• There are many different types of survey marks in and around the ACT.
  • It’s important to know where these are before you start any works or development.

Survey marks are physical markings that support billions of dollars of investment, property rights and infrastructure. There are many types of survey marks used for various proposes.

Survey marks are important to a range of people in the community. They are used to support surveying for:

  • property boundaries
  • engineering
  • road and building construction
  • map production
  • land surveys.

What survey marks look like

There are thousands of survey marks in and around the ACT. The most common forms of survey marks are:

  • coordinated reference marks (CRMs)
  • kerb bench marks (KBMs)
  • steel rods (SRs)
  • drill hole and wings (DHWs)
  • buried marks like galvanised iron pipes (GIPs) or concrete blocks (CBs) that can't be seen from the surface.

Many survey marks are below ground and can't be seen from the surface. This is why it is important that you check for survey marks before you begin development.

Before you start work around survey marks

You'll need to check if there are any survey marks close to your planned works that could be damaged.

The Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate (EPSDD) helps to preserve survey marks. You'll need to contact EPSDD before you start planning works that may disturb survey marks.

Contact EPSDD's survey office at actplasurvey@act.gov.au before you start work to provide a plan of proposed works. EPSDD will provide, free of charge:

  • advice on what marks your works might affect
  • survey plans identifying any marks your work might affect.

If you know of any survey marks that will be affected by your works, you can plan to:

  • divert your works to avoid disturbing the marks
  • hire a registered surveyor to protect the survey marks. Registered surveyors will offset or replace marks before you start works.

Don't change or remove survey marks

Disturbing survey marks is an offence under Section 53 of the Surveyors Act 2007. Even if you impact the location of a survey mark by millimetres, you'll still be responsible.

You'll have to reinstate or replace marks you destroy or disturb.

You can't move or replace a survey mark on your own. You'll need to hire a registered surveyor to oversee the replacement or reinstatement of the mark.

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