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1998
Entries
In 1998 the Award was broken into
three categories; Open Project, Small Project and Final Year Student
Project. Entries were received in the Open Project and Final Year
Student Project categories. A judging panel considered the entries
on the basis of the Technical Excellence, Innovation, Quality of
Presentation, Sensitivity to the Environment and Benefit to the
Profession and the Community. The presentation of the awards was
made at the Annual Dinner of the Institution, at the recent
Surveyors Congress in Launceston.
The quality and standard of the
entries was very high, with nine entries being received in the
Student Project category and eight in the Open Project category.
After much consideration the judging panel awarded a winner in each
of the two categories, together with Certificates of Merit for each
category.
Entries
Open Project Category
Final Year Student Project
In 1992 Skyrail Pty Ltd formally
instructed C&B Consultants to proceed and undertake all the
necessary survey works associated with the rainforest cableway
development.
The survey was extremely dynamic,
complex and covered a wide range of tasks. These included;
centreline and long section surveys, control surveys using
conventional and GPS techniques, tree identification and detail
surveys, tower and building construction set out surveys,
as-constructed surveys, aerial photo-control surveys and cadastral
surveys.
However the challenge for the survey
team was to perform these tasks under acute and adverse conditions.
The site was covered by rugged terrain, on-site work practices were
restricted by a stringent set of regulations, and as the project was
considered by some people to be controversial, it suffered from a
prolonged campaign by anti-cableway protesters.
 The
survey consequently demanded resourceful professionals who could
work under these conditions. Not only did they have to react and
overcome unique situations, but at the same time maintain their
impeccable professional standards. This survey represented a
struggle and a will to achieve total professionalism under adverse
conditions.
The rainforest cableway is located
just 15 kilometres northwest of Caims, Far North Queensland.
Stretching for a total distance of 7.5km from Caravonica to Kuranda,
it is the World’s longest gondola cableway and is a world first in
environmental tourism. It traverses steep mountains, spectacular
waterfalls and the rainforest canopy of the Wet Tropics of North
Queensland. This is a diverse and sensitive eco-system and is one of
only 12 areas in the world to be listed as a World Heritage on the
basis of satisfying all four selection criteria of the listing, any
one of which would have qualified it on its own.
This development is a world class
eco-tourism development and is the culmination of eight years of
planning, research and consultation with approximately 23 Government
Agencies from all three tiers of Government in Australia. This
represented one of the largest and most exhaustive approvals process
of any private development in the country. As a consequence of this
process, it established stringent environmental controls and
guidelines for the project’s development. These were subsequently
imposed on the companies responsible for its construction, and in
particular, on the survey company and its survey team. The site
itself had diffficult natural and physical constraints.
 Being
World Heritage listed area, much of the site was covered in
rainforest containing some of the most sensitive and diverse
tropical eco-systems in the world, with rare and fragile plant and
animal species. In addition, the site was physically constrained, as
the levels ranged from 2.5 metres above sea level to over 545 metres
above sea level. In fact, the first stage of the project, being 2000
metres long, has an average grade of 27 percent.
In addition to these statutory and
environmental difficulties, the project was subject to intense
public scrutiny. Various public interest groups both opposed and
supported the development. Opposition to the project by some
conservation groups was extreme, with a campaign being waged against
the cableway right up to its completion. Protagonists camped and
lived in trees in the rainforest throughout the duration of the
project. As a consequence of this action, it also attracted the
media’s attention at a local, state and national level.
 In
response to these factors, a combination of modern and conventional
survey and mapping technologies, together with ingenuity, were used
to complete the survey component of the project.
Further practical on-site solutions
were sometimes used to deal with unique circumstances which
presented themselves during its construction. Despite the numerous
constraints and pressures, the development was completed on time and
on budget.
*WINNERS*
Final
Year Student Category
Shamsul Izhan Abdul Majid
The MET on the 'Net
The development of Geographic Information Systems - GIS in the
world of surveying has enabled many surveyors to move from purely
spatial data collectors to spatial data managers. However, while GIS
is a powerful tool the lack of real world application to solve
specific problems has limited its scope beyond the surveying and
related professions. In addition, current GIS software requires a
level of specialised knowledge and training to be able to use the
programs effectively, something which is beyond the general public.
 The
"Met on the ‘net" project is an investigation into
combining a GIS model which will permit commuters to investigate
which routes to take, and at what times in Melbourne. This
information could be obtained from information kiosks or via the
internet.
The aim of the project is to provide GIS on a small and simple
scale, to be available to a user with a click of a button. Training
and understanding of spatial data manipulation is not required from
the user at any level of this project. Anyone with adequate web page
navigation skills is able to use this service.
 The
challenge for this project was to allow users to access information
held in the Melbourne Transport System (the Met) databases, combine
it with other spatial information such as street maps and calculate
the travel routes and times depending upon the user’s choices.
The computer language Java was used to build the system, as it
provides a relatively simple programming environment which is fully
functional over the internet and importantly is independent of the
computer system which the query is run from. A number of Java
applets were developed to carry out the tasks of permitting the user
to input their departure and destinations, access the text database
to determine the transport timetables, compute the shortest route
between the departure and destination and display the result to the
user.
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