Re-establishment Survey vs Feature and Level Survey: What's the Difference?

Title re-establishment survey

A re-establishment survey is a cadastral survey. Its purpose is to determine the position of your title boundaries on the ground and, where required, to mark them.

This is not a matter of measuring off the plan of subdivision with a tape. Your title gives dimensions and bearings, but it does not tell you where those lines physically sit today. Establishing that requires research and professional judgement: examining the parent plan and all relevant subsequent plans, retrieving prior survey records and abstracts of field records for the area, locating existing survey marks and permanent marks, measuring the surrounding occupation, and reconciling all of that evidence against one another. Where the evidence conflicts, as it frequently does in older subdivisions, the surveyor applies established principles of boundary law to reach a defensible determination.

Who can perform one

In Victoria, only a licensed surveyor may determine the position of a property boundary. Cadastral surveys must be performed or supervised by a practising licensed surveyor under the Surveying Act 2004, and carried out in accordance with the Surveying (Cadastral Surveys) Regulations 2025 and the Victorian Cadastral Surveys Practice Directives issued by the Surveyor-General.

This is a legal restriction, not a professional preference. A draftsperson, builder or unlicensed technician cannot lawfully define your boundaries, regardless of the equipment they own.

What you receive

• -Boundary pegs or marks placed on site
  -A plan of re-establishment showing title boundaries, existing occupation, and the relationship between the two
  -Where boundaries have been re-established and lodgement is required, a Record of having re-established a cadastral boundary (commonly called an RE plan), accompanied by an abstract of field records (in case of subdivision) and the licensed surveyor's report, lodged with the Surveyor-General
  -A survey connected to MGA2020, the current statutory coordinate datum

  When you need one

-Building close to a boundary, or where a building permit or building surveyor requires boundary certainty
-Erecting or replacing a fence, particularly where existing fencing is suspect
-Any encroachment concern: eaves, walls, retaining structures, driveways
-Boundary or occupation disputes with a neighbour
-Adverse possession claims and applications
-Easement investigations and creation or removal of easements
-Consolidations, subdivisions and land development
-Retaining wall design and protection works
-Due diligence prior to purchase where the extent of the land matters

What it does not give you

A re-establishment survey is about boundaries. It will not give you contours, levels, tree canopies, service locations or floor heights. If your architect needs those, that's a different survey.

Feature and level survey

A feature and level survey, sometimes called a detail survey or contour and feature survey, records what physically exists on and around the site, in three dimensions.

Rather than resolving legal questions, this survey produces the base plan that designers, engineers and consultants work from. Everything that could constrain or influence a design gets picked up.

What's typically captured

-Existing buildings, including wall lines, eaves and floor levels
-Spot levels across the site and contours, reduced to Australian Height Datum
-Fence lines and existing occupation
-Trees: trunk position, girth, height and canopy spread
-Retaining walls, paving, driveways and crossovers
-Kerb and channel, road pavement and street infrastructure
-Visible service infrastructure: pits, covers, poles, meters
-Drainage and legal point of discharge information where required
-Relevant features on adjoining properties, including habitable room windows, private open space and building heights where overshadowing and overlooking need assessment

What you receive

• A CAD file, normally a DWG, that your consultants can design directly on top of, together with a PDF plan for reference and submission.
  
  At PM Kennedy we go further than that. We capture every site with 3D laser scanning, recording the whole site rather than only the points needed to draw the plan. That gives you two additional optional deliverables:
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  -A virtual walkthrough of the site, viewable in a browser, that you can share with your architect, engineer, builder, planner or client
  -The registered 3D point cloud, which your consultants can work directly within
  
  The practical benefit is that everyone involved can revisit the site without leaving their desk. Design discussions happen against the real site rather than a plan and a handful of photographs.
  
  It also cuts requests for further information and return site visits. When a question comes up three months into design, and it always does, the measurement is usually already in the scan and can simply be extracted. On complex sites, existing buildings and heritage work, that difference is significant.

• When you need one

  -Architectural and building design for a new dwelling, extension or knock-down rebuild
  -Town planning applications and ResCode assessment
  -Civil and stormwater design
  -Landscape design and arborist assessment
  -Multi-unit and townhouse development feasibility
  -Commercial and industrial site design and fit-out planning

  What it does not give you

  A feature and level survey does not, by itself, define your boundaries. Title boundaries shown on a feature survey are generally plotted from the plan of subdivision and positioned by reference to existing occupation. That is entirely adequate for early concept work. It is not adequate for building to a boundary, resolving a dispute, or anything with legal consequence.

Most projects need both

The distinction matters, but in practice these two surveys are frequently ordered together, and for good reason. A knock-down rebuild, a townhouse development or an extension built to a boundary needs accurate boundaries and an accurate picture of the existing site.

Ordering them together also makes sense operationally. Both are captured in the same field visit, and the boundary determination is then reflected in the CAD base plan your designer receives. That means one site attendance, one set of coordinated data, and a design that sits correctly relative to the real boundaries from the first sketch rather than the fourth revision.

The alternative, discovering at building permit stage that the boundary is 300mm from where everyone assumed, is expensive.

Four assumptions worth abandoning

"My plan of subdivision shows the boundaries." It shows dimensions and bearings. It does not show where those lines sit on the ground today. Determining that is the entire point of a re-establishment survey.

"The fence is the boundary." Fences are built by people, often decades ago, often approximately, and often in the wrong place. Occupation is evidence a surveyor considers. It is not the boundary.

"My feature survey shows the boundary, so I'm covered." Only if a re-establishment was actually performed. Boundaries shown on a feature survey are usually plotted, not determined. Check what you paid for.

"Council maps and online property tools are accurate enough." They are indicative mapping products, not survey grade data, and they carry no legal weight.

Making the Right Choice

• If the question involves ownership, extent, encroachment, fencing or building near a boundary, you need a re-establishment survey by a licensed surveyor.
  
  If the question involves design, levels, drainage, planning or what physically exists on site, you need a feature and level survey.
  
  If you're developing, building, or doing anything close to a boundary, you almost certainly need both.
  
  If you're unsure, tell us what you're trying to achieve and we'll tell you what the project actually requires. It's a short conversation, and considerably cheaper than the wrong survey.