Stellar year for Canberra surveyors
Our surveyors in Canberra are celebrating an exceptional year in 2024, including industry recognition with two Excellence in Surveying and Spatial Information NSW awards.
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Surveyors embedded in local team
Our experienced team of surveyors in Canberra have hit the ground running delivering work on prominent projects throughout the ACT and regional NSW for an established client base.
Support from the wider Spiire business was crucial in enabling a smooth transition after respected Canberra surveying firm Mail McDonald Barnsley (MMB) Surveyors joined the Spiire business in early 2024.
Multiple secondments from surveyors based in our Melbourne, Bendigo and Shepparton offices helped integrate the team within the wider Survey discipline and shared specialist knowledge to support project delivery.
Canberra Business Manager Jonathon Boyd says it’s true to the one team approach that is entrenched in Spiire’s culture.
“We’re a well-established team of more than 30 staff who live and work here in Canberra, who also benefit from the backing of more than 350 people in the broader Spiire network,” he says.
“That pool of knowledge was instrumental in bringing the MMB team’s expertise in house to expand our multidisciplinary offering for local clients.
“But it’s also part of our day-to-day way of working. We pull together to share knowledge and resources, which improves what we can offer our clients and the development opportunities within the team.”
An award-winning approach
An exciting project for our surveyors in Canberra was the subdivision of Woodbury Ridge, developed by Capital Plus 1 as an ecologically sensitive, rural residential estate in Sutton.
Our Survey team supported all aspects of land titling for the development, in a joint effort alongside our local Civil Engineering, Construction Consultancy, Landscape Architecture and Water Engineering teams.
The plans to create a community on the 185ha former farming property, adjoining the Yass River, responded to the site’s significant environmental attributes. The subdivision, in the form of a Community Title Scheme, allows the environmental value of the land to be protected into the future, through a Biodiversity Management Plan included in the Community Management Statement.
More than half the land is dedicated to four stewardship lots, each spanning more than 20ha, which form a conservation corridor across the site. It is recognised as the first development in NSW to receive certification under the state’s Biodiversity Conservation Act.
The team was recognised at the 2024 Excellence in Surveying and Spatial Information NSW awards, winning the Community and Sustainable Environment trophy and also the prestigious Sir Thomas Mitchell award, for the most outstanding overall project across the six award categories.
Registered Surveyor Hannah Pearce says successfully delivering the survey component of the project was streamlined by Spiire’s efficient multidisciplinary collaboration.
“It saves a lot of time to be able to discuss things like the boundary and road designs, and the alignments of electrical cables directly with the engineers involved without having to set up meetings or explain things over email,” she says. “It also makes it easier to keep a finger on the pulse of the project in terms of timing.”
Read more about the project in the December issue of The Surveyor magazine.
Busy project pipeline
Established growth corridor projects
Our Canberra surveyors are delivering projects for longstanding clients, such as South Jerrabomberra, where the Survey team’s work dates back to 2002.
Having worked together on the project for many years as separate businesses, our surveyors and other disciplines are continuing to work side-by-side, now benefitting from the ease of in-house collaboration.
“It’s so convenient having your colleagues doing the design and construction phases just on the other side of the office,” says Hannah. “Especially in the lead-up before construction starts, where we can help each other with questions about timings and data without even having to pick up the phone.”
Future regional NSW developments
The team is also providing aerial surveys and boundary works to support potential future developments in regional NSW, which includes the challenge of navigating old rural boundary definitions that have remained untouched since the 1800s.
Urban renewal projects
Within Canberra’s city limits, we’re working with the Suburban Land Agency to support the development of several high-profile projects, including at Lathlain Street in Belconnen and the historic Canberra Brickwork site.
