Established by the Western Australian Government in 1981, WALIS is responsible for coordinating across-government access and delivery of the geographic information held by WA Government agencies. WALIS achieves this through various committees and the WALIS Office.

The idea for the WA Land Information System (WALIS) began in the late seventies although WALIS was not established until 1981. Since that time there have been many people involved in WALIS, some restructures and many different plans and strategies.

Central to WALIS management was the Land Information System Advisory Committee, established as a forum to represent the interests of the public and private sector. The main WALIS group was the Land Information System Support Centre (LISSC), comprised of technology and skilled personnel.

By 1986 the rapid qrowth of GIS forced a re-evaluation of the strategies of WALIS. WALIS began to emphasise the establishment of on-line access to data.

In 1987 the WALIS committee structure was rearranged to a three-tier structure. This structure comprises of The WALIS Executive Policy Committee (EPC), which was retained from the inception of WALIS, WALIS Council and the WALIS Secretariat.

In October 1988 the EPC formed a WALIS Marketing Taskforce to develop a policy for the marketing of state government information. Coopers & Lybrand WD Scott (C & LWDS) were contracted to research market value of land information in WA. ^[1]

In June 1990, cabinet approved a number of recommendations including the elevation of WALIS to full program status within DOLA. A second recommendation was to make the Minister for Lands the accountable minister. This is how WALIS still stands today.

In November 1994 the WALIS Advisory Committee (WAC) met for the first time. This committee was formed to provide strategic advice to the WALIS Executive Policy Committee on land information management from a community perspective. ^[2] The WALIS Advisory Committee was disbanded by the Minister for Lands in 2009.

In the mid-seventies there were problems with the management of land information in Western Australia. Tenure and cadastral information in particular was increasing rapidly and suffering from uncommonly arduous retrieval processes. There was a lack of inter-departmental communication, which encouraged duplication.

Aside from improving efficiency, there were said to be financial benefits in improving the management of land information. Foremost amongst those was the resolution of land tax anomalies. It was estimated in 1982 that if all land tax records were checked in a LIS, a revenue gain of between $1.4 - 4.6 million per year would result.

In 2004, ACIL Tasman Pty Ltd were commissioned to report on the value of WALIS. The report found that:

These two quantitative analyses yielded estimates of the value contributed by WALIS of $14 and $15 million a year, respectively, to the WA economy. WALIS also adds value because it enables a more efficient collection and production of spatial data. This is adjudged to have an annual value of at least one million dollars a year.

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WALIS International Forum was established in 1984 and has developed into one of the largest geographic information events in Australia. It draws local, national and international delegates who are involved in the use of spatial information from a variety of sectors and professions including state and local government, the private sector, academia and the community. Held every 18 months, the Forum provides an opportunity to address issues related to all aspects of location-based information.

The Forum is open to everyone, however, is targeted to people working with geographic information or those who would like to find out how they can harness geographic information to improve their business. It aims to provide opportunities for people to learn, network, identify potential solutions and to share and debate strategies for the future. Participants can also discover how the community can benefit from the latest spatial information tools.

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The seventh International Symposium on Digital Earth conference will be held in Perth from 23-25 August, 2011 at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre. The symposium will be held in conjunction with WALIS International Forum 2011, and the State Natural Resources Management conference.

The State Land Information Capture Program is a program run by WALIS to coordinate the capture of spatial information across government. Western Australia state and local government agencies, as well as private industry and education and industry institutes can request information through the program in order to save money using collective buying power.

Landgate(The Western Australian Land Information Authority), on behalf of the WALIS community, led the development of a groundbreaking WALIS concept that allows multiple government agencies to share spatial information - The Shared Land Information Platform, otherwise known as SLIP. The SLIP Enabling Framework ( SLIP Enabler) is the infrastructure that allows users to access the government's significant land and geographic information resources.

WALIS has a variety of Partnerships in local, state and federal government, industry and educational institutes and the private sector.

WALIS Members

• Department of Planning
• Department of Transport
• Department of Agriculture and Food
• Department of Environment and Conservation
• Department of Water
• Department of Fisheries
• Department of Health
• Department of Indigenous Affairs
• Department of Mines and Petroleum
• Main Roads Western Australia
• Department of Treasury and Finance
• Landgate
• WA Electoral Commission
• Western Australian Local Government Association
• Western Australian Museum
• Tourism Western Australia
• Department of Sport and Recreation
• Department of Housing
• South West Development Commission
  

WALIS Associate Members

• Sinclair Knight Merz
• SSSI WA region
• Australia Post
• Water Corporation
• National Native Title Tribunal
• Fugro Spatial Solutions Pty/Ltd
• NGIS
• Forest Products Commission
• Australian Bureau of Statistics
• ESRI Australia
• Avon Catchment Council
• Northern Agricultural Catchments Council
• Workforce Solutions
• ERDAS Pty Ltd
• Western Power
  

Other States
Queensland Spatial Information Council

• "WALIS". WALIS. Retrieved 2009-09-04.
• Burke, A., Piesse, R. 2000. A History of WALIS to 2000. Landgate, Perth.
• ACIL Tasman Pty Ltd, 2004. The Value of WALIS. ACIL Tasman Pty Ltd, Perth.

• www.walis.wa.gov.au
• www.landgate.wa.gov.au

Category:Government departments of Western Australia