The Jack de Lange Scholarship Launch
 

Surveyors Trust Major Gift  Establishes the Jack de Lange Surveying Scholarship

The Jack de Lange Surveying Scholarship was launched at a special event on 25th November. Chair of the Trust, Anthony Schmidt, said ‘It is a fitting recognition of Jack’s monumental contribution to the profession and industry for his leadership role in achieving Intellectual Property rights for surveyors. It exemplifies the many benefits flowing to industry from pooled copyright royalties.’

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The Scholarship is the outcome of landmark collaboration between The Surveyors Trust, the ISAQ Bicentennial Education Foundation, and the University of Southern Queensland. Phillip Pozzi, Chair of the Foundation, said ‘The Trust’s major gift is an example of what can be achieved to offer life-changing opportunities to students who otherwise might face impossible barriers to further education. The potential benefits to the profession and industry of such gifts are immense.’

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The Scholarship

The UniSQ Jack de Lange Surveying Scholarship will support successful applicants with $6,000 per year to complete their Bachelor Degree in Surveying. UniSQ has advertised the scholarship for 2026 and the first recipient will begin their studies in February with others to commence in subsequent years. ​​

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Jack's role in IP recognition

Jack de Lange, the CEO of the former SIBA, with the SIBA Board of Directors, faced down big challenges as they fought their way through the complexities of copyright laws to convince the Copyright Authority that indeed, surveyors did deserve to own copyright over their plans.

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The matter was finally settled in the High Court of Australia, a resounding outcome that had taken nearly 12 years of blood sweat and tears to accomplish. But the process took longer again as the Copyright Tribunal ruled on the amount of royalties that should be awarded.

Alongside this fight, Jack was setting in place a structure that would bring about lasting change for the profession, the establishment of the Australian Copyright Trust, the body that would aggregate the collected royalties and achieve large outcomes for the industry and the members who supported (and still support it).

 

The Surveyors Trust and the ISAQ  Bicentennial Education Foundation look forward to future collaboration to the advancement of surveying knowledge, research and development in Australia.