Ken McDonald Surveys

01/10/2026

The family behind more than 50 years of surveying 📐

This photograph, dated 1905, shows surveyor William Robert Twine Jnr alongside three or four of his sons and other members of his survey party.

William Robert Twine Snr and Jnr were pioneering surveyors across Queensland’s Warrego, Maranoa and Darling Downs districts for more than 50 years. Snr began surveying in 1864, while Jnr later continued his work as a draftsman until his death in 1921.

Look closely and you can spot some of the different roles within the survey party - Jack Twine with the survey field book and pencil, William Jnr with his hand on the theodolite tripod, an axeman with his axe and the cook in his apron. And William Jnr’s hand on the tripod wasn’t by chance – strictly, only the surveyor was allowed to touch the theodolite!

📷 William Robert Twine Jnr and members of his survey party, circa 1905.

09/09/2026

found 5 old reference trees today!!!
was a good day to be surveying in the bush...

08/09/2026

I am currently working in Central Qld and was pleased to find a few of the old reference trees still standing, some lying over and this one was still alive.... this was cut in 1918, I calculated its position from a datum achieved 5km away and landed on the tree..... the old surveyors knew what they were doing....

07/09/2026

Had some technical difficulties and had to re-occupy some survey control for Auspos reductions.... so I had some time up my sleeve. Its been a few big days tracking down some old reference trees and surveying 40km of unsurveyed road and Abt boundary determinations..... so I took some time to leave a reference tree for the next generation of surveyors to look for and connect to.... might leave a couple more as they make finding corners in the middle of the bush when there is no occupatiob that much easier....
The tree is sitting inside an old 10chain wide road reserve facing the corner.... hence the "R" under the broad arrow..... if the tree was sitting on the Lot rather than road reserve I would have carved the lot number.... but it is Lot 1788.... too many numbers to carve so I chose a tree in the road corrodor.... 😁😁

02/04/2026

I have completing a large survey west of Charters Towers this week.... after searching for many old reference trees and survey posts the last few days I finally found a reliable mark to close my survey off...
Below is a picture of a stump from a reference tree cut in 1909... the tree is long felled and burnt, however the stump remained.... I popped off the face of the stump to reveal the scar on the inside left after the tree had re-grown around and into the low bench cut into the tree for the "dicky hole". Unbelievable agreement with original plan from 1909... from a datum on the road frontage 5km away I only missed the bench in the tree by approximately 0.4m.... I could then calculate witth certainty for other marks and found an OSP hole/remains.... a pretty satisfying job. Tree stump and OSP hole/remains in pics below

19/10/2025

19/10/2025

So... I was out at Charlotte Plains recently with Trekabout helping out on a photo tour... During a chat with Robyn Russell, she told me about a survey reference tree she knew up near the bore... she kindly met me up there the next afternoon and took me straight to it.... Such a lot of history at Charlotte Plains, Robyn has some great stories, she is an amazing lady.

13/08/2025

This a classic, similar to a comment from Dave, one of my surveyors the other day... when we had a client question our fee's, his comment to me... " tell them it's $50 to hit the peg in... and $3000 to know where!!" 🤣🤣

Basic

13/08/2025

A couple of fence posts clearly identified as marking the boundary corner. The broad arrow indicates the post is now property of the crown, the R indicates it is marking the road boundary... This farmer at Pilton obviously knows they are boundary marks as the rest of the fence is long gone!!

13/08/2025

(1910)... Ironbark, now dead but still very stable. Broad arrow and lot number very clear. Farmer has fenced the line through the tree however the tree is actually a few meters off line inside Lot213.