Surveying and Planning through Electronic Applications and Referrals

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User Guides

The User Guides describe actions that may be completed by each SPEAR user type. These documents (in PDF format) are designed to support SPEAR users in their everyday interaction with the system.

For more information on setting up plan templates for use in SPEAR, see How do I set up my plan templates?

User Guide Description Download

User Guide 1

Creating an application in SPEAR


Purpose: To provide information on how to prepare a subdivision or other survey based application in SPEAR.

Primary Audience:
Applicant Contacts

For information: Responsible Authorities and referral authorities
Download
DOCX Size: 890KB

User Guide 1A

Lodging Party Created Applications


Purpose: To provide information on how a lodging party can create applications in SPEAR.

Primary Audience:
Lodging parties


For information: Land Use Victoria
Download
DOCX Size: 918KB

User Guide 2

Receiving a New Application


Purpose: To provide assistance to Responsible Authority users of SPEAR about the steps to process their applications in SPEAR.

Primary Audience:
Responsible Authorities

For information: Applicant Contacts and referral authorities
Download
DOCX Size: 121KB

User Guide 3

Referrals


Purpose: To assist Responsible Authorities in referring an application to a referral authority. This includes statutory referral authorities and may also include internal referral authorities within a Responsible Authority, such as a council engineering department.

Primary Audience:
Responsible Authorities

For information: Referral authorities and Applicant Contacts
Download
DOCX Size: 251KB

User Guide 4

Advertising an Application


Purpose: To assist Responsible Authorities with advertising an application in SPEAR.

Primary Audience:
Responsible Authorities, referral authorities and Applicant Contacts

For information: Applicants and the public
Download
DOCX Size: 134KB

User Guide 5

Request for Further Information (RFI)


Purpose: To provide assistance to Responsible Authorities, Applicant Contacts and referral authorities about how to request, respond and assess requests for further information.

Primary Audience:
Responsible Authorities, referral authorities and Applicant Contacts

For information: N/A
Download
DOCX Size: 202KB

User Guide 6

Managing Planning Permits in SPEAR


Purpose: To provide assistance to Responsible Authority users about how to issue and manage planning permit decisions in SPEAR.

Primary Audience:
Responsible Authorities

For information: Applicant Contacts and Referral Authorities
Download
DOCX Size: 504KB

User Guide 7

Application to Amend a Planning Permit


Purpose: To provide assistance to Applicant Contacts and Responsible Authorities about amending a planning permit that has been issued in SPEAR.

Primary Audience:
Applicants and Responsible Authorities

For information: N/A
Download
DOCX Size: 442KB

User Guide 8

Certifying a Plan and Issuing a SOC


Purpose: To assist Responsible Authorities and Applicant Contacts on how plans are certified and re-certified and the issuing of Statements of Compliance (SOC) and refusals in SPEAR.

Primary Audience:
Responsible Authorities and Applicant Contacts

For information: N/A
Download
DOCX Size: 583KB

User Guide 9

Releasing for lodgment at Land Use Victoria


Purpose: To provide guidance to Applicant Contacts and lodging parties about the SPEAR process of nominating a lodging party and a lodging method and how to release an application to the lodging party for the purpose of lodgment at Land Use Victoria. The lodging party is typically a solicitor or conveyancer acting for the applicant.

Primary Audience:
Applicant Contacts and Lodging Parties

For information: N/A
Download
DOCX Size: 325KB

User Guide 10

Adding additional Survey Documents


Purpose: to provide guidance to Applicant Contacts about providing supporting survey documents, such as abstract of field records, surveyors report, supplementary abstract of field records, supplementary surveyors report and compiled plan sheets through SPEAR.

Primary Audience:
Applicant Contacts

For information: N/A
Download
DOCX Size: 99KB

User Guide 11

Lodging an application at Land Use Victoria


Purpose: To provide information on how to electronically lodge a SPEAR application. This includes creation of the application lodgment forms, provision of supporting documentation, payment of lodgment fees and electronic lodgment at Land Use Victoria.

Primary Audience:
Lodging Parties

For information: Applicant Contacts and Land Use Victoria
Download
DOCX Size: 390KB

User Guide 12

Land Use Victoria Requisitions and Plan Amendments


Purpose: To provide information on how amendments to Subdivision Act and Transfer of Land Act (TLA) documents, such as a certified plan, plan of survey, abstract of field records, surveyors report, Supplementary Abstract of Field Records (SAFR) or compiled plan sheets are handled in SPEAR when Land Use Victoria requests changes after lodgment.

Primary Audience:
Applicant Contacts, Responsible Authorities and Lodging Parties

For information: N/A
Download
DOCX Size: 139KB

User Guide 13

What can the public do in SPEAR?


Purpose: To provide assistance to members of the public and registered SPEAR users about what functions are available to the public in the SPEAR system.

Primary Audience:
All SPEAR users and members of the public including property owners, solicitors, banks, developers and any others interested parties

For information: N/A
Download
DOCX Size: 1.1MB

User Guide 14

Responding to a Referral Request


Purpose: To provide guidance to statutory and non-statutory referral authorities on how to respond to referral requests in SPEAR.

Primary Audience:
Statutory and Non-statutory Referral Authorities

For information: Responsible Authorities
Download
DOCX Size: 585KB

User Guide 15

Lodging a Boundary Plan application


Purpose: To provide information on how to prepare and submit a boundary plan application in SPEAR for electronic lodgment at Land Use Victoria.

Primary Audience:
Applicant Contacts

For information: Land Use Victoria
Download
DOCX Size: 206KB

User Guide 16

Amending a Planning Application


Purpose: To provide advice to users wishing to modify an active SPEAR application.

Primary Audience:
Applicant Contacts and Responsible Authorities

For information: Referral Authorities
Download
DOCX Size: 109KB

User Guide 18

Responsible Authority Hosting


Purpose: To provide advice to Responsible Authorities wishing to submit or host applications in SPEAR on behalf of applicants who have submitted paper applications to a Responsible Authority. Hosting is mainly done to access the benefits of doing referrals in SPEAR

Primary Audience:
Responsible Authorities

For information: Applicants and referral authorities
Download
DOCX Size: 271KB

User Guide 23

Local Administrator


Purpose: To provide information on how to access and use the Local Administrator functions available within SPEAR.

Primary Audience:
Local Administrators

For information: Other SPEAR users
Download
DOCX Size: 298KB

User Guide 27

Referrals Directory - Referral Authority


Purpose: To provide direction for referral authorities to maintain their details in the Referral Directory in SPEAR.

Primary Audience:
Referral authorities

For information: Local Government Authorities and Referral Directory Administrator
Download
DOCX Size: 67KB

User Guide 28

Objection Management


Purpose: To assist Responsible Authorities in the management of objections to planning permits.

Primary Audience:
Responsible Authorities

For information: VCAT and Objectors
Download
DOCX Size: 232KB

User Guide 29

Manage Conditions


Purpose: To provide information to SPEAR users on how and when to use the 'Manage conditions' functionality in SPEAR.

Primary Audience:
Responsible Authority, Applicants, referral authorities

For information: N/A
Download
DOCX Size: 307KB

User Guide 30

Emailing and Saving SPEAR Documents


Purpose: To provide guidance to SPEAR users on how to email or save multiple documents from SPEAR.

Primary Audience:
Applicant Contacts, Responsible Authorities and referral authorities

For information: N/A
Download
DOCX Size: 234KB

User Guide 31

Digital Certificate Organisation Enrolment


Purpose: to provide the first step in the process of acquiring a Digital Signing Certificate for use in SPEAR.

Primary Audience:
Applicants Contacts, Lodging Parties, Digital Signing Users

For information: N/A
Download
DOCX Size: 724KB

User Guide 32

Applying for a Certificate Manager Digital Certificate


Purpose: To provide information on how to apply for a Certificate Manager Digital Certificate

Primary Audience:
Applicants Contacts, Lodging Parties, Digital Signing Users

For information: N/A
Download
DOCX Size: 818KB

User Guide 33A

Installing and backing up your digital certificate


Purpose: To provide information on how to install and backup your digital certificate

Primary Audience:
Applicants Contacts, Digital Signing Users

For information: N/A
Download
DOCX Size: 2.7MB

User Guide 33B

Installing a digital certificate on a USB security token


Purpose: To provide information to lodging parties on how to install a digital certificate on a USB security token.

Primary Audience:
Lodging Parties, Digital Signing Users

For information: N/A
Download
DOCX Size: 2.1MB

User Guide 33C

Importing a digital certificate onto a USB security token


Purpose: To provide information to lodging parties on how to import an existing digital certificate from a computer onto a USB security token.

Primary Audience:
Lodging Parties, Digital Signing Users

For information: N/A
Download
DOCX Size: 691KB

User Guide 34

Testing your digital certificate


Purpose: To assist you in testing your digital certificate for use in SPEAR.

Primary Audience:
Applicants Contacts, Lodging Parties, Digital Signing Users

For information: N/A
Download
DOCX Size: 217KB

User Guide 35

Applying for a Standard digital certificate


Purpose: To provide information on the process in applying for a standard digital certificate.

Primary Audience:
Applicants Contacts, Lodging Parties, Digital Signing Users

For information: N/A
Download
DOCX Size: 401KB

User Guide 36

Importing your digital certificates into the Windows Certificate Store


Purpose: To provide information on how to import your digital certificates into the Windows Certificate Store via the Control Panel.

Primary Audience:
Applicants Contacts, Lodging Parties, Digital Signing Users

For information: N/A
Download
DOCX Size: 697KB

User Guide 37

Certificate Manager guide to approving and renewing Standard digital certificates


Purpose: To provide information for a Certificate Manager to approve or renew digital certificates.

Primary Audience:
Applicants Contacts, Lodging Parties, Digital Signing Users

For information: N/A
Download
DOCX Size: 529KB

User Guide 39

Guest Access to SPEAR Applications


Purpose: To provide guidance to Applicant Contacts on how to grant and remove guest access to SPEAR applications.

Primary Audience:
Applicant Contacts

For information: All SPEAR users and members of the public such as property owners, land developers and any other interested third parties.
Download
DOCX Size: 372KB

User Guide 40

Practice Note 2


Purpose: To provide assistance to Responsible Authority users about how to add all the documentation and responses required processing the Practice Note 2 within SPEAR.

Primary Audience:
Responsible Authorities

For information: VCAT
Download
DOCX Size: 212KB

User Guide 41

Planning Permit Application Fees


Purpose: To provide assistance to applicants and Responsible Authorities about the payment of planning permit application fees.

Primary Audience:
Applicant Contacts

For information: Responsible Authorities and referral authorities
Download
DOCX Size: 295KB

User Guide 42

User Authentication Levels and Document Authentication in SPEAR


Purpose: To outline the differences between the SPEAR authentication levels (user specific), and the way documents are authenticated/approved in SPEAR.

Primary Audience:
All SPEAR Users

For information: N/A
Download
DOCX Size: 142KB

User Guide 43

Key SPEAR Screens


Purpose: To explain the key SPEAR screens or tabs that a user has access to in SPEAR when viewing an application.

Primary Audience:
All SPEAR users

For information: N/A
Download
DOCX Size: 1.2MB

User Guide 44

Perform Internal Request


Purpose: To explain the key SPEAR screens or tabs that a user has access to in SPEAR when viewing an application.

Primary Audience:
All SPEAR users

For information: N/A
Download
DOCX Size: 202KB

User Guide 45

Street Addressing


Purpose: To provide assistance to Responsible Authorities on how to prepare and submit street address allocations for certification applications in SPEAR.

Primary Audience:
Responsible Authorities

For information: Applicant Contacts
Download
DOCX Size: 167KB

User Guide 46

Objections


Purpose: To provide assistance to Responsible Authorities, referral authorities and Applicant Contacts about the objection process for a SPEAR application and how objections are managed in SPEAR.

Primary Audience:
Responsible Authorities, Referral Authorities and Applicant Contacts

For information: N/A
Download
DOCX Size: 68KB

User Guide 53

Using LASSI-SPEAR


Purpose: To provide information on how to use the LASSI-SPEAR application.

Primary Audience:
Applicant Contacts, Land Use Victoria and the Public

For information: N/A
Download
DOCX Size: 1.1MB

User Guide 54

SPEAR Reporting


Purpose: To provide information on how to access and use the SPEAR Reporting functions available within SPEAR, including running reports and extracting data to Microsoft Office applications such as Excel or PowerPoint.

Primary Audience:
Local Administrators

For information: Other SPEAR users
Download
DOCX Size: 274KB

User Guide 55

Submissions to the Office of Surveyor-General Victoria


Purpose: To assist Applicant Contacts and the Surveyor-General Victoria (SGV) to submit and assess applications to the SGV in SPEAR

Primary Audience:
Applicant Contacts & Surveyor-General Victoria

For information: N/A
Download
DOCX Size: 377KB

User Guide 56

Adding Owners Corporation schedule details


Purpose: To help Applicant Contacts about supplying Owners Corporation (OC) schedules in SPEAR

Primary Audience:
Applicant Contacts

For information: N/A
Download
DOCX Size: 380KB

User Guide 57

ePlan Visualisation Enhancement Tool


Purpose: To provide information on how to use the ePlan Visualisation Enhancement Tool (VET) to improve the presentation of the Plan PDF generated by SPEAR from the ePlan LandXML file

Primary Audience:
Applicant Contacts

For information: Other SPEAR users
Download
DOCX Size: 14MB