Portland Airport is set to become part of a project that will see everyone from pilots, boaties, farmers and anyone else relying on Global Positioning Services throughout Australia get location information accurate to the length of a credit card.

Glenelg Shire Councillors have approved the lease of a small piece of land at the airport to Geoscience Australia (GA), the Commonwealth agency responsible for implementing the SouthPAN initiative.

SouthPAN, a joint initiative of the Australian and New Zealand Governments, aims to provide a Satellite-Based Augmentation System for the two countries.

The system will be made up of reference stations, telecommunications infrastructure, computing centres, signal generators and satellites and will be the first of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.

Portland Airport was identified as a suitable site for a reference station, which will be used to support satellite navigation.

It is expected SouthPAN will improve positioning from GPS services from a present accuracy of 5-10 metres to as little as 10cm, or about the length of a credit card.

A study for the project identified projects that would benefit across 10 industry sectors, including agriculture, aviation, construction, consumer, resources, road, rail, maritime, mining and utilities.

GA requires access to sites for the length of the project, initially 20 years.

Councillors agreed to lease the site for 10 years, with an option to extend that for a further 10 years.

GA will be responsible for the installation and maintenance of the relevant infrastructure as well as power used at the site.