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About the Surveyor-General of Victoria

The Surveyor-General of Victoria is the primary government authority on surveying and the cadastre (land property boundaries and tenure). Roles and responsibilities for the Surveyor-General are prescribed under a diverse range of Acts and Regulations of Parliament. The role of the Surveyor-General includes responsibilities for Victoria's: land administration planning surveying electoral system geographic place names regulation geodetic infrastructure and survey control network protection of the cadastre industry leadership.

Surveyor-General of Victoria John E. Tulloch

Statutory Responsibilities and Powers

The Surveyor-General plays a key governance role in Victoria. The Surveyor-General is:

• the statutory authority on surveying and cadastral boundaries
• the Registrar of Geographic Names in Victoria, visit Vicnames
• the Chair of the Surveyors Registration Board of Victoria
• a Commissioner for Electoral Boundaries in Victoria
• a member of the Federal Redistribution Committee for Victoria
• a State Verifying Authority for the measurement of length
• responsible for registering survey plans in the Land Registry
• leading the Office of Surveyor-General Victoria (SGV) and its contribution to the Department of Sustainability and Environment's (DSE) corporate mission, product and service delivery charter.

Additional Roles and Responsibilities

• provision of high level advice to the Minister and DSE on statutory and policy matters relating to surveying, geodetic infrastructure, the survey control network and the cadastre
• determination and approval of Crown (government) land boundaries and alignments
• co-ordination of surveying activities within Victoria and to ensure that appropriate standards are maintained by state authorities
• maintenance of Victoria's geodetic infrastructure and survey control network
• the setting of standards of measurement and is a State Verifying Authority for the measurement of length, under the Australian Government's National Measurement Act 1960.
• monitoring of the compliance of land surveyors with regulations and standards to ensure adequate maintenance of the cadastral boundaries form the basis of land ownership in Victoria
• promulgation of surveying practice directions in relation to standards of measurement, survey and marking from time to time, whether through the Survey Practice Handbook or Surveyor-General Practice Directives.

Further information and general enquiries:

Surveyor-General Victoria
Level 17, 570 Bourke Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
P.O.Box 500
East Melbourne VIC 3002
Ph: (03) 8636 2525
Fax: (03) 8636 2588
Email: Surveyor.General@dse.vic.gov.au