WELCOME TO THE AUGUST 2021 ICS EXPRESS
This monthly publication is a communication channel from the ICS Committee to the wider ICS Membership, and alerts you to:
• matters of cadastral importance;
• the status of ICS projects;
• cadastral news and events;
• ICS administrative matters;
Feedback and contributions are welcome, and should be directed to: sec@ics.org.nz or president@ics.org.nz
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*** ICS WORKSHOP - LAST MINUTE REMINDER ***
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PRESIDENT'S MUSINGS
From the desk of ICS President Pat Sole
Having spent a large part of my working life happily engaged in surveying, it would be remiss of me not to mention the hugely supportive (and often unacknowledged) role played by the spouses/partners of surveyors.
For me, surveying has not only been a career, but a lifestyle that I and my family live and breathe. That lifestyle has taken me to different areas of the World and New Zealand on project work, workshops, and conferences. It has also on some occasions, taken away large chunks of family time in obtaining registration, working away from home, involvement in projects with tight deadlines or “biting off more than I can chew” - or in voluntary work in support of my chosen career.
For me, the rewards are a sense of self-pride in having been somewhere or learnt something new, having helped a client, fellow surveyors, or the community out. It is true that those rewards are proportional to the effort put in. Yet our life partners do not always receive this same reward or recognition.
I have found, particularly in later years, that the demands of modern survey life in negotiating consents and plans through the regulatory processes and sticking up for what I consider to be right or just, means my wife is now well versed in survey issues and a trusted advisor. It is not unusual for me to engage with her before responding to a particular issue, or to test whether my response is appropriate.
I would like to think that I provide reciprocal support in her chosen career (although I suspect I fall well short on that front), but the demands of surveying life are not always easy on relationships. In this my last musing, I thank you for the opportunities you have provided me with and wish you all the very best for the future. Hopefully Cheryl, you’ll see a little more of me in the future and thank you for your patience.
Thanks Pat for your always thought-provoking, often apt, and sometimes provocative “Musings”. They have always been well received and we know they have been widely read also. We now look forward to a new flavour of presidential commentary next month when President-Elect Durkin supplies his first “Musing” - Eds]
Responses or ripostes should be directed to: president@ics.org.nz
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ICS IN ACTION
ICS ADVOCACY PROJECTS
Your ICS Executive Committee continue to engage with other groups and work on various advocacy projects on your behalf. Components of these ‘projects’ often require feedback, comment and contributions from Members.
The ICS projects are progressing, and our recent activities are summarised below, with their status in italics:
- Good Survey Practice – “detail document” project continues; first draft progressing albeit slowly at 65% complete.
- Cadastral Survey Rules – Enactment date 30-August-2021.
- STEP (formerly ASaTS) – watching brief continues - see working group meeting report below.
- Toitū Te Whenua/LINZ – Rule 19 and 21 Issues; Plan Processing times and Service Levels (see below)
- S+SNZ – Memorandum of Understanding being drafted by S+SNZ
- Example Survey Plans – initial examples published – examination competency list received
- QA Checklist Template – a new project with CSNZ and S+SNZ - slow progress continues
Your feedback on these matters is welcomed. If you have any other cadastral survey issues that you want support with – or want the ICS to escalate – then please contact a Committee Member or the Secretary - sec@ics.org.nz
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TOITŪ TE WHENUA/LINZ UPDATES
CUSTOMER DELIVERY BUSINESS GROUP
Toitū Te Whenua/LINZ have been reorganising their business groups https://www.linz.govt.nz/about-us/our-organisation/business-groups
The “Customer Delivery Group” led by Jan Pierce is made up of the service delivery and regulatory functions. The group is designed to connect the work across all operational areas, increasing integration and provide an excellent end-to-end service for customers. The functions that make up the Customer Delivery group are:
- Crown Property
- Property Rights
- Location Information
- Regulatory Practice and Delivery
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CADASTRAL SURVEY RULES 2021
The enactment date for the new Survey Rules – CSR2021 – is drawing near. Members are reminded that they come into effect on 30-August-2021, with a transition period meaning that surveys and CSD’s can continue to be lodged under the old Rules (RCS2010) until 25-February-2022.
After our scrutiny and discussions and input, there are (at least) three aspects that have been brought to our attention and that we have flagged to the Surveyor-General for his notice. These are:
a. Rule 19(1) - Accuracy of non-boundary marks: The rule formula that we were consulting on is different to the formula in the published rules. This exacerbates the tightness of the required accuracy – especially in rural locations or with old or poor underlying surveys.
b. Rule 21 - Accuracy of boundary referencing: A subtle change in meaning by adding “all” into the statement “between a boundary point… and all old and new non-boundary marks”.
c. Alternative Process for Limited Titles: Removal of this process without consultation.
We await the S-G’s response in due course.
Our letter to the S-G can be read in its entirety here. If you agree (or disagree) with our points in this letter please let the Secretary know (sec@ics.org.nz).
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CSR2021 - RULE 71(E) - EQUIPMENT/MANUFACTURERS INPUT
From Global Survey (Leica Geosystems) - Cadastral Field Notes:
New Zealand Surveyors should be aware and prepared for the upcoming change in Survey regulations that will require Fieldnotes to be submitted with a Cadastral dataset.
Global Survey have developed stylesheets to support this upcoming change in regulations, which are now available to our customers, including guidance on operation and reporting.
https://globalsurvey.co.nz/surveying-gis-news/survey-regulation-change-cadastral-field-notes/
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LANDONLINE ISSUES AND NEWS
CURRENT PROCESSING TIMES AT 29-July-2021
Times for Survey and Title processing for the last 12 months are tracked below.
The summary graph for Survey Datasets reports the shortest (routine) and longest (complex) processing working days:
 
As reported last month, the ICS continues to be extremely concerned about the plan processing timeline trends.
We received a few responses to our call for “hard evidence” last month. This enabled us to compile a snapshot of real data on plan processing times to test the Toitū Te Whenua statistics. Our initial analysis was based on 40 CSD’s from multiple land districts and with variable complexity levels – although the majority were classed as “simple”. Our statistics reported that the average processing time is closer to 15 working days and that nearly 50% of plans are taking longer – some up to 28 working days.
These metrics were reported to Toitū Te Whenua in a letter of concern about expanding processing times and poor service delivery responses. The ICS felt that we need to escalate our concerns - these items have been regular topics of conversation at our Toitū Te Whenua Relationship Meetings - to seek greater reassurance that actions are being taken to peg these processing times back.
An on-line meeting was held on 6-August between representatives of the ICS Executive and Toitu Te Whenua – including the old and new DCE’s - Property Rights; Surveyor-General; and Operations Director. It was pleasing to hear that TTW understand our frustrations. They report that a bulk recruitment drive and target engagement level of 105% capacity is already underway; and that this coupled with a process improvement review will deliver a turnaround within 4-6 weeks. We will be keenly watching this space.
We queried the status of the old service level agreement timeframe of 10 working days (gone for about 5-years) and took the opportunity to bring to their attention the large cost to our Client’s with extended days (interest rate charges whilst awaiting settlement etc). It was acknowledged also that we - as surveyors – have a role to play in assisting with a reduction in processing interaction and effort. This is by maintaining or increasing our due diligence and QA on dataset before they are submitted. Obviously, compliant datasets that attract no requisitions will contribute to a reduction in handling time at TTW.
For your information our 20-July letter to the DCE – Property Rights (Toitū Te Whenua) can be read in its entirety here. Again, if you agree (or disagree) with our points in this letter please let the Secretary know (sec@ics.org.nz). |
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LANDONLINE UNAVAILABLE
Landonline will not be available on the weekend of 28 August 2021.
Landonline Workspace, Landonline Web Search, and Land Record Search will not be available on the weekend of 28 August 2021 to allow time for Landonline maintenance release 3.24 to be deployed.
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STEP WORKING GROUP
The STEP Survey and Titles working groups (composed of representatives from the legal and survey professions and other stakeholder groups, including ICS Treasurer Alex Liggett) met in Wellington on 28-July-2021. The meeting cadence was altered from this meeting forward so that the working groups will have an opportunity to provide input into the development programme for the following 3 months. This will give us an opportunity to encourage prioritisation of additions and fixes to New Landonline that directly affect our work. The meetings will also extend for at least a couple of hours longer than the original half-day, which will give us time to consider our feedback as a group before providing it to the development team.
As with other meetings there was an opportunity to test the latest version of the Survey user interface, which while by no means a fully functional replacement for legacy Landonline is making really excellent progress. There is also some really great work happening around easement schedules/memorandums, which will allow for a more joined-up workflow from existing titles to survey to creating new title and easement documents.
The new Survey user interface will be made available for 'real world' use by the pilot group of 12 users from mid-August, then to an extended test group from approximately November. The intention is for release to all users around the end of 2021. The new interface doesn't yet include any Plan Generation or visualisation tools, so Plan Generation and Submission will still happen in legacy Landonline for the time being.
We are still eagerly waiting for an expansion of the new search tool to include multi-item/tree type searches and so-called transactional searches (eg downloading .xml data
There has been more clear signalling from Toitū Te Whenua that surveys will not be able to be created from scratch in the new user interface, so if you aren't using third-party software yet now would be an excellent time to upskill/upgrade your tech stack.
If you have any questions or feedback please contact Alex (alex@foxsurvey.co.nz).
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"ON-LINE" NEWS
HOMES IN LAKE TAUPŌ'S PICTURESQUE PARAWERA ESTATE GOING FOR $455,000
Stuff: 19-July-2021
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/housing-affordability/125732843/homes-in-lake-taups-picturesque-parawera-estate-going-for-455000
A new chapter is being written for a two decades old gated lakeside subdivision in Taupō that has in the past attracted its fair share of controversy.
Retired UK chartered architect David Duggan recently announced the construction of 15 two-bedroom units at Parawera Estate, a picturesque peninsula of Māori-owned land between Acacia Bay South and Jerusalem Bay.
Duggan’s duplex units, once inhabited, will substantially increase the number of residents on the peninsula, with the broader 20-hectare development having had a stop-start history due to bankruptcies and accusations of poor process. Residency in the development is via long-term lease with the peninsula forming part of a larger block of 330ha hectares owned by Hiruharama Ponui Incorporation in Acacia Bay.
Ngā Whenua Rāhui - Who are we and what do we do?
Ngā Whenua Rahui is a contestable ministerial fund that was established in 1991 to preserve and protect indigenous ecosystems on Māori-owned land while honouring the rights guaranteed to Māori landowners under Te Tiriti o Waitangi. The fund is administered by the Ngā Whenua Rahui Committee and serviced by the Department of Conservation.
This year Ngā Whenua Rāhui will celebrate 30 years of existence. Like anything, the purpose of an organisation evolves as the needs evolve. The next stage is to encourage and empower landowners to take more responsibility for their own land.
HOMEOWNERS FORCED TO PAY $100,000 TO FIX UNCONSENTED RETAINING WALL THEY DIDN'T INSTALL
NZ Herald – 16-July-2021
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/homeowners-forced-to-pay-100000-to-fix-unconsented-retaining-wall-they-didnt-install/M6DYM7S7SPBXKX3FDUCZN7ES7A/
A retaining wall a Mosgiel couple have been instructed to fix was not yet built when a culvert connected to the property was approved, the Dunedin City Council says. No code compliance certificate for the wall was ever issued, Council Building Solutions Manager Paul Henderson said.
A certificate was issued for a culvert in the Gladstone Heights subdivision, and for a house built by the couple there, but the unconsented wall was added by the developer after the culvert was signed off, he said. The wall is at the centre of a dispute between Irwin Logan Drive homeowners Himanshu Dua and Renu Anand, subdivision developer Gladstone Heights Ltd and the city council.
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ICS ADMINISTRATION
2021 AGM AND TECHNICAL WORKSHOP
As noted above The 2021 AGM & Technical Workshop will be held at the Heritage Dunedin Leisure Lodge on Saturday 28th August, and the programme has now been finalised. Download the programme and registration form here. Registration closes on Friday 13th August. As we are in the spiritual home of the surveying profession this year, a discounted registration is available to current students, and of course other non-members are encouraged to join us.
If you want to stay at the venue we have arranged a special rate of $145 for the nights of 27th/28th August, which you can take advantage of by either emailing the hotel directly at reservations@heritagedunedin.co.nz or calling 03 477 5360 and quoting the reference number #78731. A contact phone number & credit card details will be necessary to secure the reservations, please have these ready when booking. This offer ends 13 August 2021.
Alternatively for those looking for motel accommodation, the Aurora on George at 678 George Street is offering rates as follows:
Executive studio (1-2 people) - $160 per night
Luxury studio (1-2 people) - $185 per night
To take advantage of this contact the motel directly on 0800 737 378 or through their website and mention the Institute of Cadastral Surveying Workshop.
If you have any questions regarding the workshop please contact the convenors Alex Liggett (alex@foxsurvey.co.nz) and Paul Durkin (pdurkin@43below.co.nz).
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MEMBERSHIP
There are still a few members who have not yet paid their 2021-22 ICS Membership subscriptions. A final reminder will be sent out shortly, after which these memberships will regrettably be cancelled.
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Our current historical theme continues, where we highlight and reproduce brief biographical details of New Zealand Surveyors who have served the cadastral profession with esteem and whom deserve to be remembered occasionally for their overall contribution to the profession.
This month’s “old Surveyor” is ERNEST HERBERT WILMOT (1855 – 1952)
Surveyor and Surveyor-General.
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Ernest Herbert Wilmot was born at sea when his parents were voyaging from England to settle in Adelaide, South Australia.
After a few years there and at Melbourne, the family moved to New Zealand, arriving at Dunedin in January 1863, where Ernest attended Shaw’s Grammar School, and then Otago Boys High School – where he was Dux in 1871. On leaving school he joined the staff of the “Evening Star” at Dunedin, but after two years with the newspaper, during which he attended classes at Otago University, he applied for and was accepted as a survey cadet in the Survey Department of Otago.
Having qualified as a surveyor, he was appointed Staff Surveyor in January 1877, and placed in charge of the Queenstown District. At time and for many years afterwards, that district was the scene of considerable mining activity. The country was extremely rough and the roads to the principal mining localities were mostly pack tracks. The Surveyor had to make provision for transporting his camp and party, both by lake and land, to any place where claims were pegged off by miners and surveys required. In addition to mining surveys, he was engaged on trigonometrical and topographical surveys and also on rural and settlement surveys in Otago, Canterbury, and Southland districts.
As a pioneer surveyor he explored the valleys of the Hollyford and Eglington Rivers and the country between Lake Manapouri and Dusky and Smiths Sound and discovered the lowest pass to the Sounds now called Wilmot Pass (see photo following).
In the Departmental reports on Mr. Wilmot’s work, two incidents are recorded that illustrate the dangers that were sometimes faced by the pioneer surveyors.
In 1881 Wilmot’s party had an unnerving experience whilst traversing the Hollyford Valley. Travelling was dangerous in many places, where the mountainsides were just a mass of moving stones. On one occasion a huge rock came away and struck cadet A. Burns, who was carrying the instrument box on his back. But for the box receiving the first shock he would have been killed.
And in 1883, when Mr. Burns was in charge of a field party, one of the members of the party - Ronald Raymond - was drowned when attempting to cross the Hollyford River. Another member of the party was marooned on an island in the river for more than five days without food or shelter in atrocious weather, before he was rescued. Wilmot had arrived at the scene of the accident on the following day and finding only the tools and other equipment, and all the members of the party missing, had to return to Queenstown to organise a search party.
In 1906, he was appointed Inspecting Surveyor at Hokitika and subsequently Chief Draughtsman and Clerk to the Land Board for Westland. In 1908 he was promoted to be Commissioner of Crown Lands and Chief Surveyor at Dunedin, and in March 1914, he was a Surveyor-General.
He retired from Public Service in 1920 and moved to Auckland where he died in 1952 at the age of ninety-seven years.
Wilmot Pass – Doubtful Sound
If you want to suggest a particular “Old Surveyor” that deserves remembering through this forum then please send your suggestion (and any details you may have) to sec@ics.org.nz.
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COMING EVENTS
DATES SUBJECT TO COVID-19 DEVELOPMENTS - DATES SHOULD BE CONFIRMED WITH THE PROVIDER:
| 16-17 August 2021 |
Rethinking Housing – Conferenz and Prefab NZ
AUT Events Centre, Auckland |
| 23-24 August 2021 |
Climate Sensitive Towns & communities – Conferenz
Te Papa, Wellington |
| 28 August 2021 |
ICS AGM and Technical Workshop – Dunedin
Heritage Dunedin Leisure Lodge |
| 30 August 2021 |
Rules for Cadastral Survey 2021 (CSR2021) Enacted |
| 2 September 2021 |
2021 Building & Construction Law Conference – Cordis, Auckland (and LiveStream) |
| 19-21 October 2021 |
12d Technical Virtual Forum – Brisbane, Australia techforum@12d.com |
| 25 February 2022 |
Cadastral Survey Rules 2010 (CSR2010) Expire |
| 10-12 March 2022 |
CSNZ Workshop - Martinborough |
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THE LAST WORDS
“The problem with living life to the full is that you’re not actually living life at all – you’re just careering from one thing to another, in the hope of finding meaning in it ” – Bryony Gordon (Writer – Daily Telegraph).
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CLASSIFIED
SITUATION VACANT - LICENSED CADASTRAL SURVEYOR
Access Land Surveying is based in Christchurch. Due to growth in the business they are seeking an experienced Licensed Cadastral Surveyor with a passion for quality work and several years post license experience. Access undertakes work mainly in Canterbury and Buller and occasionally elsewhere in the South Island. They are well equipped with Trimble gear. To learn more about this position check out the full listing here.
SITUATIONS VACANT - SURVEYOR / TECHNICIAN / LCS
Christchurch-based firm Fox and Associates Ltd have three open roles on their team to help deliver their clients many interesting and complex projects involving land development, spatial and rural surveying services. They encourage team members to develop and hone their skills in the areas of their passion, while also providing a variety of work experiences. All this is underpinned by a strong team culture, mentoring by some of New Zealand’s most innovative and experienced surveyors, and everyday use of leading-edge technology. If this sounds like you check out their listings for Licensed Cadastral Surveyor, Land Surveyor and Technician Surveyor roles.
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SURVEY EQUIPMENT FOR SALE
GeoMax ZOOM30 Pro Manual Total Station: On board data recorder and software with USB upload/down function; reflector less up to 400m; 3" reading; two face screens.
Manufactured 2014. $3,500.
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Comnav T30 GNSS:
2 receivers - Base and Rover pair or use rover in network mode. 574 channels; lightweight; includes R550 Android data recorder loader with Survey Master software.
Manufactured 2019. $4,000.
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All the equipment is in mint condition. Anyone interested can contact me on 022 0919503 and I can send additional information and photos of equipment and will show anyone who purchases how it all works.
Brian Shanahan (Auckland)
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Thanks to LPMS for their ongoing support of the ICS Express. To get your advertisement in the Express, contact the Secretary.
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- Avoid or minimise liability claims with industry-specific risk management guidance
- Unique insurance policies tailored specifically to cadastral surveyors
- Comprehensive cover for commercial drone operations
- Specialist Liability claims team to assist and advocate for you
- Regular updates and resource library
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