Hydrographer (ANZSCO 311415)
On the Regional Occupation List
From the official Home Affairs skilled occupation lists, as at 2026-08-12. Lists change at each government update — always confirm on the official page before acting.
Which lists is Hydrographer on?
ROL — Regional Occupation List. Occupations on the ROL are limited to the regional provisional visas — mainly the Skilled Work Regional 491 and Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional 494.
Visas this occupation can access
Being on a list makes the occupation nominatable for these visas — each visa still has its own requirements (points, age, English, a positive skills assessment, and for sponsored visas a willing employer or state).
- Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional visa (subclass 494) — Provisional, regional employer sponsored · all occupations for the 494
Skills assessment
A positive skills assessment for Hydrographer comes from:
- Vocational Education and Training Assessment Services (VETASSESS) (official site) · our guide to the VETASSESS process
What the assessment actually involves
VETASSESS assesses Hydrographer as a Group C occupation within the Science Technicians cluster, covering hydrographic survey and water-body mapping technical work. This code sits on the Regional Occupation List only, reaching the 494 regional-provisional visa alone, and its own exclusion is confirmed from the other direction on Life Science Technician's own page, which names Hydrographer among the codes it does not cover.
Where these applications come unstuck
This code's narrow visa reach is easy to miss because "Hydrographer" sounds like a specialised, high-skill field survey role, and the title alone gives no signal that it carries no employer-sponsorship or points-tested route at all. Anyone whose actual work spans hydrographic survey and broader earth-science testing should check whether Earth Science Technician — which reaches all six visas in this family — better fits their actual duties before defaulting to this title.
An honest read on this pathway
For a regional-provisional visa plan specifically tied to hydrographic survey work, the pathway is open on the same narrow terms as School Laboratory Technician. It is not a route to employer sponsorship under any circumstance, and this dossier found no labour-agreement lane specific to hydrographic survey work in the family's industry-connection data, so the sponsorship gap is not offset by a DAMA or industry-agreement alternative either.
VETASSESS assesses qualifications and employment separately. Both need documentation that agrees with itself. The Employment History Builder and Document Vault organise each trail before you lodge.
Talk it through with a registered agent
Whether nominating Hydrographer is your best route depends on your points, experience evidence and timing — exactly what a MARA-registered agent works through in an initial consultation. Describe your situation once through Migratio and compare real consultation quotes from registered agents, free.
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Related occupations
- Chemistry Technician (311411)
- Earth Science Technician (311412)
- Life Science Technician (311413)
- School Laboratory Technician (311414)
- Science Technicians nec (311499)
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