The Cadastral club: Wither?

Abstract

Abstract A review of statistics showing student enrolments, graduations and the registers of cadastral surveyors in Australia and New Zealand is presented. The overall picture is one of a decline in numbers of cadastral surveyors, while university enrolments and graduations appear to be stable, or slightly up, over the past decade. The rate of surveying graduates seeking cadastral registration has declined steadily over the past 25 years from approximately 80% to a figure of 34% for the average of the past four years. Some evidence from New South Wales might indicate that this figure has reached its nadir, but figures from other jurisdictions are as low as 20% and presently show no indications of altering. A discussion of why the declining rate of graduates seeking cadastral endorsement has occurred is presented. The emergence of the “university” surveyor after the demise of the articled pupil system is seen as the likely cause. The attainment of professional recognition in the form of cadastral endorseme...