Frequently Asked Questions

Less than 4 per cent of parcels in Vicmap Property urban and peri-urban areas currently meet the high spatial accuracy requirements of users. These areas make up 70 per cent of Victoria’s land property parcels.

Furthermore, in some regional areas the accuracy of Vicmap Property can vary up to 25-50 metres from the true cadastral position.  While accuracy has improved over the last seven years through new surveys, the geographic extent of these accuracies still reflects the original map base control from the 1990s.

In part yes. Only parcels from plans that have a ‘live’ parcel (Parcel SPI), as well as an associated Abstract of Field Note, are being back captured.  The complete catalogue of historic plans will not be back captured.

We will make the ‘adjusted’ digital cadastre available as a dataset via the DCM Integration Viewer (contact us to gain access to this) and we have made available the original (title and survey) measurements contained in back captured and registered LandXML files via this link. This can be made available as a ‘clipped’ area determined by a polygon of interest, or by parcel with all relevant survey information.

The DCM Project will use a range of spatial data to verify the new land parcel database.

High-quality data that produced by registered surveyors for other organisations will improve the accuracy of the parcel layer developed and is of value to project. Contact us to enquire how we can work together to continue to improve the digital representation of the cadastre.

This project is not redesigning the cadastre or altering legal title, it will deliver a digital representation of the cadastre with improved spatial accuracy. Cadastral rights, responsibilities and restrictions will not change in relation to the land title for a parcel.

There are 800,000 PDF plans and surveys held as electronic files by the State Government - these document Victoria’s approximately 3.3 million parcels of land. The PDF plans of these parcels are are being digitised with the defined information from the plans and surveys migrated into a LandXML file.

The digital files are quality checked by an automated system against a defined set of validation rules and a percentage is further manually checked and compared to the original plan and survey for quality assurance by Land Use Victoria. The back capture and digitisation of PDF plans is ongoing and will be completed in December 2022, once all 3.3+ million land parcels from across Victoria are captured.

The DCM Project will deliver a more spatially accurate 2D digital representation of the cadastre.

The answer to this question depends on how your datasets were created.

If your dataset was created using GPS, you may not need to make any changes to your data as a result of using the new digital cadastre.

If your dataset was created with a dependence on Vicmap property data your organisational datasets may need to be transformed in reference to the more spatially accurate Vicmap.

The Readiness Toolkit is an online resource designed by DTP with industry that will help an organisation understand how the changes to Vicmap will affect their business datasets. Visit Readiness Toolkit or make a time to meet with one of our team members via digital.cadastre@delwp.vic.gov.au

Yes, the data supply for the spatially upgraded digital cadastre will be delivered in GDA2020. Vicmap customers will need to determine their own organisational approach for GDA2020 transition. More information about GDA2020 transition can be found here.

The DCM Vicmap IUF data will be supplied in GDA2020. If Vicmap customers require the spatially upgraded data supply in GDA94, customers would have to transform the spatially upgraded data supply back to GDA94.

Vicmap users requiring full file replacement via Datashare can order the data in either GDA94 or GDA2020.

The creation of the incremental files in GDA94 has been extended until 30 September 2022. It will continue to have the same data format - none of the attributes introduced in Vicmap change notice 272 will be included in these incremental files.

If your organisation is not planning to shift to GDA2020 prior to the time when changes to Vicmap commence, a possible solution may be to load the GDA2020 seed files and then convert the data back to GDA94. Follow this process for every incremental file until your organisation is ready to convert to GDA2020.

Once organisational data has been converted to GDA2020, convert your version of Vicmap to GDA2020 and then load the incremental files from then on in GDA2020.

Vicmap will continue to be spatially updated by usual ongoing maintenance while digital cadastre modernisation is underway.

No other changes to Vicmap editing or notification processes are taking place at this time. Vicmap will always notify customers of upcoming changes to any existing process via the Vicmap change management notices.

With a planned commencement in late October 2022, Vicmap Property will be spatially upgraded with the adjusted parcel data coming from the Digital Cadastre Modernisation (DCM) Project.  The changes to Vicmap property will be cascaded through other Vicmap Spatial Products.

Visit this page to understand which Vicmap spatial products are likely to be affected by the spatial upgrade.

Vicmap Property will continue to be updated via the existing processes. Customers are encouraged to use the Vicmap Editing Service (VES) to alert us to errors observed or changes that need to be made.

After the DCM spatial upgrade, Vicmap Survey and Vicmap Property will increasingly use automated techniques for the introduction of new parcel information. The Vicmap Survey data model and the enhanced Vicmap Property model delivered by DCM is designed for future automation in the maintenance of Vicmap.

DTP Planning will be adjusting their data holdings based on the parcel shifts coming from DCM. We have worked closely with DTP Planning throughout the project and they are working with the project timelines.

Yes, address points may be affected when they are situated inside a parcel, but they will generally not be affected by a shift in the parcel boundary unless it is a very large shift.

The changes to Vicmap are planned to commence in late October 2022. Vicmap customers will be notified at least 30 days in advance of when published changes to Vicmap are to go live. A change notice will be sent to Vicmap customers via a Vicmap Change Management Notice - sign up for Vicmap change notices via Vicmap.help@delwp.vic.gov.au

Click here to check the data publishing schedule.

This page contains an indicative data publishing schedule in the form of an interactive map. The order of the data publication to Vicmap may still change due to production decisions.

Vicmap Spatial Services will not be maintaining two versions of Vicmap (previous versus spatially upgraded) once we commence the spatial upgrade.

Vicmap customers are encouraged to take advantage of the benefits of this spatial data transformation and start preparing for the spatial upgrade of Vicmap at the earliest time prior to Vicmap being changed. Check out our Readiness Toolkit for information on how your organisation can start preparing for the spatial upgrade to Vicmap.

Yes, the new data schema to support the Digital Cadastre Modernisation (DCM) changes to Vicmap Property was announced in Vicmap change notice #272 (July 2021) and #272.1(September 2021).

Find the Vicmap change notices here

Vicmap spatial services will continue to offer multiple ways of using data.

The Vicmap Incremental Update Format supply (IUF data supply) for DCM will be delivered in GDA2020. This delivery will include the adjusted parcel data from digital cadastre modernisation and will be available once DCM adjusted data starts to be integrated or published into Vicmap.

Please refer to the 2022 Vicmap Change Management notices regarding notices about IUF data supply changes.

DCM spatial upgrades will be incorporated into Vicmap state-wide data in LGA work areas and will be released gradually according to our publication to Vicmap schedule, at this stage commencing in late October 2022.

The DCM spatial updates along with general Vicmap maintenance will be part of IUF deliveries once DCM data starts to be published into Vicmap; noting this will occur in work areas bounded by local government areas.

The IUF seed files (LGA based) will be created for the entire state in June and available from the 3rd July 2022 and incremental files will then be provided weekly. These seeds and subsequent incremental files will contain all of the new attributes referred to in Vicmap change notice #272.

When DCM integration (or publication) to Vicmap commences, an LGA will be integrated into Vicmap Property resulting in a large incremental file for that LGA in that week. Your organisation may choose not to process the IUF data for each spatially uplifted area until you are ready to do so. Don’t forget about the Readiness Toolkit, a suite of tools and resources to help you plan for the change in your organisation.

Although road parcels currently exist within Vicmap Property, DCM is identifying many more road parcels that have a live title through our back capture and digitisation work. You will notice these in the spatially upgraded Vicmap once it is made available. The addition of road parcels in Vicmap as a visual representation of the title is required for land management and road management. This parcel type is attributed as DESC Type = 13 (Road Parcel).

Regarding easements, DCM did not focus on digitising additional easement information from plan and survey, however, easements are part of the Vicmap Property data model so will be subject to the DCM spatial upgrade. The current depiction of easements as a line in Vicmap Property will persist post DCM spatial upgrade.

Your organisation can access data created by Digital Cadastre Modernisation (DCM) right now.

View and download adjusted parcel data for an area of interest by registering for access to the DCM Integration Viewer – please email digital.cadastre@delwp.vic.gov.au to request access to the map viewing and data download tools.

We encourage Vicmap customers to explore the adjusted parcel data for your area of interest well in advance of the time when Vicmap will be changed. Understanding the extent of change to land parcel boundaries coming from DCM will assist your organisation to understand how your business datasets will be affected by the change.

You can also access the digitised land parcel database (non-adjusted data). This is the data from the back captured and digitised PDF plan. Download digitised land parcel data via this page.

Please note: the early release database requires the use of the QGIS platform and LXML plug-in. The digitised land parcel database is not the adjusted parcel data that will be published into Vicmap.

As the DCM spatial upgrades are being applied to Vicmap Core Spatial datasets, all Vicmap users are going to benefit.

We are ensuring that we give the spatial and surveying industry enough time to respond to the upcoming changes to Vicmap. There are many ways DTP can assist our spatial data customers to prepare for this change so please contact us for assistance on either digital.cadastre@delwp.vic.gov.au or Vicmap.help@delwp.vic.gov.au

Have another question not answered above?

For more information contact the Vicmap helpdesk.

Page last updated: 17/08/23