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Cadastre and Address Modernisation (CAM)

Cadastre and Address Modernisation (CAM)

For more information on the CAM project go to the DNRMMRRD website Cadastre and Address Modernisation (CAM) Project.

March-April 2026 Update

NEW! QSCF beta 3 services and whole-of-state download

We apologise for the radio silence since December 2025. Much work has been underway in 2026 in order to bring everything to a state of readiness for the transition from DCDB to QSCF. Updates and communications will be far more regular over the coming weeks and months!

What’s happening?

Since the release of the first beta Whole-of-State download in September 2025 (second beta available here: Queensland Spatial Catalogue : Queensland Government), we have been very grateful for the feedback, suggestions, and questions from our users. Many fixes, corrections, adjustments, and improvements have been made to the Queensland Spatial Cadastral Fabric (QSCF) in preparation for release of the third beta, which will be available before the end of March. At release, we will send a communication to all identified users of our existing spatial cadastre products available via QSpatial.

In the meantime, the user acceptance testing (UAT) REST services are finally, properly available! They can be found here: PlanningCadastre/QSCF_LandParcelPropertyFramework (MapServer). Of primary interest to most will be the “Cadastral parcels (115)” layer here. Metadata will be finalised in the coming days.

Please continue to provide your feedback, suggestions, and questions to OpenData@nrmmrrd.qld.gov.au.

NEW! Target QSCF production release

QSCF is just one part of a huge data and systems modernisation/uplift exercise currently underway in NRMMRRD, with many systems impacted. The target “activation” of this uplift is by end-May 2026, with more information to be provided as resources and dates are locked in. Data in the DCDB until at least mid-April will remain available via QSpatial indefinitely! Post-uplift, spatial cadastral data and services will transition to the production QSCF.

NEW! DCDB updates & CAD files

Updates to the Digital Cadastral Database (DCDB) continue to be our highest priority. Several of our teams are hard at work resolving the survey plan backlog, with a significant reduction since January 2026. Notification of high-priority jobs (and reasoning for prioritisation) can continue to be sent to CadastralAdminDataHelp@nrmmrrd.qld.gov.au for triage and actioning.

If you are lodging survey plans with us via the usual mechanisms, there’s something else you can do to help! CAD files (in DXF and DWG formats) can be used to accelerate our spatial cadastre update processes. We therefore encourage the provision of DXF and DWG files wherever possible, particularly for larger plans of 5+ parcels.

Updated Available documentation

An updated version of the is available for download. It’s been designed to address many of the changes between DCDB and QSCF schemas. This version also contains a more detailed description of changes to the much-requested “segpar” field. Rest assured it has only changed, not disappeared!

Also available is the more detailed and technical document. This has been designed for users to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the new structure, fields, tables etc.

Both documents will grow and evolve to respond to new knowledge and user requirements.

Please take a look and provide your feedback, questions, concerns and suggestions via OpenData@nrmmrrd.qld.gov.au.

Background information

Queensland’s spatial cadastre (land boundary) and location (street) address datasets are changing.

What’s happening?

Spatial cadastre

The current data offerings have not changed. Queensland Spatial Cadastral Fabric (QSCF) will not become the sole authoritative point of truth for spatial cadastre data in Queensland for datasets, downloads, and services until 2026.

The current Digital Cadastral Database (DCDB) and its associated datasets, downloads, and services will eventually be deprecated. However, expected DCDB data and services will remain available and accessible into the 2026 calendar year.

Location addressing

Queensland’s addressing data will be managed, maintained, and provisioned by the Queensland Address & Location Information (QALI) environment.

QALI supersedes the existing Queensland Address Management Framework (QAMF) environment. However, expected address-related datasets, downloads, and services will remain unchanged.

QALI is currently undergoing extended User Acceptance Testing (UAT) and further development to ensure alignment with emergent Queensland Government priorities and strategies announced in the State Budget. Go-live for QALI will be announced in the near future.

Updated DCDB

Existing and expected DCDB datasets, downloads and services will remain available and accessible into the 2026 calendar year, and will continue to be provided through the usual channels: QSpatial, Open Data Portal, Queensland Globe, and other platforms and services.

Queensland Foundation Data web service. It is recommended to utilise the new Land Parcel Property Framework service (see information about LandParcelPropertyFramework REST services, above), however as Foundation Data service is currently still available, it will be impacted by this upgrade.  To avoid confusion and running both the DCDB and QSCF within the Foundation Data service, this service will be updated to only display the QSCF when the transition happens. Currently the DCDB is displayed as Lot Parcels feature layer and a building unit lot plans within the tables, these will be automatically replaced by the QSCF under the heading of Land parcels with appropriate feature layers.  If you are currently using DCDB Foundation Data layers, please check if these changes that may impact your systems and applications.

QAMF

Transition from QAMF is anticipated to be seamless. However, the following location addressing datasets provided via QSpatial, Open Data Portal, Queensland Globe, Queensland foundation data web service, and other platforms and services may be temporarily impacted:

Delays to the provision of data and data services are unfortunately unavoidable during transition to new systems. Our teams will be working hard to minimise disruption.

What do I need to do?

Queensland’s authoritative spatial cadastre and location addressing data continue to be provided as expected. New QSCF spatial cadastre data will eventually supersede DCDB, but DCDB data will continue to be provisioned into the 2026 calendar year.

It is recommended that users commence their investigation and testing of the new QSCF data and support documentation as soon as possible when it is provided.

Queensland’s authoritative location addressing data will continue to be provided as expected from QALI.

What next?

New beta QSCF datasets, with enhanced features and functionality, are now available (see top). Support documentation will be provided soon.

Legacy DCDB data will continue to be provisioned into the 2026 calendar year, giving users time to take advantage of QSCF enhancements in their own systems.

QALI data will be identical to existing location address data. Technical and operational improvements to the management and maintenance environment behind-the-scenes will allow us to unlock greater functionality and improved data in the near-future. Stay tuned!

Why is this being done?

The existing DCDB is a custom-built (“bespoke”) technical environment that is over 30 years old, using systems and architectures that are outdated, not fit-for-purpose, and extremely expensive and difficult to support and maintain. Information technology systems fitting these criteria are referred to as “deprecated”.

  • The DCDB is incapable of handling three-dimensional (3D) data, and is extremely limited in its ability to ingest, maintain, and represent the precise, timely and comprehensive spatial cadastral data that our users require.

  • Data generated and provided by Queensland’s surveyors, such as distance and bearing information, which is required by the Survey and Mapping Infrastructure Act 2003 (PDF link), is effectively “lost” in the DCDB, which has no capability to store it.

  • DCDB workflows are entirely manual, with no capacity for automation, and no ability for operators to customise their operating environments.

  • The technology “stack” underpinning the DCDB is no longer supported by vendors, will be completely phased out by Queensland Government by mid-2026.

  • Cumbersome, time-consuming data transfer processes, which shuttle DCDB data to other systems for a variety of purposes, are increasingly prone to failure due to the size and complexity of the dataset.

  • Personnel with the highly specialised skills and experience necessary to operate and maintain the 30-year-old DCDB environment are becoming increasingly rare.

The new QSCF environment is built on a contemporary technical foundation that is widely recognised as the international standard. Queensland Government already makes extensive use of Esri Enterprise systems, and Parcel Fabric is available as part of these system at no additional cost to government. It is fully supported by Esri Inc. and Esri Australia as part of our ongoing Enterprise Agreement (EA).

  • QSCF unlocks full 3D capability, allowing Queensland’s spatial cadastral data to better reflect and represent the real-world.

  • Data generated and provided by surveyors, such as distance and bearing information, will not only be correctly stored by QSCF, but can be used to rapidly improve spatial cadastre accuracy over broad areas using a “least squares adjustment” process.

  • QSCF allows for extensive automation of processes, and individual operators will be able to customise their own workflows and environments to better accommodate their preferred ways of working.

  • QSCF is underpinned by a modern, widely used information architecture and technology stack, fully supported by the vendor.

  • Allows for real-time transfer of data between systems via data streaming - no more overnight transfer of the entire database from one place to another. Instead, only the “deltas” - changes - are shared, saving time and bandwidth, and significantly decreasing risk.

  • Nationally aligned with other jurisdictions and with ICSM’s Cadastre 2034 strategy and 3DCSDM.

  • Standardised technologies that are widely understood, used, and taught.

Like the DCDB, the QAMF location address management and maintenance environment is built on deprecated legacy systems and architectures.

The primary challenge with QAMF is that it is unable to maintain “complex” addressing, in both senses of the word: addresses that are not straightforward (such as a separate address for a granny flat at the rear of a property, where the main house is for the primary occupants and the granny flat is leased to tenants), and addresses for complexes such as gated estates and townhouse complexes, retirement villages, universities, apartment buildings, shopping centres, and so forth.

In essence, the current QAMF environment treats each of these “complexes” as a single address. For example, a residential building of 30 separate apartments will be stored as a single address - 1 Smith Street - as only the parcel of land on which the building sits can be assigned an address.

QALI, again like QSCF, is built on standards-based and, in this case, fully open-source technologies. Open-source minimises the cost and support challenges faced by our other deprecated systems, while standards-based means that data can be rapidly enhanced, updated, and transferred, depending on the needs of our users.

QALI uses contemporary technologies such as semantic data and data streaming to not only ensure its readability and applicability to different use cases, but to make data updates near-instantaneous. Timely and accurate address data is absolutely vital, ensuring the delivery of goods, utilities, and services - most importantly emergency services - to locations.

The new semantic model underpinning QALI also unlocks the ability to easily manage and maintain complex addressing across all dimensions.

 

More information

This page will continue to develop in the coming weeks and months, so check back regularly!

 

Version 6.6 updated 1 April 2026