Survey Staff on formation headquarters: General Headquarters South-West Pacific Area Advanced Land Headquarters – Melbourne, Brisbane, Hollandia and Morotai Headquarters First Australian Army – New Guinea Headquarters I Australian Corps – Middle East, Morotai Headquarters II Australian Corps – New Guinea Headquarters New Guinea Force Headquarters Northern Territory Force Headquarters of Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania Lines of Communication areas Headquarters Kanga Force – New Guinea Headquarters Merauke Force – Dutch New Guinea At the end of the Second World War, which by the nature of the total war demanded the best collective capability that the nation could assemble, the Australian Survey Corps was the best organised, best manned and best equipped geodetic and topographic survey and mapping organisation in Australia. The Director of Survey expected that the organisation would play a major role in the future survey and mapping of Australia. Post Second World War Defence survey and mapping programmes (not including Defence international cooperation) After the Second World War the Corps reverted to its peace time role of the military survey of Australia retaining a capability in the Permanent Force Interim Army in 1946, and the Australian Regular Army from 1947 with a desired Corps strength of 460 all ranks, although a strength of 400 was not reached until the early 1960s. By 1950 the all ranks numbers were down to 210 as civilian employment opportunities significantly improved. The Australian Survey Corps structure and size was both the force-in-being and the base for expansion in war. In the early post-war years the Corps continued mainly with the 'one-mile' map military survey programme and provided Defence assistance to nation building projects for water conservation and settlement in the Burdekin River basin in Queensland (194x–1949), investigative surveys for the Snowy River Diversion Scheme (1946–1949) in New South Wales and Victoria, surveys for water flows between the Murrumbidgee and Murray Rivers near Urana, New South Wales (1946), production of maps for the 1947 Australian Census and survey and mapping projects for the Woomera Rocket Range (1946–1953) in South Australia and Western Australia and the atomic test range at Maralinga in South Australia. Corps units were established in each of the regional military districts, except Tasmania and Northern Territory, and a survey school was established in Victoria. In 1956 Australia adopted decimal/metric scales for mapping, largely for military interoperability with major allies and the global trend. After the 'one-mile' military maps