause to be entered in the central plan register a record of such of the plans – set out on any list forwarded to him in accordance with section seven; or forwarded to him under the provisions of section six – as appear to him to be of general value for the purposes of this Act, and shall cause to be marked or stamped upon every such plan, whether in the central plan office or not, such particulars of its registration and classification as are prescribed.

Where it appears to the Surveyor-General that any registered plan in the possession of any public authority is of such general value for the purposes of this Act that it should be lodged in the central plan office – in the case of any plan in the possession of a Government department, within the meaning of the State Service Act 2000 – with the consent of the Minister administering that department; and in the case of any plan in the possession of an Agency, within the meaning of the State Service Act 2000, not being a Government department – with the consent of the Head of that Agency; and in the case of any plan in the possession of any other public authority – with the consent of the chairman, president, or chief executive officer of the authority – such plan or a certified copy thereof shall, when required by the Surveyor-General, notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any enactment other than this Act, be lodged and kept in the central plan office.

No registered plan which remains in the possession of any public authority shall be destroyed or, except in pursuance of this Act, be removed out of the possession of such authority without the consent, in writing, of the Surveyor-General.

Where any alteration is effected in any registered plan which remains in the possession of any public authority, the proper officer thereof shall, within fourteen days after the alteration is effected, notify the Surveyor-General thereof, in writing, and, if a copy of the registered plan has been lodged with the Surveyor-General, a plan showing the details of the alteration shall be forwarded to, or lodged with, the Surveyor-General together with the notification of the alteration.

For the purpose of the registration and classification of plans pursuant to this Act, every person authorized by the Surveyor-General shall, at all reasonable times, have free access to all plans specified in any list forwarded to the Surveyor-General under the provisions of this Act which are in the possession of any public authority, and shall be entitled to mark or stamp on any of those plans such particulars as are required for the purposes of subsection (2).

The Surveyor-General shall cause to be published in the prescribed manner and form – in the month of July next after the commencement of this Act, and thereafter in the month of July in every year in which the Minister so directs – an index of plans recorded in the central plan register as at the preceding thirtieth day of June; and in the month of July in every year in which such index is not published – a supplementary index of all plans so recorded since the last publication of the index or supplementary index, as the case may be, up to the preceding thirtieth day of June.

A copy of such portion of each index or supplementary index as is required shall be made available – without charge, to the Commonwealth survey authority and to every public authority; and with the consent of the Surveyor-General, upon payment of the prescribed fee, to any person.

Every surveyor, every Commonwealth survey officer, and every person authorized in writing by the Surveyor-General shall, at all reasonable times, be entitled to inspect any registered plan in the central plan office, and the Surveyor-General, when so required, may authorize any person to inspect any registered plan which is kept elsewhere than in the central plan office.

Every person authorized in writing by the Surveyor-General, whether generally or in any particular case, and every Commonwealth survey officer shall at all reasonable times be entitled to inspect any registered plan in the possession of any public authority.

Every public authority shall, when so required by the Surveyor-General by writing addressed to the proper officer thereof, provide an accurate copy of any registered plan in its possession to –

the Surveyor-General or to any Commonwealth survey officer, free of charge; or any public authority or to any registered surveyor – upon payment of such charge, if any, as is provided by or under any other Act therefor; or where there is no such provision, at a charge which shall not exceed the cost of preparation of the copy plus ten per centum thereof.