[5][6] The council's first meeting held discussions between the respective state authorities about the need to have a unified national scheme for surveying and mapping of Australia.

[6] To assist mining companies with the search for oil during the 1960s, the Federal Government made additional funds available to the Director of National Mapping to employ private contract surveyors to speed up the surveying effort.

Since the inception of the Australian Height Datum in 1971, numerous deficiencies, distortions, offsets and other errors have been identified and examined using newer technologies.

Due to Australia's desperate need for a surveying vertical control and accurate topographic mapping for mining exploration during the 1970s, the Australian Height Datum was constructed using a lower standard of spirit-levelling equipment and techniques to ensure completion in the shortest possible period of time.

[10] The north–south slope is primarily because the Australian Height Datum was taken as the fixed mean sea level of 30 tide gauges around Australia over a 2-year period, ignoring the natural variations in sea-surface topography.

[3] The National Mapping Council of Australia chose to use this ‘mean sea level’ approach to minimise the use of negative heights, that are quite problematic for surveyors and engineers, near coastal areas where most of the population resides.

[10] Spatial variation of sea level change, freshwater outflow in harbour areas where tide gauges are positioned, and an amalgamation of ocean dynamics have all contributed to the formation of a distinct 1.5m North-South slope within the Australian Height Datum.

[15] Moreover, the utilising gravimetric quasigeoid models to “practically” eliminate the impact of the ocean's time-mean dynamic topography does not minimise the extent of these regional distortions.

[13][15] For these reasons, the regional distortions throughout Western Australia are attributed to random errors “present in the spirit-levelling observations” during the creation of the Australian Height Datum.