Blue Mountains City Council has won honours at this year’s Excellence in Surveying and Spatial Information (EISSI) Awards for a surveying project in Katoomba.
The EISSI Awards, held in Sydney recently by the Institute of Surveyors NSW and the Association of Consulting Surveyors NSW, are the highest industry awards in their field.
“These are like the Oscars of the surveying profession,” Council’s CEO, Dr Rosemary Dillon said.
“So I’m delighted to see our staff rewarded for their excellence before their industry peers.
“Only one other winner has been from local government, back in 2018, making this award extra special.”
The ‘Urban Cadastral Surveying & Land Titling’ award recognises an individual’s or organisation’s ability to solve the complexities and overcome the difficulties encountered in the definition of urban boundaries and the creation of land titling in NSW.
The Institute of Surveyors NSW encouraged Council’s Principal Surveyor in Infrastructure Design, Micheal Kocoski, to submit a project for consideration after being impressed by the work of Council’s Infrastructure Design team.
The team submitted the project Dr Alex Allen Park Acquisition – Substance over Size for consideration by the judging panel.
This was a small but highly complex acquisition survey at Dr Alex Allen Park in Katoomba which assessed land use management for future grant-funded beautification of the surrounding area. It had interesting complexities to resolve the location at the intersection of two aligned streets and involved several historic determinations, the Council said.
“This project is a clear example of substance over size,” the Institute of Surveyors NSW said in its award citation. “As the surveying regulations do not discriminate on how big or small the land acquisition is, the same stringent process applies.”
Dr Dillon said, “Winning awards like this provides our organisation with invaluable exposure to the profession and assures the public that our quality of work is of the highest standard, with excellence continually sought after and achieved.”