Best practice: Performing EDM calibrations in NSW

The Surveyor General of New South Wales is a verifying authority for reference standards of length measurements under the National Measurement Act 1960 and responsible for ensuring that surveyors use verified measuring equipment. To this end, the Surveying and Spatial Information Regulation 2012 requires surveyors to verify their Electronic Distance Measurement (EDM) equipment in relation to an Australian standard of measurement of length at least once a year. In order to assist the profession in meeting this requirement, Land and Property Information (LPI) provides and maintains several EDM baselines across the state. LPI is currently in the process of improving this infrastructure by upgrading existing baselines and building new baselines for the calibration of EDM instruments. This paper briefly presents the current status of EDM baseline infrastructure in NSW and outlines best practice guidelines for EDM calibrations in NSW. These proposed guidelines are expected to flow on into the next update of Surveyor General's Direction No. 5 (Verification of Distance Measuring Equipment).