Rock art condition monitoring software
Rock art monitoring tracks the physical condition of a panel over time — water flow across the surface, salt efflorescence, mud wasp nests, dust from tracks, graffiti, animal rubbing — so the custodians and land managers can decide what, if anything, to do. It is carried out with, and at the direction of, the Traditional Owners for the site, who decide what is recorded and who sees the report. SurveyThanks records condition against fixed photo points and panel IDs, and leaves cultural content out of the form unless the custodians ask for it.
Built for land councils running teams of roughly 3–50 inspectors.
Sample Rock art condition report
An illustrative excerpt. The site, readings and findings are fictional; the layout is yours to set.
Rock art condition report
Panel condition — Shelter 2 (fictional site)
- Visit
- Dry season round, 2026
- Attending
- Ranger team with site custodians
- Access
- Restricted report — custodian approval required
| Panel | Observation | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| Panel A | No new deposits; drip line unchanged | Trend: Stable |
| Panel B | Three new mud wasp nests along lower edge | Trend: Worse |
| Panel C | Dust on lower 40 cm, consistent with vehicle track | Trend: Watch |
| Photo point PP2 | Marker missing; position re-established by GPS | Trend: Repair |
Fields captured on site
Your firm builds the form in-app, so these are a starting point rather than a fixed schema. Every field is captured on the device, with or without signal, and lands in the rock art condition report where your template puts it.
Per panel
- Panel ID
- Water flow or drip line
- Salts and mineral deposits
- Insect nests
- Dust, soot or rubbing
- Graffiti or vandalism
- Trend since last visit
Photo points
- Photo point ID
- Marker condition
- Bearing and focal length
- Photographs
Visit
- People attending
- Weather and season
- Access track condition
- Who may receive the report
Standards the report works to
- Burra Charter (2013)The Australia ICOMOS Charter for Places of Cultural Significance
- Supports minimal intervention and recognises that significance is defined by the people for whom the place matters.
Load the standards you hold into your reference library and the drafted prose is written against them rather than against a general model.
How the rock art condition report gets built
Capture it once, offline
Your firm builds the rock art condition monitoring form in-app — 25 field types, nesting repeatable groups, compound AND/OR visibility rules, reusable modules and calculated fields. Field capture works with no signal: jobs, forms, photos, notes and audio all queue in an idempotent outbox that only clears once the server confirms receipt.
Link it to your fabric elements and spaces
Enter fabric elements and spaces once, as a register. Every one of your condition observations across inspection rounds then points at a stored row rather than a name somebody typed — and the links survive a disconnected device.
Render your own template
The rock art condition report renders into the Word template you already use — your letterhead, your section order, your clause library — with conditionals, loops over repeats, composable sub-templates and photo grids.
Reviewed before it leaves
You write the review framework: a checklist of what a rock art condition report must contain, plus the prose standards you would mark a junior against. Link it to a report template and it runs every time that template renders. Each finding comes back graded info, minor or major, quoting the sentence at fault, and a person accepts or dismisses every one.
Because the structured submission behind the report is held too, the review is a comparison rather than a proofread: The narrative says the verandah is stable; the condition record grades it poor and deteriorating.
Checks a heritage framework usually carries
- Every element in the schedule carries a condition grade and a photograph
- Change since the last inspection is stated element by element
- Recommendations are tied back to Burra Charter principles
- The significance assessment is consistent with the conservation management plan
Questions
- Who controls access to the reports?
- Report links are password-protected, and form and workspace access are set per user, so a monitoring programme can limit who opens the results. Decisions about what is recorded and shared rest with the custodians.
- Does the form record cultural information about the art?
- Only what you put on it. The form is authored by your team, and most programmes record physical condition only — panel IDs, deposits, damage, photo points — with cultural knowledge kept out of the system.
- Will it work at a remote shelter?
- Download the round’s jobs, forms and map tiles in town; condition entries, photos and audio notes are kept on the device until a connection is available.
What this is not
Worth knowing before you book a demo, so neither of us wastes the half hour.
- Not field-service dispatch. No timesheets, no parts, no inventory. Scheduling exists to get an inspector to a site.
- No signature capture. If your deliverable has to carry a signed sign-off on the artefact itself, this is not the tool yet.
- Field capture is what works offline — jobs, forms, photos, notes and audio. Reports, chat, scheduling and the inbox need a connection.
- No client portal. Reports go out as a file or a password-protected link.
Other heritage work we cover
- Archaeological site monitoringSite monitoring report
- Ghost sign documentationSign documentation report
- Heritage building condition surveysConservation condition report
- Historic cemetery surveysGrave condition survey
- Indigenous heritage surveysCultural heritage report
- Museum object condition reportsObject condition report
- Shipwreck site inspectionsWreck site report
- Statue and monument auditsMonument condition register
Other disciplines
Rebuild your rock art condition report in SurveyThanks
Bring the Word template you already send clients. If you are coming off another field-forms tool, a filled report can be uploaded, read field by field, and re-rendered into your template.