The rugged, inaccessible nature of much of Papua New Guinea's terrain, combined with complex tectonic activity, present geodesists with almost insurmountable challenges. To date there is still no nationwide levelling network and height datum. Mean Sea Level (MSL) is widely adopted and in many inland and highland regions, trigonometrical levelling has been the only means by which heighting has been achievable, accounting for level discrepencies of up to seven metres. With the widespread adoption of GPS, Papua New Guinea has recently adopted a geocentric geodetic datum, PNG94 as a successor to the Australian Geodetic Datum 1966 (AGD66), however there is still a high level of uncertainty regarding the relationship between the two datums.
Surveying Section
Department of Surveying and Land Studies
The Papua New Guinea University of Technology
Private Mail Bag, LAE
Morobe Province
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Tel +675 4734951
Fax +675 4757534
EMAIL :
rcurley@survey.unitech.ac.pg
Last Update:
5th November 2000
Richard Stanaway
Geodetic Surveyor, RSES, ANU
Background image: Hidden Valley Prospect, Morobe Gold Project
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