NRS-20783 | Standard survey plans [Maritime Services]

Full description

This series consists of survey plans that depict boundaries and occupation of Roads and Maritime Services land; that being beyond the Mean High Water Mark (MHWM). Roads and Maritime Services held title over the bed of the harbour in the same way that an ordinary citizen would have title covering a residence they owned. Structures such as berths, boatsheds, slipways and jetties project on to Roads and Maritime Services land.

The survey plan supported Roads and Maritime Services' administration of more than 2,000 wetland leases covering foreshore structures in Sydney Harbour, Botany Bay, Newcastle Harbour and Port Kembla Harbour. Sydney Harbour included North Harbour, Middle Harbour, Parramatta River, Lane Cove River and Duck River. As these survey plans relate to property that Maritime managed and leased, they were not required to be lodged as Deposited Plans.

A survey plan was amended whenever changes occurred in ownership, occupation and/or boundary. For each amendment made to the survey plan the following information was recorded on the plan: date of survey, field book, Draughtsman, Checked and Surveyor. Plans were replaced when the draughtsman's ink for the amendments did not hold on the plan or when plans were consolidated because of the expansion of leases creating a new version.The superseded plan was then placed with the cancelled plans.

The plans generally have the following additional information: Municipality, Locality, Parish, County, Scale, Draughtsman, Field Book reference, Trig (magnetic meridian), Plot No., PJ (Port Jackson charting plan reference).

New drawing conventions were introduced in December 1971 when the drawing branch moved to metrification. This included all 1000 series plans and included the following changes: Mean High Water Mark will be shown as a firm (unbroken) line with the letters MHWM on the seaward side of the line and, to fill in gaps where MHWM is not known, a longish broken line with the words Approx. HWM was written. To assist identification, names of clubs, boy scouts etc. were shown within the leased area where it was practicable.

Miscellaneous plans were created as custom plans for an one-off event. Also known as single purpose plans, generally the information shown is not related to the lease. These plans may show proposed structures that did not materialise.

This series includes Vested land plans, indicated by a (V) symbol after the record number. These plans show Maritime land that had been vested into another government department/ local council ownership. Imaged copies of these plans have also been captured for reference by Land and Property Information.

There are a small number of coloured copies of plans in this series as substitutes for the original plan that no longer exist.

Arrangement
The plans are arranged alphabetically by Parish then by sequential numbering. For example: AL 210. The introduction of the 1000s series began in 1971, after metrication occurred, with any replacement plan or new plan keeping the parish prefix and sequential numbering from 1000.

The plan room at Maritime NSW's location at Rozelle closed in 2015 and the Standard Survey Plans were the first plans set to be digitised for ongoing use and preservation. Preservation requirements meant that the plastic hanger used to hang plans were removed. The hangers had the latest recorded numbering system which standardised the Parish alphabetical numbering system used by Maritime NSW. This was retained in the description of the plan and the item number was the first unique control number used on the plans.