How should an Australian surveying or utility locating firm show its licence, registration, memberships and insurance on its website?

This guide is about where credentials go on a page and how to word them. It draws on how we build credentials pages and on a review of 30 pages from Australian surveying firms’ websites, done in October 2026 when we designed our two templates. It is website advice. It does not say what any job requires: your state or territory board decides that.

What needs a licence in Australia, and where do you check?

In Australia only cadastral (boundary) surveying needs a licence or registration (plus mining surveyors in NSW). Check your state board.

That sentence is all this guide says about licensing. The rules differ between states and territories, and whether a particular job falls under them is a question for the board that registers surveyors where you work, not for a website guide.

Boards register people, and each publishes a search of its register. The links below were checked on 30 October 2026. Boards rename and move pages, so check each one before you link to it. Some boards say “registered” and others say “licensed”: use the title your own board uses.

State or territory	Board	Register search
NSW	Board of Surveying and Spatial Information (BOSSI)	Find a Registered Surveyor
Victoria	Surveyors Registration Board of Victoria	Find a surveyor
Queensland	Surveyors Board of Queensland	Find a surveyor
Western Australia	Land Surveyors Licensing Board of Western Australia	Register of Land Surveyors
South Australia	Surveyors Board of South Australia	Public information
Tasmania	Tasmanian Land Surveyors Accreditation Board	Registered surveyors
Northern Territory	Surveyors Board of the Northern Territory	Register
ACT	ACT Registrar of Surveyors	Same page

BOSSI also has a page for mining surveyors. New Zealand has its own board, which this guide does not cover.

Where does each credential go on the site?

Put each credential next to the work it covers and say what it covers. A headline that says “licensed surveyors” over a page that also sells detail surveys, set-out and locating blurs what the licence is for. In that review, the hero often led with a credential beside the city name. That works when the headline is about boundary work. It works less well when the same line sits over every service.

In the sites we build, the credentials strip names the registration against the work it covers (“Boundary plans signed by a” followed by the state title), uses text badges rather than third-party logos, and disappears when there is nothing true to show. The team section shows the state title only on the person who holds the registration.

Page	What to show	Link to
Boundary survey page	The registration of the surveyor who signs the boundary plans, in your board’s title	Your board’s register
Any other page for work your board says is covered	The same, once you have checked with the board	Your board
Detail, feature, set-out and engineering survey pages	Only credentials actually held that relate to that work, such as an association certification. Do not repeat the boundary registration here	The body’s own register, where it has one
Utility locating page	The locator certification or association membership held, named exactly	The certifier’s or association’s page
About or team page	A registration title beside the name of the person who holds it, and nobody else	Your board’s register
Quote page and footer	One short line: insurance if true, and the registration scoped to the work it covers	Your credentials page
Credentials page	Everything above in one place, with a checked-on date	Each body

How should a registration be worded and checked?

• Use the title your board uses, spelled the way the board spells it.
• Name the person. Boards register individuals. BOSSI’s register, for example, is searched by name or registration number.
• If you print a number, print the one the register shows and link to the register so a reader can check it.
• When the registered surveyor leaves, the page changes. A named person who has gone is a stale claim.
• Do not write that the firm “is licensed” when the registration belongs to a person. Say who signs the plans.

How do you show memberships and accreditations?

A membership says a firm belongs to a body. It is not a licence, and it is not a register of competence. Use the body’s own name, link to the body, and say nothing more than the body says.

• Surveyors Australia describes itself as the peak industry body for surveyors. It also runs a Certified Engineering Surveyor program with a national register. If staff hold it, it belongs on the engineering survey page, with a link to the register. This guide does not say any work requires it.
• Consulting Surveyors Victoria (the Association of Consulting Surveyors Victoria, ACSV) represents private land surveying businesses in Victoria. It is a Victorian body, so it makes no sense on a Queensland firm’s page.
• NULCA is the association for professional utility cable locators and related services. The Australian association is at nulca.com.au, and another association with a similar name uses nulca.org, so check the address before you link.
• CERTLOC Global, formerly DBYD Certification Ltd, certifies locators and locating organisations. It has a “find a certified locator” page.

Ask each body for its logo and wording rules before you use its logo. Where the body has none, text is the safer default.

The ACCC says a business must be able to prove any claim it advertises, and that claims should be true, accurate and based on reasonable grounds. That is general guidance and not legal advice, and this guide is not legal advice either. In practice it means: no body you have only applied to, no lapsed membership, and no wording that suggests a body endorses the firm.

What should an insurance statement say?

Say what is true and current. “Professional indemnity insured” is a complete statement if it is correct today. Add that a certificate of currency is available on request only if the firm will really provide one.

Do not state a cover amount or name an insurer unless the firm confirms it and will update it. Tie the statement to the policy renewal date in your review schedule, so the page never says “insured” after the policy has lapsed.

In the sites we build, the insurance wording is the firm’s own, and it can appear on the credentials page, the footer and beside the quote form. In that review, few of the Australian surveyor sites said anything about insurance, so a plain, accurate line stands out without any claim being made.

What should a utility locating page show?

Locating firms may hold their own certifications or memberships, so give them their own block rather than borrowing the boundary registration.

• Say who holds what. A person who holds a certification and a firm that is a member of an association are different statements.
• Keep a completed training course and a certification apart. NULCA’s own site notes that completing its accredited underground asset location course does not automatically make someone a Certified Locator, which is a separate process managed by CERTLOC Global.
• NULCA also says some major utility owners and some civil constructors specify certified locators for work on their assets. That is a requirement set by those customers, so a buyer may look for it. A locating page that states plainly who is certified saves them an email.

How do you keep credentials current?

Put a visible line on the credentials page: “Credentials last checked on” and the date. Then keep it true.

• Name one person who owns the page.
• Check each named person on the board’s register on a set schedule, and on any day someone joins or leaves.
• Check each membership and certification against the body’s own page, and each insurance statement against the policy renewal date.
• When something lapses, remove it that day. Take it off every page, not only the credentials page.

In the sites we run there is no website login to manage. The firm emails the change, gets a preview back and replies to confirm before it goes live, so a lapsed credential is one email away from being removed. The wider site checklist is in what a surveying firm’s website needs, and the quote page is covered in the guide to quote form fields.

What is the one-page checklist?

• The licensing sentence on the page matches the board's own wording, and the page points readers to your state board.
• Each credential sits beside the work it covers and says what it covers.
• Detail, set-out, engineering and locating pages do not borrow the boundary registration.
• Registrations are shown as the board's title, against the named person who holds them, with a link to the register.
• Any registration number matches the register exactly.
• Memberships and certifications use the body's own name, link to the body and are held today.
• A completed course is not described as a certification.
• Logos are used only where the body allows it.
• The insurance line is true and current, with no cover amount unless the firm confirms it.
• The credentials page shows a checked-on date.
• One person owns the page and has a schedule for checking it.
• Anything that has lapsed is removed everywhere the same day.