Survey plans

About survey plans

A cadastral survey plan or a registered plan provides the details of the boundaries of a property, as well as its area. This is done so that the property can be easily identified by the land owners and the adjoining owners.

A plan is a technical and legal document prepared by a registered cadastral surveyor.

A plan is considered current until a new survey has been conducted and registered for the subject lot, and a new title issued. The certificate for each lot in Queensland refers to the current survey plan. A plan may be the current plan for some of the lots shown on the plan, but other lots may have been cancelled by a newer plan. This may mean that a current plan of a lot could be from the 1900s, whereas the current plan for a nearby lot may be either newer or older.

A survey plan does not include building location unless the property is a building unit. For more information on buildings, contact the relevant local government.

Cadastral survey plans do not contain land contours. A registered surveyor can create these plans for you.

A current plan of a lot may not show easements, leases or covenants as such interests may have been created by a different survey plan. Refer to a title search for this information.

Reading a survey plan

A survey plan will include bearings, distances and area for all parcels covered by the survey plan. Sometimes the measurements for an individual parcel are not included. This occurs where the dimensions of one parcel are the same as the adjacent lots (e.g. if lots 1 to 20 are all the same size, the dimensions may only be shown on lot 1).

A survey plan does not include the measurements from the kerb to the property boundary.

Depending on when the survey was conducted, the information recorded on the plan may vary.

For example:

• Some older plans may include roman numerals, notes and annotations, or the word 'road' when the road had not been named at the time of survey.
• A survey plan may also include old street names.
• Historical survey plans may include county prefixes and prefix abbreviations.
• Depending on the age of a plan, dimensions may be recorded in a number of formats and you may need to convert from imperial to metric.

Contact us

If you have questions about survey plans, contact us.

However, we can only provide general advice about survey plans. If you require detailed advice, or if you have questions or concerns about your specific land parcel, contact a consulting cadastral surveyor.

Also consider...

• Find out how to request a survey plan search.
• Learn more about surveying, including permanent survey marks.
• Refer to the glossary of mapping and surveying terms.
• Read about how to obtain historical survey plans.
• Find out about property boundaries, boundary pegs and boundary fences by contacting a registered surveyor.
• For information or advice on boundary disputes, contact the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal.