Centroid 14 - A new place to visit

Well here I am on a wet Gold Coast Sunday morning deciding that it is time to put this information up onto the web site. A new place for those intrepid travelers to go and visit.

In 1983 a mate of mine in Perth (surveyor by trade) decided to calculate the most remote place in Australia. He used the GPO's in all capitals as the reference point and then started working on how far you could get (as the crow flies) from a capital city but still be on the mainland.

So 14 strings of calculations later, he had established the location and named it "Centroid 14". He then set out and drove to the site built a marker, left a message in a milk tin and returned back to Perth.

In late 2005 he started talking about going back to the site to see if he could find any evidence of his trip of 1983. So me being as silly as I am decided that I would join him. In July 2006 he and his daughter drove from Perth to Uluru and the wife and I drove from Sydney (my place of residence at the time) and met him at the rock. We then drove back over the WA border on the GCR almost back to Giles. The old Gun Barrel highway turns south and we head down this track for a short distance then off into the scrub to locate the actual site. We have GPS navigation now days but the original site was determined by compass and a speedo reading. The actual site according to the GPS is but a couple of hundred meters from what we think is the original site that he marked. We then established the location with a steel pole concreted into the ground with the appropriate plaque and compass points attached.

So why all of this information you ask. For those of you who like to go to places just because they exist then this is one to add to your books.Centroid 14 is located at Co-ordinates are Lat 25 deg 17 min 50 sec and long 128 deg 31 min 58 sec. This will put you on a spot that is 1441.7 kilometers from Perth, Darwin and Adelaide.

For those of you who make a visit to the site. Take a picture of the marker (you may have to stand the post up again if the camels have had their way with it as a scratching post) with you in the picture, take a copy of the text stamped into the post, send to me and I will forward to the mate in Perth who will send you an official "Member of Centroid 14" certificate.

For those of you who would like some more detail, drop me an email and I will be more than happy to have a chat about the trip and what is involved.