The GPR was established by the NSW Government in 1988 to facilitate management of its property assets and provide an overview of the Government's land holdings for planning purposes. It provides an integrated data source combining data from individual owner agencies with data from the Department of Lands to give a total picture of the State's land holdings.

The GPR is the single source of whole-of-government property data. It is a core application of the Department of Lands' integrated land and property information systems, and is a tool which is used for decision making on a whole-of-government basis.

Details of land parcels were originally provided by owner agencies, but the integrity of this data varied in quality. GPR data has been matched against the Department of Lands' Integrated Titling System (ITS) and the Crown Land Information Database (CLID). This has significantly improved the quality of the original data, but an ongoing supply of information from Departments and Statutory Bodies is essential to provide a more comprehensive record of government property and land holdings.

The Department of Lands is currently trialling a spatially enabled version of the GPR with selected agencies. When fully implemented, all agencies will be able to conduct online searches of the GPR and obtain text based or spatially referenced search results. A text inquiry on an agency name against a local government area or the whole State will return details of land parcels held in the GPR and ITS in the current and any former name(s) of that agency. A spatial inquiry on, for example, a suburb name will return a rendered graphic of GPR land in that suburb; searches on a suburb and authority name will return a graphic of land in that suburb administered by the specified authority.

To obtain maximum benefit from these search capabilities, it is critical that the currency of data is maintained.

Section 17 of the Annual Reports (Departments) Act 1985 and section 14 of the Annual Reports (Statutory Bodies) Act 1984 require that Departments and Statutory Bodies provide details of all land vested in, owned, occupied or controlled by them for inclusion in a central register. These sections were amended in 2003 to require that the details be supplied to the Director General of the Department of Lands.

Ministers and CEOs are asked to ensure that all agencies under their administration are aware of, and comply with GPR reporting requirements to the Director-General, Department of Lands.

Further information about accessing and supplying GPR data can be obtained from the Department of Lands contact officer listed below.

Bob Carr
Premier