Very little in Wilston is square. The estates that created the suburb were laid out over a set of ridges, with the streets following the contours rather than a grid, and the lots were fitted into whatever shape was left over. Add a century of Queenslanders sitting high on stumps, retaining walls holding up half the front yard, and land values that make every square metre worth arguing about, and you have a suburb where knowing exactly where the boundary sits is worth a great deal more than the survey costs. A boundary survey establishes it properly. A registered cadastral surveyor obtains the title and the original survey plans, recovers the surviving marks in the surrounding streets, and re-establishes and pegs the corners of your lot.
Two characteristics drive most of the survey work here. The first is geometry. Curved streets produce frontages that are arcs rather than straight lines, side boundaries that splay outwards or inwards, corner truncations, and lots with five or six sides instead of four. You cannot pace these out or work them off a neighbour’s fence. The second is that Wilston is a renovating suburb rather than a rebuilding one. Character protections and the school catchment mean owners extend, raise and build under instead of moving on, and every one of those projects pushes hard against setbacks, boundary clearances and levels that need to be measured rather than assumed.
Anything unresolved on the site transfers to you at settlement, along with the cost of dealing with it. A survey inside the contract period is inexpensive insurance. It confirms the true shape, dimensions and area of the lot, shows how the fences relate to the title, and identifies the easements affecting the land.
Easements deserve attention on an inner north block. Sewer mains serving the original estates frequently run through rear yards instead of along the street, and the easement over them will be sitting precisely where the pool or the extension was going to go. Drainage easements are common where stormwater is carried between lots down the slope. The lower parts of the suburb towards Enoggera Creek also fall within the flood overlay, and if that applies to a property you are considering, the levels matter as much as the boundaries. Our article on when and why you need a boundary survey runs through the usual triggers.
Neighbour disputes over a boundary tend to stall because neither side can produce anything better than an opinion. One person is going off where the old fence has always been, the other is going off something they were told at the open home, and there is no way to test either version.
In Wilston the structure in dispute is often doing more than dividing two yards. On these slopes the dividing line is regularly a retaining wall with a fence on top, holding up one property and forming the edge of the other, and the replacement cost is nothing like a standard fence. Responsibility depends on whether that wall stands on the boundary, wholly inside one lot, or somewhere in between. Marking the line gives both households the same set of facts, which is generally enough to reach an agreement on a replacement and a fair split of the cost. It also puts you on firm ground if the matter escalates to a fencing notice under the Neighbourhood Disputes Act or to QCAT.
Encroachments in Wilston are usually a by-product of building on a narrow, sloping lot without much room to work with. Retaining walls creep across. Carports and garages built into the fall of the land sit partly on the neighbour. Stairs, landings, eaves and gutters on old timber houses project past the boundary at height, and later additions repeat the error because they were set out off the existing house rather than off a survey.
These sit quietly for years and then surface at the worst time, typically during a sale, a certifier’s review, or when the neighbour lodges plans of their own. A survey records exactly where each structure lies in relation to the true boundary. Once that is on paper, the options become clear, whether the outcome is an agreement to leave things as they stand, an easement, a modification or removal.
A standard suburban lot has four corners and two parallel side boundaries, and almost none of Wilston works that way. Frontages curve with the street, which means the boundary is defined by an arc with a radius and a chord rather than a single dimension. Side boundaries run radially off that curve, so they are not parallel to each other, and the rear boundary rarely meets them at a right angle. Corner lots carry truncations. Some lots have splays or dog legs left over from fitting the subdivision to the topography.
The practical consequence is that setbacks measured from a curved or splayed boundary change along the length of the building, and a design that clears the boundary at one end may not clear it at the other. It also makes the area of the lot difficult to verify without the plan, and areas quoted in old sale material are not always right. Re-establishing this kind of geometry requires the original plan of subdivision, the recovery of enough surrounding marks to reconstruct the curve accurately, and the field work to bring it back onto your site.
Boundary clearances, setbacks, site cover and building height are all dimensioned from the boundary, so the whole design rests on that line being right. On an irregular sloping lot it also rests on the levels.
A detail and contour survey taken with the boundary work is the sensible default for Wilston. Old Queenslanders have been restumped, moved, added to and patched, and they are seldom square or level, so a designer working from assumed dimensions will be out before they start. 3D scanning captures the house as it actually stands, inside and out, and delivers it as point cloud data your architect can design against, together with spot levels, contours, retaining walls, services and the position of the neighbouring buildings that are only a few metres away. Where the traditional building character overlay applies, that accuracy also supports the character assessment rather than leaving it to argument.
If a project involves reconfiguring lots, a subdivision survey is built on the same re-established boundaries, and our town planners can assess the zoning, overlays and character provisions before you commit to a design. Duplex and dual occupancy work needs a building format plan to create the separate titles. On site, the same boundaries carry into the construction set out, as constructed survey and Form 12. We also prepare lease surveys for the tenancies through Wilston Village and along Kedron Brook Road.
Survey My Block is a Registered Consulting Cadastral Surveyor Organisation with the Surveyors Board of Queensland, working throughout Wilston and the neighbouring inner north including Newmarket, Grange, Windsor, Lutwyche, Herston, Kelvin Grove, Alderley and Ashgrove.
A boundary survey with us includes the title and survey record search, the field work to recover the evidence and mark your corners, and a plan setting the boundary against the fences, walls and structures currently on the site. We also provide identification surveys, detail and contour surveys, 3D scanning, subdivision surveys, lease surveys, construction set out and Form 12s across Wilston. Tell us about your block and we will explain what is involved and what it will cost, either by getting in touch or by reading our guide to what affects the price of a survey.
In Queensland, a survey of existing property boundaries is commonly called an identification survey. A registered cadastral surveyor examines survey records and physical evidence to identify, re-establish and, where appropriate, mark your property boundaries. An identification survey confirms existing boundaries, it does not create or alter property interests.
We recommend a boundary survey before installing or replacing a fence, constructing a retaining wall, building an extension, or carrying out other work close to a property boundary. It is also useful when purchasing or developing property, investigating a possible encroachment, or resolving uncertainty between neighbours.
Not necessarily. Fences, retaining walls and other improvements are sometimes built away from the true boundary, and the boundary cannot be reliably located by measuring from the kerb. GPS apps, Queensland Globe and online property maps are also not authoritative sources for locating boundaries on the ground. A cadastral survey is required to establish the boundary accurately
The surveyor will review the relevant title and survey information, undertake field measurements and reinstate the surveyed boundaries. Depending on the scope and site conditions, boundary corners may be marked or re-marked, and the survey plan may show relevant fences, retaining walls, buildings and encroachments in relation to the boundary.
A boundary survey provides independent professional evidence showing where the boundary is located and how nearby fences, walls or structures relate to it. However, the survey itself does not determine who is responsible for an encroachment or compel someone to relocate a structure. Where an affected improvement or encroachment is identified, the surveyor may be required to notify the affected landholder, and unresolved disputes may require negotiation, mediation or legal advice.
