The effect of adverse possession to part of a future Australian cadastre

Abstract

In accord with modern cadastral principles, a comprehensive land informationmanagement system should ideally disclose the complete legal status of all land withthe disclosure of all public and private rights and restrictions, including rightsacquired under adverse possession. Recognizing trends to develop national spatialdata sets, if a national cadastre founded upon these data sets is ever to be considered,a basic requirement will be a unified national law regarding land ownership. In turnthis will require a unified approach to the issue of adverse possession of registeredtitle land and particularly adverse possession of part of a land parcel. The authorsview this issue as a major obstacle in achieving a unified national cadastral surveypractice. This fundamental distinction requires resolution as a necessary step towardsa unified approach ultimately leading to an integrated national cadastre. Adversepossession of part parcels permits the variation, rectification, and re-adjustment ofboundaries with boundary definition being essential to parcel based spatial data sets.Wishing to promote consideration and debate on the issue the authors propose that thecurrent Australian state schemes be categorized according to whether they permit partparcel adverse possession and suggest some possible options. The authors concludethat all Australian jurisdictions except New South Wales, South Australia, and thetwo territories (the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory) permitpart parcel adverse possession of registered title land.