From the Museum of Lands, Mapping and Surveying in Brisbane, Queensland.
Perches To Square Metres Calculator
In Australia, there are approximately 25.2925266 m2 to 1 perch.
Use our free calculator below to easily convert any number of perches into square metres.
What is a perch?
A unit of measurement which originates from surveying. Originally surveyors used a metal chain to measure land called a gunter’s chain.
Each chain would contain 100 links measuring 201mm or 7.91 inches each.
If you look at older survey plans, you will often see they are measured in chains and/or links.
Real estate agents back in the 60s and 70s would have had a passing knowledge about links and chains.
Now, getting to perches…
25 links make up a rod, and a rod was a way to divide an acre into four parts.
To divide a rod, one could use perches.
40 perches make up a rod, and 160 perches make up an acre.
The Undue Subdivision of Land Prevention Act 1885 enforced all future lots were to be at least 16 perches or 404.68 square meters in Queensland.
The predominant use of perches and this Act is the reason why there are so many 405 sq m. (16 perches) and 810 sq m. (32 perches) blocks of land in Brisbane.
The enforcement of this Act ended up making the Brisbane suburbs greener, more attractive and much less overcrowded than what you might find in other cities around Australia.
The use of perches has steadily decreased over time, but land size is still sometimes conveyed in perches, especially for older homes and suburbs in Queensland.