Background of the Central Plan Office
The Central Plan Office (CPO) was formally established by the Survey Co-ordination Act 1944 (the Act) as a central lodgment location for surveys, plans and information relating to surveys and plans to support land dealings prepared for public authorities that were not for the purposes of the Land Titles Act 1980.
The Act also created the Central Plan Register (CPR) within the CPO under the custodianship of the Surveyor-General to register plans and associated surveys and documents when lodged. A plan or document becomes official once registered in the CPR and issued to support an order or proclamation pursuant to relevant legislation.
The term Central Plan Office is now used to describe the repository of all plans lodged with and held under the custodianship of the Surveyor-General since the earliest days of the Van Diemans Land colony.
Examples of CPR Plans
Documents lodged in the CPR range from plans derived from a field survey for a specific purpose to compilations of datasets represented in a map to describe administrative areas.
Examples of plans and maps include, but are not limited to, those prepared to support:
Leases over unalienated Crown land
Registration of entries in the Tasmanian Heritage Register where boundaries are described by GDA2020 coordinates or related to physical features.
Marine farm leases.
Description of administrative areas such as local government regions, planning scheme zones, electoral divisions, national parks or irrigation districts.
An order setting aside Crown land for the purposes of any Act, department or statutory body under the Crown Lands Act 1976.
CPR Plan Boundary Definition
It is the responsibility of the officer preparing an administrative CPR Plan to ensure that the boundaries described on the plan adequately reflect the purpose of the legislative instrument.
The Surveyor-General considers plans to ensure they achieve an accurate and, as near as possbile, unequivocal definition of the location of boundaries on the ground before they are accepted for lodgment. However, this assessment does not confirm whether the location of the described boundary of a legal interest is satisfactory for the required purpose.
It is important to recognise limitations in the spatial accuracy of the LIST Cadastral Parcels layer when describing boundaries on an administrative CPR Plan to avoid ambiguity in boundary location.
Please contact the Office of the Surveyor-General for advice on preparing administrative CPR plans, including tips on utilising a range of administrative datasets of varying spatial accuracy and production lineage to achieve an unambiguous boundary definition.
Searching the Central Plan Register
The Land Titles Office provides information on how to obtain copies of documents held in the Central Plan Register: How to Search the Central Plan Office.