The fence, the title and the survey
Three different things get called the boundary, and only one of them is a line on the ground. A fence is a fence. A title is a record of ownership. A survey is the work that re-establishes the boundary, and in Victoria only licensed surveyors are legally entitled to do boundary surveys.
The land records held by Land Use Victoria give an indication of boundary dimensions, and the department says plainly that those boundaries are not guaranteed: only a licensed surveyor can determine the actual location of your property boundaries.
| What it is | What it shows about the line | Where it is held |
|---|---|---|
| The fence. A dividing fence separates two pieces of land and usually runs along the common boundary between the two properties. | Where the fence stands. Neighbours may share the fence without the line being agreed. | On the land. |
| The title. The Register of land is the official record for ownership, and each folio has a certificate of title. | The diagram gives an indication of boundary dimensions, and the boundaries are not guaranteed. | The register, held by Land Use Victoria. |
| The survey. A cadastral survey re-establishes the boundaries of previously surveyed properties and determines the physical extent of ownership. | The line itself, defined and marked on the ground. | On the survey plan and in the field records behind the plan. |
Land Use Victoria, Property and land titles information · Dispute Settlement Centre of Victoria, Fencing in Victoria · Surveyors Registration Board of Victoria, About cadastral surveying · Surveyors Registration Board of Victoria, FAQ
What a title shows
A title search shows the current information held in the Victorian Register of land, the official record for ownership of land in Victoria at the time the search is made. Buying and selling property, or getting a loan from a bank, are examples of when a title search is required.
Everything the title tells you about the line comes from its diagram. The diagram location or source document gives an indication of boundary dimensions. Land Use Victoria's own words on the limit are blunt: these boundaries are not guaranteed, and only a Licensed Surveyor can determine the actual location of your property boundaries.
So the title settles who owns the land and what is recorded against it. It does not settle exactly where the line is. Two habits follow. Search the Register of land well before you begin any land transaction, as Land Use Victoria recommends, and if you want help reading what comes back, the department highly recommends consulting a Licensed Conveyancer or Australian Legal Practitioner.
Re-establishing a boundary
The survey that answers "where is it" is a cadastral survey. Cadastral surveying is the branch of land surveying that deals with land ownership law and with defining property boundaries. The work takes in advice on where a boundary lies, on who owns what and on the rights, restrictions and interests that touch a property, and it takes in the marking of boundaries and the measurement of dimensions and areas, on land, on water, or along natural or built features.
Two jobs dominate. One is dividing land into parcels for ownership under a title. The other is putting previously surveyed boundaries back on the ground, whether to establish the extent of what is owned or to transfer the title.
In Victoria, that work is reserved: a person must be a licensed surveyor, registered under the Surveying Act 2004, before they may perform a cadastral survey. The Surveyors Registration Board of Victoria is more direct: the entitlement to define and mark a property's boundaries, on the ground, belongs to a licensed surveyor alone, and the Board's register page says the same for land and property boundary surveys.
The Board lists the situations that call for one. You need a licensed surveyor when you want to:
- subdivide your property
- know where the boundaries of your property are
- create an easement over your property
- build on or near your boundaries
- establish a building strata development
- claim title to land under adverse possession
Surveyors Registration Board of Victoria, About cadastral surveying · Surveyors Registration Board of Victoria, Check if a surveyor is registered · Surveyors Registration Board of Victoria, FAQ
When the fence is off the line
A fence can stand well away from the boundary and still be a perfectly ordinary fence. The Dispute Settlement Centre of Victoria makes the first point clearly: both neighbours have the same rights and obligations when it comes to building or repairing a dividing fence, even if it is not located on the common boundary.
Where the Act expects the fence to stand is a separate question, and it has an exception. The Act wants the fence on the common boundary, unless putting it there is impractical, and where a fence stands off the line, claims of adverse possession may arise, as section 30E of the Fences Act 1968 sets out.
Nothing in the law fixes a height or a material. The law in Victoria does not say how tall a fence should be or what it should be made from. For residential properties a sufficient dividing fence might be a 1.8 metre timber paling fence, and for rural properties it might be a wire and post fence.
The practical order is: find the line first, then decide what to build on it. Building on or near your boundaries is one of the situations the Board names as calling for a licensed surveyor.
Fences Regulations 2024 (Vic), authorised version · Dispute Settlement Centre of Victoria, Fencing in Victoria · Surveyors Registration Board of Victoria, FAQ
A worked example
Land Use Victoria, Property and land titles information · Surveyors Registration Board of Victoria, About cadastral surveying · Fences Regulations 2024 (Vic), authorised version
The Melbourne record
In Melbourne the line hangs off the city's own first survey. Melbourne dates from 1835, and Queen Victoria declared it a city in 1847. The city's growth began with the surveyor Robert Hoddle, who in 1837 set out streets and lanes in a grid north of the Birrarung, the pattern now called the Hoddle Grid, and that layout is the central business district as it stands today.
Around the grid, the land began as Crown land sold over a Melbourne counter. With one exception, Crown land in the district was to be sold at the Port Phillip District Land Office in Melbourne.
What a person can order for a Victorian address today: a title search of the Register of land, a plan of subdivision online for a fee through LANDATA or an authorised information broker if you know the plan number, and a property information certificate, which contains land, building or planning information and is normally ordered by a conveyancer or lawyer, though you can order it yourself through LANDATA or an authorised information broker.
Victorian Department of Transport and Planning, Melbourne's strategic planning history · City of Melbourne, Hoddle Grid: heart of the city · Surveyor-General Victoria, Surveying for Land Settlement in Victoria, chapter 2 · Land Use Victoria, Property and land titles information · Land Use Victoria, Property information certificates
See also What the title shows and The old plans and parish plans.