Identifying Your Property Boundaries

Capricorn Survey Group is often asked by clients to confirm that a particular peg or mark they have found is their correct corner peg.  A very common mistake for an owner or builder is to misidentify a corner peg, to place a fence along an incorrect alignment, or worse, to incorrectly site a building. 

The surveying profession bears some responsibility, we believe, to inform the public as to what constitutes a legal boundary peg and how this may be differentiated from a variety of other survey marks so that errors such as those described above can be minimised. Boundary pegs have changed over the years but the general rule is that they are square in cross-section.  Boundary pegs have changed over the years but the general rule is that they are square in crossection.  Under the current Survey Act, pegs must be 50mm x 50mm square and they are normally painted white with a bevelled edge at the top. 

They are driven so as to stand slightly higher than the surrounding ground level.  On rural properties many surveyors prefer to use a large peg (75mm x 75mm) which is easier to find and has greater durability.  Other marks have been used in the past and most farmers will be familiar with "survey posts" which were cut from local timber and are usually very long lasting.   These pegs mark the actual property corners or in the case of long boundary lines where the corners are not intervisible they may be placed along the   boundary line as "line pegs" as an aid for fencing. Most surveyors will place a tall stake close to the corner peg.  The purpose is simply to aid in the location of the corner pegs, particularly in long grass.  This "indicator stake" should not be confused with the correct corner. Another type of mark placed during the course of a survey is a traverse peg or "dumpy".  This is a temporary mark from which the surveyor makes a set of measurements. 

In rural areas it is common. Common to cut a small peg form a piece of bush timber, but in urban areas where most reasonable  people would become upset at the sign of someone chopping away at their ornamental shrubbery in order to fashion a dumpy peg, surveyors use sawn timber pegs.  To avoid confusion, a prudent surveyor, will ensure that these look completely different to corner pegs and a common dumpy peg is rectangular in section (50mm x 75mm) and driven flush into the ground.  Dumpy pegs are also used by engineering surveyors to setout such things as roads, powerlines and buildings etc and it is this type of peg which is most commonly confused with boundary pegs.  The final type of mark placed by a surveyor is called a reference mark.  These are normally hidden marks such as buried iron pins, although, in rural area a mark cut into the face of a tree is still commonly used. the reference marks, should the corner pegs be destroyed.

Reference marks are close to, but not on the property corners.  The relationship between the reference mark and the property corner is recorded on the plan of survey so that the property boundary can be re-established from, unfortunately reference marks can be destroyed by careless land holders who clear all trees and in the town areas it is not uncommon to find every iron pin in a street has been accidently dug up by Telstra. 

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