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Managing the Government Estate - Desired Outcome - KPI's & Output Measures |
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Ensuring Security of Land Ownership - Desired Outcome - KPI's & Output Measures |
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Providing Accurate & Impartial Valuations - Desired Outcome - KPI's & Output Measures |
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Access to Government Land Information - Desired Outcome - KPI's & Output Measures |
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Certification of KPI's & Financial Statements |
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Desired Outcome
The State’s administrative, commercial and social systems are supported
by a land information base and certainty of ownership and other interests
in land.
A fundamental requirement in all land dealings is the certainty of land ownership, or tenure, supported by reliable land information. DOLA provides the Western Australian community with a simple, secure system of document registration, which guarantees land ownership, and a wealth of accurate geographic information.
DOLA, through its SmartPlan digital Public Plan System, investigated the development of electronic layers to reflect Native Title Determination and Indigenous Land Use Agreements. Investigations identified complex mapping and policy issues that will need resolution before a technical solution can be developed.
In August 2002, Registration Services Branch was certified to AS/NZS ISO 9001:2000 standard. With this, the compliance and certification of all branches within the Land Information and Administration Services Directorate was completed.
The Community Titles Advisory Committee was formed in late 1997 to meet the Government’s commitment to the ongoing review of the Strata Titles Act. In March 2002 the Minister for Planning and Infrastructure approved the re-constitution of the Committee for a further two years.
The Committee continued to assist DOLA with its current review of parts of the Strata Titles Act 1985.
The objectives of the Community Titles Advisory Committee are to consider proposals for legislative change in relation to properties with separate lots and shared services. DOLA provides administrative and operational support to the Committee.
In November 2002 the Committee and DOLA organised a workshop on strata developments which was attended by a wide cross-section of the public and industry groups.
Non-government members of the Committee are paid a sitting fee of $50 per meeting.
During the financial year the Committee considered topics under review as part of the two-year review project being conducted by DOLA. Members of the Community Titles Advisory Committee liaised with the DOLA officer undertaking the review to develop solutions to the problems identified and will be responsible for reviewing the recommendations put forward.
The Committee Members July 2002 to June 2003 were:
| Meetings Attended | ||
| Ed McKinnon (Chair) | Land Surveyor and Company Director | 8/8 |
| Ian McRae Replaced by Paul Turner |
Department for Planning and Infrastructure (formerly Ministry for Planning) nominee | 4/4 4/4 |
| Robert Kronberger | Office of the Strata Title Referee nominee | 7/8 |
| Cr. Alan Richardson Replaced by Terry McCarthy |
Western Australian Municipal Association nominee | 1/2 4/6 |
| Mescal Stephens | Office of Water Regulation nominee | 4/8 |
| Peter Munday | Real Estate Institute of Western Australia nominee | 7/8 |
| Dominic Loiacono | Australian Institute of Conveyancers nominee | 1/8 |
| Vernon Butterly Replaced by Gemma Gallagher |
Urban Development Institute of Australia nominee | 3/7 0/1 |
| David Clark | Law Society of Western Australia nominee | 3/8 |
| David Hoops | Institute of Surveyors nominee | 7/8 |
| Jake Kneebone | Strata Titles Institute of Western Australia nominee | 6/8 |
| Greg Vellacott | Singer-Tier nominee | 4/5 |
| Frances Maber | Multi-Tier nominee | 6/6 |
| Ruth Geneff | Multi-Tier nominee | 8/8 |
| Charles Noble | Department of Land Administration | 8/8 |
| Bruce Roberts | Department of Land Administration representative | 5/8 |
| Eric Horlin (Executive Officer) | Department of Land Administration | 8/8 |
DOLA International offers other countries world class technical assistance and advice about land administration and land registration. These activities provide the State with export income, stimulate local business opportunities and encourage trade and cultural exchange. Since its inception in 1992, DOLA International has secured consultancies worth more than $16 million.
In 2002-2003, DOLA’s International team concentrated on the following major projects:
Sri Lanka - DOLA International was successful in winning a new World Bank funded Project, the Sri Lanka Land Titling and Related Services Project Technical Assistance (TA) in partnership with SAGRIC International Pty Ltd, based in South Australia. The TA, which is valued at approximately $2.7 million, commenced in March 2002 and is scheduled for completion in July 2004. The project is being conducted as a World Bank Learning and Innovation Loan with the intent of developing and assessing improved land administration procedures for Sri Lanka.
Bangladesh - DOLA and its partners completed the ADB funded Bangladesh Land Administration Reform Project, which was the third of three phases of a Technical Assistance program carried out by DOLA and its partners. DOLA’s partners on the project were the NSW Land and Property Information Office, Overseas Projects Corporation of Victoria, Bangladesh Engineering & Technological Services, and InfoConsult Bangladesh.
Trinidad and Tobago - DOLA and its partners completed implementation of the Inter-American Development Bank funded Institutional Strengthening of the Registrar General’s Department Project. It was undertaken by DOLA together with the NSW Land Titles International and Overseas Projects Corporation of Victoria.
Through the international program, DOLA conducted several study tours and visits:
Two senior managers from the Hong Kong Land Registry Office undertook a two week training program in the operations of a modern titles office in DOLA in August 2002. The training program was based around the land titling operations carried out in the Registration Services Branch.
A group of five senior managers from the Malaysian Ministry of Lands and Cooperative Development Office (the Director General of Lands and Mines Department) visited DOLA to study Strata Title processes and their implementation in Western Australia. The program was conducted over two weeks in June 2003.
Under a Memorandum of Understanding that provides for cooperation in the fields of training and research related to land and resources, DOLA and the Department of Minerals and Petroleum Resources conducted a land administration and mining related study tour for 19 senior members of the Chinese Ministry of Land and Resources. The program was conducted over a one week period during December 2002.
These study tours involved 26 overseas visitors studying our world-class land administration systems. A number of other scheduled visits were postponed for SARS related reasons.
The Geographic Names Committee is appointed by the Minister for Planning and Infrastructure to provide advice on the naming of townsites, suburbs, localities, roads and other features. It met four times in 2002/2003. Members and their attendance (including attendance by deputy) were:
| Meetings Attended | ||
| Andrew Burke | DOLA (Chairman) | 4/4 |
| Kevin Trent | Main Roads Western Australian | 4/4 |
| Russell Burnett | Urban Development Institute of Australia (WA Div) | 4/4 |
| Tony Caravella | State Records Office | 3/4 |
| Douglas Brown | Australia Post | 4/4 |
| Brian Dawson | Dept of Minerals and Petroleum Resources | 4/4 |
| Representative | Aboriginal Affairs Department | 0/4 |
| Janice Goodacre | Local Government Association | 3/4 |
| Jo Harrison-Ward | Fire and Emergency Service Authority | 2/4 |
| Brian Goodchild | DOLA (Secretary) | 4/4 |
The Committee gained a representative from the Fire and Emergency Services Authority. No longer represented are Conservation and Land Management, Planning and Infrastructure, the Department of Geography and the University of Western Australia. Mr Chris Coggin resigned from his position as Director of the State Records Office, and was replaced by the new Director, Mr Tony Caravella. Mr Coggin had served on the Committee for 14 years, and made a valuable contribution to its work.
During the year the Committee defined the names and boundaries for another 106 rural localities in 13 Local Government areas. Major achievements were in the Shire of Lake Grace (20 localities) and Shires of Shark Bay (19), Dandaragan (14) and Dumbleyung (13). 133 of the State's 144 Local Governments now have approved bounded localities.
Two new metropolitan localities were approved in the City of Armadale. Mt Richon, named after a former vineyard, and Seville Grove, named after an orange variety, were both formerly part of the locality of Armadale. The new locality of Millbridge, formerly part of Eaton in the Shire of Dardanup, was also created. The boundaries of six localities were amended, and the locality of Burns was renamed to Burns Beach and Madora to Madora Bay. 87 parks and reserves were named in the year and one name was changed. Many of the new names are commemorative names honouring community contributions.
The dominant theme adopted for many of the new 997 road names is Australiana, with the principal choices being Australian lakes, rivers, beaches, surfing spots, homesteads and Kimberley coastal names. Other themes for new subdivisions included international cities, Mediterranean composers and European artists.
Geographic Names Committee - Name Approvals
New |
Amended |
Deleted |
|
| 2002/03 (2001/02) |
2002/03 (2001/02) |
2002/03 (2001/02) |
|
| Roads | 997 (707) |
548 (417) |
nil (nil) |
| Features | 234 (614) |
16 (55) |
6 (23) |
The Mid West was the focus of a team of international scientists looking for a suitable site for a Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) radio telescope in the region. The Murchison area is on the shortlist of three potential sites for the cutting edge LOFAR radio astronomy facility that is estimated to cost $70 million.
An Australian project team headed by CSIRO and the Department of Premier and Cabinet (Science and Innovation) requested DOLA to source and collate relevant land information datasets that could be used by the evaluation team. Data was collated from four State Government agencies and integrated into a CD packaged Geographic Information System (GIS) with a viewing tool. This CD-ROM was demonstrated to the LOFAR evaluation team at a Geraldton seminar in January 2003. Each scientist was presented with their own copy of the CD and both the data and GIS viewer were praised by the scientists as being of world class status.
DOLA’s Land Claims Mapping Unit have developed a Geographic Information System (GIS) as a tool to help determine the extent of native title within particular claims. The GIS is used in mediation and litigation to establish the status of the land and mining tenure. The driving force behind the exercise was to replace a very cumbersome paper system. Access is provided to the Crown Solicitor’s Office, relevant claimants/claimant groups, legal representatives and registered interested parties.
The GIS has datasets that depict both current and historical land and mining tenure. The system makes it possible to view any of the identified land parcels, as proof of tenure. The resultant dataset shows a complete historic profile for all current land tenure parcels.
Additional information has been linked to Crown Reserves, in the form of a text file giving a brief history of the reserve together with a file containing scanned images of all the relevant pages from the State Government Gazette. An image, where possible, is added to the GIS to help identify any buildings or public works that may have some bearing on the establishment of native title.
A new document - ‘Report On The Facilities And Condition Of The Canning Stock Route From Wiluna To Well 33, August 2002’ - was prepared by the Surveys unit.
The State Rangelands Survey Program continued to provide valuable resource management information to pastoralists. The following projects were undertaken during the year:
Lower Murchison – the survey of five pastoral leases, Kalbarri National Park and Unallocated Crown land with a combined area of about 13,000 square kilometres were completed in April 2003. This survey completed a gap that existed between the rangeland resource surveys in the north and east, and the State soil survey program in the south. Serious erosion and vegetation depletion issues were identified in the vicinity of the Murchison River and recommendations for the future management of these areas will be included in the final report of the project.
Canning Stock Route – a ‘Report On The Facilities And Condition Of The Canning Stock Route From Wiluna To Well 33’ was prepared from information gathered during a field trip in August 2002. As an icon of outback trails, the Canning Stock route is facing increasing pressure from the more than 800 tourists who annually travel along its length. Recommendations were included for consideration to assist with the preservation of the unique heritage and environment of the route.
Pilbara – the printing of the Pilbara Ranges Survey technical report ‘An Inventory And Condition Survey Of The Pilbara Region Of Western Australia’ and its sister report entitled ‘The Pastoral Resources And Their Management Of The Pilbara Region Of Western Australia’ were rescheduled for the 2003 – 2004 financial year. The data was pre-released to the pastoral industry to assist in the development of station management plans. The Department of Conservation and Land Management is also currently using the data to assist in the planning of its five-year Pilbara Region Biological Survey.
Ashburton – the report on the spread of buffel grass (Cenchrus ciliaris) through the Ashburton River catchment is being prepared. Surveys completed in 2001-2002 showed that this exotic grass has spread widely over the previous 25 years, mostly to the benefit of the pastoral industry. The grass has enhanced the livestock carrying capacity of those areas it has colonised, and has generally increased the potential of the pastoral leases where it is found.
Nullarbor – this survey will remain incomplete until the Pilbara report is ready for publication. It is expected that field surveys that were started in September 2001 will recommence in the latter part of this financial year.
In May 2002, DOLA was involved with a consortia to establish and observe 48 new geodetic survey stations covering the South West Seismic Zone of Western Australia. The consortia included DOLA, Geoscience Australia, Curtin University, University of Western Australia and Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences New Zealand.
Almost all sites were established on granite outcrops in an effort to retain long-term geological stability. The three-week Global Positioning System (GPS) field campaign involved 20 GPS receivers with observation sessions ranging from 7 – 21 days. Geoscience Australia processed the GPS data to derive accurate coordinates for the new stations and the survey has been integrated into the State's geodetic network.
It is envisaged that the network will be re-observed every two to three years. The survey was linked to Geoscience Australia's Cities Project which seeks to assess the risk to urban centres from a wide range of natural hazards, including earthquakes. Other partners in the Cities Project are FESA, DPI and the Bureau of Meteorology (Perth Office).
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