Audits of surveys submitted in Queensland over the period July 2023 to September 2024 have revealed improvements in some respects but little change in others.

That’s according to numbers released by the Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Manufacturing and Regional and Rural Development, formerly known as the Department of Resources.

Since auditing was implemented in mid-2023, the Department has conducted around 140 desk audits per quarter. The results show that compliance has increased from 46% at the start of the period to 74% during the latest quarter (July to September 2024). Some of the errors that continue to be seen include a failure to search for corner or reference marks, and inaccurate or incomplete dimensions.

As far as field audits go, at least 150 are conducted per year, with the Department reporting that compliance has not significantly improved — it has remained in the range of 35% to 52% for the last five quarters. The most significant areas of non-compliance include poor marking, corner or reference marks not searched, and incorrectly applied scale factors on longer lines.

The Department says that several criteria are used when selecting surveys for audit, including a random aspect. It says that “aspects with the lowest compliance rates are surveys carried out by surveyors who operate from locations outside Queensland (34% compliant), surveys with ambulatory boundaries (43% compliant), and surveys carried out by surveyors with poor past performance (58% compliant)”.

Interestingly, the best results — an overall compliance rate of 91% — were attained by surveyors who have been endorsed for less than two years.

Finally, the Department says that identification surveys have been one of its recent foci, with compliance increasing from 31% to 84% over the five quarters.