Surveyor-General of Victoria

The Surveyor-General of Victoria is the person nominally responsible for government surveying in Victoria, Australia. The original duties for the Surveyor General was to measure and determine land grants for settlers in Victoria. The position was created at the time Victoria became a separate colony in 1851 (see History of Victoria).

The Surveyor-General of Victoria is the primary government authority on surveying and the cadastre (land property boundaries and tenure).

The Surveying Act 2004, Act 47/2004, Part 6, specifies the appointment, suspension and functions of the Surveyor-General. Note that the act spells "Surveyor-General" with a hyphen, which is the conventional spelling.

List of Surveyors-General of Victoria

Surveyor General	Period in office	Notes
Robert Hoddle	1851–1853	Hoddle was appointed as the first Surveyor-General of Victoria on 15 July 1851. He became the Surveyor-General upon the proclamation of the Port Phillip District as the new Colony of Victoria within the British Empire on 1 July 1851. He was previously the Surveyor-in-Charge of the Port Phillip District from 1837 to 1851. He is especially recognized for the design and layout of the Hoddle Grid in 1837, the area which forms the Melbourne central business district (CBD). Hoddle commenced his surveying career as cadet surveyor in the British army in 1812. Subsequently he worked for Ordnance Survey in Great Britain which included the country’s trigonometrical survey. Ordnance Survey was a military organization. In 1822, he was assigned to South Africa where he undertook military surveying for a short period, before he resigned and emigrated to the British colony of New South Wales in Australia in April 1823. Soon after arriving in the colony, he was appointed as an assistant surveyor under the Surveyor-General, John Oxley. His early work included surveying the road over the Blue Mountains. In 1824, he assisted Oxley with the initial survey and the establishment of the site of Brisbane as part of an expedition to Moreton Bay. Upon returning south, over he next twelve years, he worked on surveys of the districts in the Southern Highlands including Berrima and Goulburn. It is also notable that between 1830 and 1836, Hoddle undertook surveys of the rural district now occupied by the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). Hoddle was by any measure a consummate professional in matters of planning and development. As such, it is well reported that his outspoken criticism of the manner in which streets and highways had been allowed to develop, amongst other issues, was not well received by the colonial administration and by 1853, then Governor Charles La Trobe is reported to have eased him out to enable a much younger replacement, viz. Andrew Clarke. In effect, it would seem that La Trobe wanted a more compliant Surveyor-General who would follow his directions rather than question and speak out about what was wrong. Hoddle "retired" after less than two years as Surveyor-General, enabling his successor Clarke to commence in March 1853. Hoddle remained in Melbourne for the remainder of his life, passing away in October 1881 at 87 years of age. On 16 July 2001, Victorian Governor John Landy unveiled a plaque outside of Melbourne's Docklands Stadium to honour Hoddle and commemorate the point of origin for the Survey of Melbourne, Batman's Hill Datum, which commenced in 1837. The plaque was commissioned by the Surveyors Board of Victoria, through the then Surveyor-General, Keith Clifford Bell, and in conjunction with the Docklands Authority, and the surveying profession of Victoria (i.e. the Institution of Surveyors Victoria).
Sir Andrew Clarke GCMG CB CIE	1853 – 1857	Clarke was the youngest appointee to hold the office of the Surveyor-General of Victoria at 28 years of age in March 1853. At the time of being appointed Surveyor-General, Clarke held the rank of Captain in the British Army's Royal Engineers. Just 5 months later he was elected to Victoria's Legislative Council retaining the role of Surveyor-General and commencing a period where the office was held to be held by an elected politician rather than a public servant. A major focus of Clarke's term as Surveyor-General was that he was responsible for much of the planning of Victoria's first railways. In March 1857, and upon stepping down as Surveyor-General, Clarke returned to England and sought other colonial posts. Clarke was later to be promoted to Lieutenant General during his distinguished career. Clarke served as the second Governor of Singapore and the Governor of the Straits Settlements from 4 November 1873 until 7 May 1875. Clarke played a key role in positioning Singapore as the main port for the Malay states of Perak, Selangor and Sungei Ujong. Clarke was awarded multiple honours which included: Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB), 1869; Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG), 1873; Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE), 1877; and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG), 1885.
George Samuel Wegg Horne	March – April 1857	Horne was a lawyer and politician rather than a surveyor. He was elected to the Victorian Legislative Council for Belfast and Warrnambool in September 1854, a position he held until March 1856. In November 1856 Horne was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly for the Electoral district of Warrnambool and he resigned in February 1861. Horne also contested the seats of Kilmore in 1853 and Rodney in 1856. From 11 March 1857 to 29 April 1857 Horne was Commissioner Crown Lands and Survey and also the Surveyor-General of Victoria. In addition to having the shortest tenure as Surveyor -General of just seven weeks, he was the last Surveyor-General of Victoria to be a politician rather than a public servant. Horne was also commissioner of Public Works from 21 December 1858 to 27 October 1859. After politics, Horne resumed work as an attorney and practised in Melbourne before moving to New Zealand in 1867.
George Christian Darbyshire	1857	Darbyshire was a civil engineer and migrated to Australia, arriving in Melbourne in July 1853 where he was appointed as Engineer of Construction and District Surveyor under the Victorian Government at Williamstown. He was then appointed Engineer-in-Chief of the Victorian Railways, from April 1856 to May 1860, but did so on the condition that he retained his substantive appointment as District Surveyor Williamstown and could return to that at any time. His term at Victorian Railways was interrupted when he was recruited by Surveyor-General Clarke to the Survey Department to lead railway engineering surveys in early 1857. Clarke departed in March 1857. However, the position of Surveyor-General may have remained vacant until July 1857. Darbyshire acted as Deputy Surveyor General from May to July 1857 and then acted as the Surveyor-General until October 1857. Thereafter he returned to his substantive position as District Surveyor Williamstown. In the 1860s and 1870s, Darbyshire was a licensed surveyor undertaking township and rural surveys for Government and private practice. He was responsible for the Town Plan of Lorne in 1871. Darbyshire was a Member of the Victorian Institute of Surveyors (VIS). In 1881, Darbyshire returned to Victorian Railways as Engineer for Construction and Surveys, laying out many new lines. In 1891, he again became Chief Engineer of Victorian Railways, after the incumbent died. Darbyshire remained Chief Engineer until his own death in 1898, aged seventy-seven.
Clement Hodgkinson	1857–1858	Hodgkinson was appointed acting Surveyor-General in October 1857 and held the position until March 1858 when Charles Ligar was appointed. Hodgkinson was then appointed as Deputy Surveyor-General. After reorganization in 1860, he became assistant commissioner and secretary of the new Board of Crown Lands and Survey. Hodgkinson also designed Fitzroy Gardens and Flagstaff Gardens in Melbourne.
Charles Whybrow Ligar	1858–1869	Ligar was born in Ceylon, where his father was stationed with the British army. He was educated at the Royal Military College (1825–1828) commencing at the age of 13. Shortly after graduation as a commissioned officer with the rank of Second Lieutenant in the [[Royal Engineers], he resigned his commission and joined Ordnance Survey as a civilian assistant on the Ordnance Survey of Ireland until 1840. On 16 February 1841, Ligar was announced to be the next Surveyor-General of New Zealand, under proclamation issued by Queen Victoria and he took up the position in January 1842. Ligar held the position until February 1856. However, his final four years would seem to be without authority or role. It is reported that during the period 1852 to 1876 the office of Surveyor-General lapsed, and responsibility was placed with the New Zealand Provincial Surveyors. Ligar was appointed Surveyor-General of Victoria in 1858. It is reported that with his appointment he promised to reduce survey costs and open the land for settlers. Soon after taking up office, as part of his approach to cost reduction, Ligar initially proposed to replace all government surveyors with contractors. This move proved to be politically unpopular and was the start of his falling out with politicians. However, to his credit, one of his significant successes in cost savings was through the development and implementation of photolithographic duplication of survey plans and maps, a process developed "in-house" by John Walter Osborne. By 1869, Ligar’s political unpopularity was such that his position become untenable and leading politicians demanded his removal from office. In September 1869, Ligar resigned and left Melbourne to retire overseas, living at various times in Germany, Morocco, Algeria and Spain, before finally settling in Texas, USA, where he had a cattle ranch until his death in February 1881.
Alexander John Skene	1869–1886	Skene, from Scotland, arrived in Melbourne in 1839, and held a number of government surveyor roles including that of being in charge of the District Survey Office at Geelong until he was transferred to the Melbourne district office in 1862. In June 1863, he was appointed District Surveyor for the newly united Melbourne and Geelong districts. In September 1868, he was appointed as acting Surveyor-General during the incumbent Ligar’s leave of absence. One year later, September 1869, Skene was appointed as the Surveyor-General. To date, Skene has been the longest serving Surveyor-General of Victoria with almost seventeen years in office. In the broader cartographic field, he was a prime mover in the compilation of the first comprehensive and reliable map of Victoria, produced in 1876 on a scale of eight miles to the inch, and also one of the most accurate of the early maps of Australia, first published in 1880. Skene gave evidence in June 1879 before the 1878-79 Royal Commission on crown lands, and under his guidance impressive county maps of Victoria were prepared for the detailed operation of the revised Land Regulations of the 1880s. Skene was also a commissioner of land tax, appointed in 1878, while Surveyor-General and after retiring as Surveyor-General and reappointed as a commissioner of land tax in 1887, continuing in that role until his death in 1894. In 1887 he was a member of the royal commission on the extension of Melbourne westward. Skene was invited to be the inaugural President of the Victorian Institute of Surveyors (VIS), now known as the Institution of Surveyors Victoria (ISV) in 1874. However, due to the pressing demands of being Surveyor-General, had to decline. This resultd in Robert L. J. Ellery being appointed VIS President for the period 1874-77. Skene was a Member of VIS and did go on to serve as VIS President at a later time as reported by the Institute.
Alexander Black	1886–1892	Black was born in Scotland and after training as a surveyor, migrated to the colony of Victoria in 1852 to work on the goldfields around Castlemaine. Subsequently he moved to Melbourne and joined the Victorian Government Office of Crown Lands and Survey. Black is especially noted for his survey of the Black-Allan Line, a portion of the border of Victoria and New South Wales. Black was appointed Surveyor-General of Victoria on 1 July 1886 and held the position until his retirement in May 1892, at the mandatory age of 65. The position remained unfilled until 1894. His retirementment is noted in the gazettal of his successor Callanan, 6 April 1894, "vice Alexander Black retired". He was elected a member of the Victorian Institute of Surveyors in 1877 and was the second President (following Ellery) serving for the period 1878 to 1880. Black was elected Fellow of VIS in 1880.
Position Vacant	1892–1894	The position had been unfilled since May 1892, possibly due to Victorian government austerity measures arising from the onset of the world financial crisis which hit Australia in 1892-93 and was declared a Depression in 1893.
Michael Callanan	1894–1895	Callanan was born in Ireland and after qualifying as a surveyor migrated to Victoria in June 1854. Thereafter, he was employed by Surveyor-General Clarke as a surveyor. Much of his surveying work concerned mapping of Victorian lands to help manage and control land settlement. The Nicholson Land Act (1860) opened up more than 400,000 acres for settlement. The following Land Act (1862) opened up a further 1.98 million acres and thereafter the Land Act (1865) opened up more than 2.28 million acres. Further Land Acts followed. Much of it was to enable land access for agricultural and to control squatting where large tracts of land had been grabbed. Callanan was reported to be a scrupulous government land official determined to enable the fair treatment and consideration of all applicants for land, despite the challenges and dangers of dealing with squatters. By 1875, he was a District Surveyor for Melbourne. He was appointed Surveyor-General in 1894 and remained in the position until 1895, when he reached mandatory retirment age of 65. It is possible that Callanan was the oldest to be appointed to Surveyor-General. Callanan was also appointed as a Member of the Board of Land and Works in 1894. Callanan was one of the early members of the Victorian Institute of Surveyors joining in June 1874.
Samuel Kingston Vickery	1895–1899	Vickery was a Fellow of VIS.
Joseph Martin Reed ISO	1899–1914	Reed was probably the first Australian-born and indeed Victorian-born Surveyor-General of Victoria, born in Creswick 1857. Reed became Secretary of Lands and retired from that position after 43 years of service with the Victorian Public Service in July 1918. Reed was also the first Surveyor-General to be promoted to Secretary of Lands. Reed was awarded the Imperial Service Order in 1903 for service as Victorian Surveyor-General; Reed was a Fellow of VIS.
Alexander Bruce Lang	1914–1925
George Stewart Pinniger	1925–1926
Fenelon De la Motte Mott	1926–1928	Mott served previously as District Surveyor, Bairnsdale, Victoria, 1913–26. He surveyed a large part of the backcountry of East Gippsland and also presented valuable reports in regard to suitable harbours along its coasts. Mott Street, HOLDER, ACT, which was gazetted on 21 Oct 1971, is named in his honour.
Albert Edward W. Tobin	1928–1932
Peter Campbell	1932–1935
Henry William Moore	1935–1938
Oscar George Pearson	1938–1952	Pearson served in the First Australian Imperial Force (AIF) during the First World War from June 1916 and was discharged in October 1919.
Frank William Arter	1952–1967	Arter was a Fellow of VIS since the 1940s and a longstanding member of VIS.
Colin Edward Middleton ISO	1967–1972	Middleton commenced his surveyng career in 1936 at the age of fifteen, joining the then Department of Crown Lands and Survey as an articled trainee. He became a licensed surveyor in 1946. Thereafter, he went on to specialize in aerial surveying, photogrammetry and mapping, rising to the appointment of Chief Photogrammetrist in 1964. In May 1967, Middleton was appointed Deputy Surveyor-General and in December 1967 he was appointed Surveyor-General. Middleton was also Director of Mapping during this term. Following his service as Surveyor-General, Middleton was appointed Secretary of Lands in June 1972. Middleton was one of only two Victorian Surveyors-General to be promoted to Secretary of Lands. (The other was Reed.) He was awarded the Imperial Service Order in the 1981 Queen's Birthday Honours for service as Secretary of the Victorian Crown Lands Department Middleton also served with the Royal Australian Survey Corps during World War 2, enlisting in 1940 and discharged in 1945. Middleton was appointed a Fellow of ISV upon its incorporation in 2007, having been a Fellow of the former ISA since 1969. ISV continues to honour the contributions of Middleton to surveying with the annual Colin Middleton Lunch.
John Eric Mitchell	1972–1979
Raymond Eden Holmes AM	1979–1988	Holmes joined the Victorian Department of Crown Lands and Survey as a Junior Survey Draftsman, in May 1945, after having finished high school the previous year. In September 1945, he decided he wanted to be a surveyor and he transferred to the Survey Division of State Rivers and Water Commission of Victoria (SR&WSC) as a Junior Survey Chainman and Articled Pupil Surveyor. Holmes attained his registration as a licensed surveyor in October 1949 following his successful completion of articles and the Surveyors Board of Voctoria examination. Of particular note is that his period of articles entailed undertaking cadastral surveys and also general water supply engineering surveys which were associated with the construction of Rocklands Reservoir. Over his career at SR&WSC he was promoted to Superintendent Surveyor, in charge of North Central survey zone in 1953 and in 1964 became Superintending Surveyor at SR&WSC Head Office in Melbourne. In 1967 he was promoted to the position of Assistant Chief Surveyor in the SR&WSC. In 1973, Holmes was appointed to the most senior surveying position in SR&WSC, being the Chief Surveyor. In July 1979, Holmes was appointed Surveyor-General, holding the position until his retirement in 1988 at the age of 61. Holmes was also Director of Mapping during this term. Holmes was Victoria's representative on the National Mapping Council of Australia during the period 1979-87. With the creation of the Intergovernmental Committee on Surveyng and Mapping (ICSM) in 1988, he became one of the inaugural delegates representing Victoria, until he retired later in 1988. Holmes was Congress Director for the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) XX Congress, with the theme "Surveying global changes", held in Melbourne, 5-12 March 1994.· The Congress, hosted by the former ISA, was largely under the organization of ISV and Holmes. The Congress was recognized at that time as having the largest number of delegates, more than 1,000, the first to achieve that number and was repoorted to be the best ever FIG Congress. FIG acknowledged that the success was due to the directorship of Holmes and the support of ISV. The respect for Holmes by the surveying profession continued long after his retirement as Surveyor-General. With the introduction of formal Surveyors Board of Victoria conferral ceremonies for newly licensed surveyors, which was introduced during the term of Bell, Holmes was one of the first invited keynote speakers to deliver the conferrral speech, which he did on 9 September 2002. Holmes' speech highlighted the quality of Victoria's cadastral system and the importance of the responsibiities of licensed surveyors. Holmes is acknowledged for his recovery in July 2007 of artefacts from the Burke and Wills expedition, which he donated to the State Library of Victoria. Holmes commenced as a Student Member of VIS in 1946. He was President of ISV in 1975 and in 2016 received a certificate from ISV for seventy years of membership. He was appointed an Honorary Fellow of ISV upon its incorporation in 2007, having been appointed a Fellow of ISA in February 1977 and Honorary Fellow of ISA in April 1988. In 1994, The University of Melbourne awarded Holmes a Doctorate of Surveying Honoris Causa for his services to the surveying profession in Victoria and The University of Melbourne Holmes was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2019 Australia Day Honours for "significant service to surveying and mapping, and to professional organisations".
Robert Arthur Eddington	1988	Eddington was the acting Surveyor-General and Director of Mapping in 1988, Department of Crown Lands and Survey. Eddington, commenced training to be a survey draftsman in 1959 at the then Victorian Law Department, and subsequently undertaking the surveying degree at the University of Melbourne. Thereafter he completed surveying articles and was licensed in 1973. Early in his professional career he engaged in computerization of land titling commencing with a secondment to the New South Wales Registrar-General’s Department Torrens Register Automation Project during 1973-76. Following this, he was the Senior Surveyor with Victoria’s Department of Crown Lands and Survey during 1976-82. Subsequently, he was the Deputy Director LANDATA under the Victorian Department of Planning and Environment (previously the Department of Crown Lands and Survey) 1982-85. Eddington acted as the Deputy Director General of the Department Property and Services during 1985-86 and was then appointed Director of LANDATA 1986-88, before acting as the Surveyor-General in 1988. Edington has been recognized as one of Australia’s early leaders and experts in automation of land titling and computerization of digital cadastre. In 1987, the former Australasian Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (AURISA) appointed Eddington as the 1987 AURISA Eminent Individual. Eddington played a key role in the early efforts of national coordination of land and geospatial information in Australia, representing Victoria 1986-88 on the Australasian Advisory Committee for Land Information, which was the technical committee for the Australian Land Information Council later known as the Australian New Zealand Land Information Council (ANZLIC). From 1989, Eddington worked primarily as a consultant-expert advisor in land titling supporting international development assistance in Jamaica, Thailand, Zambia, Vietnam, China, Laos, Philippines, Federated States of Micronesia and Nigeria. This included working on World Bank funded projects. Eddington was also a Member of the Victorian Division of ISA for much of his career and received his 50 Year Membership Certificate at the 2015 ISV Surveying Industry Awards Gala Dinner.
John Richard Parker	1989–1997	Parker’s early surveying career was in the private sector of Victoria. From 1980-83, he was with the State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SECV), Melbourne and Dandenong as Senior Surveyor and then Supervising Surveyor until appointment as the Chief Surveyor of SECV for the period 1983-89. Parker was appointed Surveyor-General and Director of Mapping in 1989, initially under the Department of Finance (later Department of Treasury and Finance). He held the position of Surveyor-General until 1998, but lost the role as Director of Mapping from January 1995. By 1995, several statutory responsibilities of the Surveyor-General had been reassigned to other government units. This started with the functions of the Director of Mapping being assigned to the Office of Geographic Data Coordination. By 1996, with the establishment of Land Victoria, OGDC became the Land Information Group, a business unit of Land Victoria. Further responsibilities of the Surveyor-General were transferred to Land Victoria business units, viz. Land Information Group (mapping, geodetic, survey control and calibration standards) and Land Registry (Crown Land Records). Land Victoria was a new Division, led by Executive Director Elizabeth O'Keeffe, under the then Department of Natural Resources and Environment. With these reassignments, what was left under the Surveyor-General was the regulation of land surveying, including the secretariat of the then Surveyors Board of Victoria. Parker was given the additional title of Director Service & Industry Standards which seemed to be no more than a title and not a real role. O'Keeffe has written of the rationale for establishing Land Victoria, and unifying land and mapping spatial responsibilities within a single organization. Her writing draws heavily on the advice of her subordinate Steven Jacoby, who was Director of the Land Information Group, a unit of Land Victoria, which took over functions of the Surveyor-General including survey control and geodesy, measurment calibration and mapping. As would be later established by both the Victorian Government Solicitor and the Auditor-General in early 2000, and during the term of Parker’s successor Bell, the transfer of these statutory responsibilities and functions was done without adherence to the relevant laws and regulations. Furthermore, there was no effort made to establish a service level agreement between the Surveyor-General and these Land Victoria units. It was also established that during the period 1988-99, there were no annual reports of the Surveyor-General in accordance with the requirements of the Survey Coordination Act (1958). Thus, the opportunities to report governance issues to the Parliament, through the responsible minister were missed. It was left to his successor to raise those concerns. After stepping down as Surveyor-General, Parker was appointed as the Registrar of Geographic Names Victoria 1998-2000. He also undertook other related representative roles including the Chair of the Committee for Geographical Names in Australasia (CGNA) and Chairman of the Asia South-East, Pacific South-West Division of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) For his work on Toponymy, the study of place names, and support for the Australian Place Names Project of Macquarie University's Linguistics Dept, he was appointed as an Honorary Professor in Linguistics. Parker also chaired Commission 1, Professional Standards and Practice, of the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) for the 1998–2002 term. Parker was a Member of the Victorian Division of ISA, but discontinued after his FIG term ended. In addition, he consulted on land administration to the World Bank and other development agencies. Following his service, Parker was appointed the Registrar of Geographic Names Victoria 1998-2000. He was also the Chair of the Committee for Geographical Names in Australasia (CGNA) and Chairman of the Asia South-East, Pacific South-West Division of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) For his work on Toponymy, the study of place names, and support for the Australian Place Names Project of Macquarie University's Linguistics Dept, he was appointed as an Honorary Professor in Linguistics.
Barrie Bremner and Alan Fennell	1997–1999	Bremner and Fennell acted in the position of Surveyor-General during this period. Bremner was appointed a Fellow of ISV in 2013.
Keith Clifford Bell AM RFD	1999–2003	Bell was reported to have been the youngest Surveyor-General appointed since Clarke. At the time of his appointment, the Surveyor-General continued to be under Land Victoria. Prior to this appointment, he was the General Manager of Land Information, a branch of the Australian Capital Territory Government’s Planning and Land Management 1997-99. He had previously worked for the Commonwealth Government at the Australian Surveying and Land Information Group (AUSLIG), the former Australian Survey Office in Queensland and also Australian Construction Services. Bell obtained his license as a surveyor in Queensland in 1984 and was subsequently registered in ACT and New South Wales in 1986 and 1987 respectively and licensed in Victoria in 1999. Bell also qualified as a Chartered Professional Engineer (civil enginering). Very early in Bell’s term as Surveyor-General, he identified serious governance issues including: the previous transfer of key responsibilities to other units of Land Victoria without any legislative authority and no provisions for service level agreements, yet the Surveyor-General remajned officially accountable; and efforts to prevent annual reporting in accordance with the Survey Coordination Act (1958) persisted. These were carry-overs from Parker’s term as Surveyor-General. Efforts to resolve these concerns with the Executive Director of Land Victoria, Elizabeth O'Keeffe and the Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Chloe Munro were unsuccessful and he was blocked from raising concerns with the responsible Minister Sherryl Garbutt. Bell’s concerns were confirmed by the Victoria Government Solicitor and also the Auditor-General and the Ombudsman. Bell’s experiences under Land Victoria were not unique and other statutory officers faced governance challenges including the Valuer-General. Bell also drew the attention of the Auditor-General to Land Victoria’s efforts in 2000-01 to obtain funds from the Estate Agents Guarantee Fund, despite being already funded from the State budget. Bell’s reporting enabled the quick intervention of the Auditor-General to prevent this. Bell also reported it to the Ombudsman and was designated a protected whistleblower. The Ombudsman’s own investigation reported Land Victoria’s conduct as unethical, but stopped short of declaring it as illegal as the Auditor-General had already acted to stop it from proceeding. From mid-2002 several key Land Victoria personnel departed , including the Executive Director and the Director of the Land Registry. The Director of the Land Information Group departing in December 2002. Immediately following the 30 November 2002 state election, departmental restructuring saw Land Victoria placed under a different Secretary, Lindsay Neilsen, in the Department of Sustainability and Environment and with a different Minister Mary Delahunty. Bell himself resigned in July 2003. Bell’s key accomplishments as Surveyor-General included reform of surveying regulation leading to the Surveyors Act 2004, which was only passed after his departure. Bell made significant contributions to good governance including re-starting required annual reporting under the Survey Coordination Act (1958) that was not undertaken by his predecessor, presumably due to Land Victoria’s transfer of statutory responsibilities to other units. Bell was also able to have some of the functions returned to his office. However, it was only after he had departed that key functions such as survey control, geodetic surveying and measurement calibration were returned to the Surveyor-General. In 2001, Bell was also appointed Registrar of Geographic Names and was very proactive with dual naming especially to support indigenous heritage. Bell introduced annual reporting for the Surveyors Board of Victoria and worked on increasing the number of graduates entering articles and also to promote the profession to attract women surveyors. Bell also advocated the establishment of the Council of the Reciprocating Surveyors Boards of Australian and New Zealand (CRSBANZ), and with the support of the Surveyors Board of Queensland was able to obtain the support of all Boards. He was the inaugural Chair and served in the role during 2002-03. Prior to this there was a Conference of the respective surveyors boards from Australia and New Zealand to discuss matters of reciprocal registration. The conference was usually conducted every four years, in conjunction with the ISA Surveyors Congress. Also, usually on an annual basis representatives would meet as a Recess Committee. The concept of CRSBANZ was first raised at the Queenstown Conference in August 2000 and confirmed at the Recess Committee meeting held in Melbourne in March 2001, with the Surveyors Board of Queensland agreeing to provide the secretariat. After resigning as Surveyor-General in July 2003, Bell joined the staff of the World Bank. He led the East Asia Pacific Region program for land administration and geospatial information until 2017. He also led and advised on programs for disaster response and conflict/war, to rebuild infrastructure including housing and land administration. Bell took early retirement from the World Bank in 2021 to pursue other interests including an extended stint of around eighteen months in Saudi Arabia in 2021-2022 advising the Crown’s Public Investment Fund on land registration, cadastral mapping and surveying. Subsequently, he has undertaken freelance consulting and continues to advise the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Spatial Data Infrastructure. He also continues in the Australian Army Reserve. In 2003, RMIT University awarded Bell a Doctorate of Applied Science Honoris Causa for leadership of change in land administration governance, geospatial sciences, and surveying in Australia. His international development service has been recognized with several awards including the Medal of the Order of Merit (Vietnam, 2017) and the High State Medal of Ghazi Mir Bacha Khan (Afghanistan, 2018). Bell was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2022 Queen's Birthday Honours (Australia) for "significant service to surveying, to geospatial information, and to humanitarian operations." Bell represented the former Victorian Division of ISA as a Councilor 2000-04. He also arranged for vice-regal patronage of the Victorian Division with the then Governor John Landy. Landy played a significant role in the sesquicentenary celebrations of the Office of Surveyor-General of Victoria in July 2001, including being the Guest of Honour at the Division’s annual gala dinner, the unveiling of Batman’s Hill plaque commemorating the first Surveyor-General Hoddle and a sponsored spread in the Herald-Sun. Bell was appointed a Fellow of ISV upon its incorporation in 2007, having been a Fellow of the former ISA since 2000. Bell worked closed with ISV and also the Association of Consulting Surveyors Victoria to ensure a successful year of sesquicentenary celebrations and to promote the surveying profession to the broader community. Bell was also the Australian delegate to FIG Commission 7, Cadastre and Land Management, 1999-2004.
John Ernest Tulloch	2003–2017
Craig Leslie Sandy	2017–present	On 1 May 2014, Sandy was appointed Surveyor-General for the Northern Territory of Australia, a role he held until his appointment in Victoria. In 2015, Sandy was elected to the role of Chair of the Council of Reciprocating Surveyors Boards of Australia and New Zealand, a role he held until March 2020. In 2019, Sandy was awarded the Asia Pacific Spatial Excellence Awards (APSEA), Spatial Professional of the Year for Victoria, and in 2020 he became the Oceanic APSEA Spatial Professional of the Year for 2019.<ref>[1] In March 2020, Sandy was appointed as Chair of the Intergovernmental Committee on Surveying and Mapping (ICSM), following a term as co-deputy Chair.<ref>[2]

References

Sources

• Lists of British, Australian and New Zealand Surveyors-General, Government Geologists... Retrieved 5 September 2016
• Australian Dictionary of Biography Surveyor-General search Retrieved 14 June 2012