| 8 Field Survey Squadron | |
|---|---|
 Headquarters 8 Fd Svy Sqn at Moem Barracks, Cape Moem, Wewak | |
| Active | 1 December 1971 – 1 December 1995 |
| Country | Australia |
| Branch | Australian Army |
| Type | Unit |
| Role | Military survey |
| Motto(s) | Videre Parare Est (Latin: "To See is to Prepare")[Note 1] |
| Anniversaries | Unit birthday 1st December |
| Engagements | 8 Field Survey Squadron was not awarded Battle honours. |
| Insignia | |
| 8 Fd Svy Sqn Unit colour patch |  |
| Unit plaque |  |
8 Field Survey Squadron (8 Fd Svy Sqn) was a unit of the Australian Army and the Royal Australian Survey Corps (RA Svy), being raised in December 1971 at Popondetta, Territory of Papua New Guinea and disbanded twenty-four years later on 1 December 1995 in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (PNG). The squadron's initial role was to establish geodetic survey control, establish topographic survey control for mapping, compile and field complete preliminary topographic maps, and conduct other surveys and mapping including acquiring air photography. In 1980 the role changed to provide support and advice to the PNG Defence Force and PNG National Mapping Bureau on all aspects of survey and mapping and to provide liaison support for Australian based survey units on operations in the country.[2]
The unit was based at Popondetta in the Northern District (January 1972 – June 1975), Wewak in the Sepik District (June 1975 – June 1980) and the capital Port Moresby (June 1980 – December 1995). Although based in these towns, elements of the unit operated across the entire country from the western border with Indonesia to Bougainville in the east. In the decade prior to 1972 most of the field survey effort was concentrated on the main island having been conducted by Australian based units deployed there for a few months in most years. Initially the focus of 8 Fd Svy Sqn work was in the islands to the east. The squadron served continuously in PNG from it being a Territory of Australia, through self government in December 1973, to Independence on 16 September 1975 and then for another 20 years. The unit remained a part of the Australian Army (not part of the Papua New Guinea Defence Force) and after Independence was under the auspices of Australia's Defence Cooperation Program.
Unit accommodation at Popondetta in the Northern District was in the recently vacated District Engineers Office (Royal Australian Engineers) which had moved to Mendi in the Southern Highlands. When the unit moved to Wewak in July 1975 it was accommodated in Moem Barracks on Cape Moem, the home of the 2nd Battalion, Pacific Islands Regiment. With the 1:100,000 mapping programme complete in 1980, the unit relocated to Port Moresby.
Like any military unit there were often miscellaneous tasks to be done. Popondetta is located between Kokoda and the Gona-Sanananda-Buna Second World War battlefield sites and large airbase complexes around Dobodura. The unit was often called upon to assist with Explosive Ordnance Demolition tasks in those areas. Mount Lamington, a volcano which exploded in 1951 killing more than 3000 people up to 14km away, is 20km south-west of Popondetta. One of the daily duties of the squadron was to observe the vertical angle, by theodolite, to the mountaintop to compute any apparent change in height. Results were reported to the Rabaul Vulcanology Observatory.[3]
- ^ Fitzgerald, Lawrence, Brigadier (Retd) RA Svy, 1980, Lebanon to Labuan, ISBN 0959497900
- ^ Laing, A.W. Colonel (Retd) RA Svy, The End of an Era – A short history of the Royal Australian Survey Corps' involvement in mapping, charting and geodesy in Papua New Guinea in the period 1942–1995 unpublished 1995
- ^ Jensen,P.A.,Personal notes having served with 1 Fd Svy Sqn in TPNG 1970, with 4 Fd Svy Sqn in TPNG 1972 and 8 Fd Svy Sqn in PNG 1974–75
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