Replica of 1958 border survey post adjacent to Surveyor Generals Corner

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Student: TBA

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In 1958 the government commissioned a survey of a vast area of the central eastern desert area of WA to locate topographic features, map roads and to mark the border junction with the Northern Territory and South Australia. It included an area encompassing Lake Macdonald, Giles, Rawlinson Range, Warburton Range and the Blackstone Range and was to fill in a gap on the map that previously had not been thoroughly explored.
The highlight of the trip was the placement of a border post with the names of all the expedition team members at the border junction.

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Due to the equipment limitations of that time, it was always acknowledged that at some point in the future a more accurate positioning of the border junction would be required. The location of this border intersection had previously been proclaimed by the government as Latitude 26 degrees South and Longitude 129 degrees East. 

Some years later surveys in the Kimberley and south near Eucla saw the building of substantial monuments on the 129 degree Longitude meridian. These were legislated to be forever the physical location of the WA border. What was missing was the precise position of the WA/NT/SA junction.

 

Again, due to the limitations of the surveyors’ equipment and despite the thoroughness of surveyors, the Kimberley and the Eucla (Deakin) monuments were not perfectly aligned. So, when the time came to place the WA/NT/SA intersection it was decided to introduce a step in the border to account for the inaccuracies of the initial surveys. 

In 1968 a Northern Territory survey team arrived at the site and conducted surveys that enabled the accurate placement of the two pillars that are now known as Surveyor Generals Corner. With this completed it was decided to remove the original 1958 post to avoid any confusion. That post is now archived in the WA Museum.

One of the original members of the WA survey team, Mr Ed McKinnon, and who cut, shaped and engraved the names on the post has suggested that a replica post be placed to recognize the efforts of the original team and expand the history of Surveyor Generals Corner. A modest information board would likely be erected adjacent to the post to explain the significance of the replica and its relationship to the Surveyor General Corner pillars.

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The original site is located about 255metres South of the western pillar in open country and would be accessed from the main track about 230metres west of the west pillar.