Terrestrial photogrammetric survey of Arltunga Historic Reserve, Northern Territory

The Conservation Commission of the Northern Territory has recently funded a study for conservation and presentation of historic sites at Arltunga Historic Reserve, Northern Territory. Support for this project has come from the National Estate Programme. The study concentrated upon investigative and recording work in the field as a preliminary to a capital works programme. Previous documentation work at Arltunga was carried out by conventional surveying techniques. While they may have been adequate in establishing a useful initial record of the various sites within the reserve, the resultant documentation was not precise and detailed enough to serve as a basis for their conservation. The vast number of building remains, the irregularity of their construction and their fragile nature, together with the higher recording accuracy requirements, called for the employment of a systematic and non-contact measuring method. Consequently a substantial terrestrial photogrammetric survey was carried out as a part of the study. In the following a detailed description of the photogrammetric scheme is given.