Moving To A Paperless Registry

Survey plans have defined land boundaries in New South Wales for more than 200 years. Despite changes in technology having seen surveyors greatly improve measurement instruments and techniques, the creation and registration of survey plans remains a very manual paper-based process. This process has resulted in unnecessary errors on plans and delays in registration with costly and often stressful procedures to amend. The problems associated with a manual paper-based processes have led New South Wales to begin moving towards a fully digital land title system representing a significant change for both industry and community.

Consequently, in 2019 the office of the Registrar General and the Surveyor General commissioned an independent study to aid the successful transition to paperless digital survey plans that while improving efficiency, accuracy and accessibility of survey plans will also preserve the integrity of the NSW cadastre and titling system.

On Monday 30 November 2020, the Hon. Victor Dominello, Minister for Customer Service,
launched the delivery plan for transitioning from paper to digital survey plans in NSW. The digital survey plan reform aligns with other technology investments already underway, including NSW LRS Connect and NSW Planning Portal.

Early this year, online plan lodgement will move to NSW LRS Connect and the ePlan lodgement portal will be decommissioned with a mandate of 100% online lodging with the new digital system by the second half of 2023. This new system is expected to save around ten million dollars per year over the next three decades through reducing associated holding costs for the delivery of new land parcels and strata lots and reducing the time and costs spent on rectifying errors on survey plans.