The following is an attempt to compare the state of the cadastres in the various jurisdictions around Australia. It's not an easy comparison to make, if only because differences in definition and description make it hard to ensure that one is comparing apples with apples.
The following information is based on data supplied by cadastral custodians in each state in response to a written set of questions from GIS User. Where it seemed convenient, we have put the results in a table. (See pages 28-29)
We asked about efforts to maintain the digital cadastre.
The ACT Land Information Centre says the ACT cadastre is complete and updated every 24 hours.
In NSW, the Department of Information Technology and Management says the cadastre is continually being updated statewide with new plans, which are registered at LPINSW. All plans are inserted into the cadastre within nine days of their receipt.
In South Australia, new plans are entered into the database within two weeks of the plan's being accepted for deposit. The method of entry depends on the size of the plan. Small subdivisions are handled by entering sufficient data from the plan to define the geometry of the new parcels. Large subdivisions are entered by generating co-ordinates for all boundary points.
The Department of Environment and Heritgage in Adelaide says upgrades to the spatial accuracy of the cadastre are undertaken in response to client requests or following the discovery of a deficiency during entry of a new plan. Changes are managed on a daily basis with redundant features being retired. Updates will be able to be supplied incrementally from 2002.
In Queensland, the Department of Natural Resources and Mines says the cadastre upgrade project, in conjunction with work by local government organisations, will improve accuracy to between 1 and 1.33 metres in urban areas.
In Tasmania, the Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment says that the land parcel dataset would be complete by the end of 2001.
Natural Resources and Environment in Victoria has an ongoing program for the identification and incorporation of missing parcels, and a process for identification and inclusion of small parcels and those forming part of road easements.
In Perth, the Department of Land Administration says 62% of the digitised WA cadastre has been numerically upgraded by capturing all survey dimensions and mathematically adjusting the cadastral network via connections to geodetic control.
We also asked a question about access to the web.
Only Tasmania and Victoria have anything approaching a reasonable use of the web. In the ACT, NSW and Queensland there is no web access at all, although NSW says some online access and purchase facilities will be available early this year; other states have partial or interim solutions.
In the ACT, a contract is currently in place to allow the cadastre to be integrated into the departmental website. In NSW, current plans envisage online purchasing and access to files in the first quarter of 2002. In Queensland, there are plans for online access to NR&M products, of which the cadastre is one.
In the Northern Territory, access to cadastral data depends on who you are and on what you want. Online access can be arranged.
In South Australia, public web access to small areas (i.e: a parcel and its surrounding parcels) is available through the 'Property Assist' system. Larger areas are supplied by file transfer following a request to the Geographic Support Centre.
In Tasmania, The List (www.thelist.tas.gov.au) contains the full set of state data, including the cadastre, held by the department. Contact Michael.Harding@dpiwe.tas.gov.au
In Victoria, Vicmap Property is publicly available in read-only format on Land Channel, the Victorian government website for property and land information. Vicmap Display, the public access point for Vicmap Property, is now achieving more than 140,000 page impressions per month. Vicmap Property can be purchased from Data Service Providers (DSPs), private sector distributors of Vicmap spatial information products.
In WA, online access to several government agencies is available. Digital extracts are available in several formats to all customers.
We also asked a question about the attributes that were available with the cadastre. It seems there are a huge number of state idiosyncrasies and no common data models.
In the ACT, the cadastre has 10 layers besides urban and rural land parcels. These include street addresses; administrative boundaries (including the Territory boundary); significant features of interest; major building footprints (public and some private sector); road centrelines; contours/physical features; unit titles; and hydrography (water courses and features). Four of these layers are included in the up-front purchase price of $2255 - urban cadastre, rural cadastre, administrative boundaries and unit titles.
In NSW, 17 attributes are listed against each parcel. There are 18 layers in the cadastre. In the Northern Territory, multiple layers are available across government.
In Queensland, the Basic Land Information Network provides access to the cadastre and its attributes, along with links to other databases of land information for departmental workers.
In South Australia, administrative boundaries (suburbs, postcodes etc) are held in the database. A database of valuation assessment boundaries was to be completed by the end of 2001.
In Tasmania, 50 layers, with attributes, are available for viewing at www.thelist.tas.gov.au.
In Victoria, the Vicmap Property data model is comprised of 11 tables and 200 attributes, most of which are provided as part of the standard product (some are administrative elements of no value to end users). Data Service Providers can vary the content and structure of the information provided.
In WA, stored attributes include co-ordinates, dimensions (including angles, distances and areas), point and line accuracy indicators and unique identifiers. In addition to the normal cadastral layer, there is a lodged surveys layer, a survey control layer and an administrative boundary layer. Attributes from land tenure databases can be accessed from the graphics.
We also tried to get some sense of the direction in which state administrations are trying to move by asking a question about initiatives.
In the ACT, the department is developing eMap (an electronic cadastral product). It should be available online towards the middle of 2002. Electronic lodgment of Deposited Plans is also being considered.
In NSW, access systems for web-based delivery are under development and pricing and access issues are under discussion. In future, most licensing will be via online agreements, with few restrictions for users, although privacy restrictions will apply.
In the Northern Territory, a survey-accurate cadastre, digital lodgment of plans and documents, and web access to user-defined multiple spatial datasets are all on the agenda.
In Queensland, the cadastre upgrade project will considerably improve the accuracy of the cadastre. Access is likely to be become more widespread with the involvement of distributors.
In South Australia, the cadastre will be influenced by the Electronic Land Administration project currently in progress. Pricing and other associated policies will be reviewed.
Tasmania will continue to develop The List. Plans include a spatial upgrade of urban land parcels, the development of data download facilities through The List and the completion of data exchange specifications with data custodians who provide data to The List. The provision of incremental updates to clients who enter maintenance agreements with DPIWE, and the development of read-only viewing through client interfaces allowing client data to be overlaid with selected LIST data are also on the agenda.
In Victoria, the full implementation of the parcel/property view data schema for Vicmap Property, which allows data to be viewed either as a cadastral (parcel) or property base, was scheduled for December 2001.
The separation of address information from Vicmap Property to form a new complementary product, Vicmap Address, was also scheduled for this timeframe. Vicmap Address will retain a fully relational property structure, allowing full integration with Vicmap Property. Improvements to the population and quality levels of aspatial elements of Vicmap Property to facilitate a range of key e-commerce initiatives will be ongoing to June 2003.
In WA, the system is in the final stages of conversion from mainframe to client/server, based on ESRI GIS software. Data has been converted to Oracle/SDE. Online web access is currently under development and discussions are being held with other government agencies regarding development of a single integrated property portal.
With respect to copyright and licensing issues, our survey shows that all state governments retain the copyright to data and all require a licensing agreement to be in place. In general, these agreements control access and restrict the ability of other companies to add value to the data.
DITM in NSW did not supply data on its attitude to copyright and licensing.
In Tasmania, data is protected by Crown copyright and issued under a Data License Agreement, with royalties for value adding.
