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GDA policy
General implementation policy
The Department of Lands fully supported the Intergovernmental Committee on Surveying and Mapping (ICSM) resolution to adopt the Geocentric Datum of Australia (GDA). This has resulted in an apparent shift of Australia's coordinate system to the northeast by approximately 200 metres.
Lands has adopted GDA and considers that GDA is the most effective datum for all users of spatial data as it provides:
- Compatibility with satellite navigation systems;
- Local, regional, state, national and international compatibility through one consistent reference frame for all users.
- The reference frame on which the Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure (ASDI) is to be based; and
- Infrastructure to support international agreements.
As such, Lands has migrated all its products and services across to GDA.
Lands fully supports providing digital data to clients in their preferred projections and will continue to support existing datums and projections for some time. Lands will also endeavour to provide sufficient information and support to enable clients to smoothly migrate from products based on the Australian Geodetic Datum (AGD) to GDA.
All new products are based on the Geocentric Datum of Australia.
