2008-06-14 -37 145

Sat 14 Jun 2008 in -37,145: -37.8067463, 145.0388869 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

On a concrete driveway on a suburban street in Kew

Participants

• John
  
• Matt
  

Expedition

Written up in August 2022

I had feared that many of the details of this expedition were lost in the mists of time. The expeditioners, my friend Matt and I, in year 11 at the time, used to use google chat, but no matter how much I dug around in my gmail account, on many different occasions, I couldn’t seem to find saved chat logs for this period.

The crucial detail was whether we had even gone to this geohash on the right day. If we had succeeded, it would become the earliest known successful geohashing expedition in Melbourne, in either the East or the West graticule, being six days before the Malvern East hash that has held that distinction until now.

We definitely went to the concrete driveway in Kew at around this time, but the question is what exact day we went. I could recall no doubts at the time about whether we went on the right day, and yet in more recent times the only evidence I could find about this expedition, was an email from Matt alerting me to the hash’s location:

 Tomorrow's Geohash is good if we select the graticule to the right of our own; it depends whether you're willing to go on an 'unofficial' one.
 We need to do our french oral sometime anyway...
 -37.806747°, 145.038886°

The problem was that this was sent on the Saturday morning of the hash itself, not the day before. Had we in fact inadvertently gone a day late? Members of the present day geohashing groupchat suggested that it was possible that the 30W rule had caused such a confusion. The reference to it being an “‘unofficial’ one” fits in with it being a Sunday visit, with only Saturday afternoon meet-ups being viewed as “proper” geohashing in these early days.

I also get the impression that we saw it as being most appropriate to hash within our home graticule (us both being Melbourne-Westers by residence, both at the time and at present), but that we would have to make do with a Melbourne East hash on this occasion as better than nothing.

I’m not sure why we didn’t write up our adventure at the time, perhaps we were busy with schoolwork, and maybe there was less of a culture back then that everything had to be recorded for posterity. By the time I made my account in 2013 at the beginning of my second wind of hashing, I made reference to my two 2008 hashes on my user page, but did not attempt to give them their own write-ups; the memories would already have been well faded in any case.

With my third wind of hashing underway in 2022, I thought I really should give my 2008 hashes their own write-ups, at least just some bare bones, but this was when I discovered the email suggesting a potential date error issue. This made me hesitate further. Despite my efforts, I was unable to find any more historical evidence, and so my memories of the expeditions were forced to languish a little longer, lingering on un-written-up.

At last, I was once more searching my gmail for ‘geohash’ and the like, looking for anything that might resolve the date question, when google presented me with the following message which I hadn’t seen before: “There are additional items in your Classic Hangouts archive that match this search”. My heart leapt. Was I finally going to uncover the evidence I needed?!

I clicked “View”, and held my breath. All of a sudden before me were the chat messages that I had craved, but had eluded me for so long. Hooray!!! And much to my relief the date question was immediately put to rest. The chat directly following that email started thus:

12:22 me: I think that the location you sent me might actually be today's
12:33 Matt: ?
      don't we do tomorrow's today?
      and if it is do you want to go?
12:34 me: i don't know, but if you look at the geohashing main page
      Matt: yes
      me: it gives a table of places
      Matt: i se
      me: and the one for today's match up with what you sent me
12:35 Matt: well
      we could go today and if there is no one there it is sort of the equivalent of going tomorrow
12:36 me: yeah
      Matt: the concept is the same
      we are still going somewhere random
      so i'll go if you are happy to
      me: yes, i'm may be able to go
      are you planning for being there at 4
      or anytime?
      Matt: well
12:37 4 preferably but anytime
      4 ill be tough
      its about 12:40 now
      and we have to plan

There definitely seemed to be confusion about the date! But thankfully, it is clear that we resolved to go on that very day. Over the course of the chat, we looked up a satellite image on google earth, and discovered that it was located in a front yard/on a concrete driveway; “so pretty good” was Matt’s assessment.

We also worked out that the public transport options were fairly convenient. We could get a train from Footscray at 2.51, a 48 tram from the city to Kew Shopping Centre, and then the 109 a bit further along Cotham Rd, taking us to just a couple of hundred metres from the hash. But after further deliberation, we decided we might as well walk the extra 600m from the 48 stop, instead of waiting around for another tram. With such convenient PT, we could actually plan to get to the hash by 4, despite Matt’s earlier concern.

It appears that we did also at least plan to follow through on the idea from Matt’s original email about working on our French oral presentation. And apparently I also brought a camera to document our presence, probably the family’s old point and shoot, though I have no idea whatsoever where those photos may be if they still exist at all, if we even did take any in the end.

13:25 me: we can practise french on the way if we want to
      it's a fair amount of time we'll have
13:27 Matt: i'll leave at about 2:15
      so if you can tell me b4 then
      yeah
      should i bring a dictionary?
13:28 not very heavy
      me: maybe
      our text book could help too
      but you don't have to bring it all
13:34 Matt: i can't be bother
      me: doesn't matter
13:35 we can improvise french if we really want to practise
      and mum's home and i've got the all clear
      so i'll see you in the 1st carriage at footscray at 2:51
13:37 Matt: perfect to
      i will bring dictionary
      and paper
      to write ideas
13:38 37.813743 144.876633 [I just checked, and these co-ordinates are of Matt’s home address at the time. I’m not sure why he included them here]
      me: ok
      Matt: have you got a camera?
      to mark our presence?
      me: i don't know
      Matt: well if you have one
      if not i'll ask dad
      me: phone's aren't that great
      Matt: but i rather not be entrusted to a camera
13:39 nah
      phones aren't so great
      me: as i can't get my ppics off them
      Matt: i am not sure if ours has batteries
      i'll ask
      but see if you have one
      me: ok
13:41 i have a camera
      Matt: digital?
13:42 me: yes
      Matt: should i bring mine?
      me: so all'
      Matt: ok
      no problem then
      me: all's good
      Matt: excellent
      me: we don't need two cameras
13:43 Matt: lol
      unless we want to document each other taking photos
13:44 me: i don't think that's really necessary
13:51 Matt: i think i agree

When it comes to the expedition itself, I can’t recall too much. I think everything went according to the plan laid out above. We got to Kew, and found the front yard in question. It was a simple matter of just hopping up to the hash for a few seconds, possibly snapping a pic or two, and retreating to the footpath. I’m confident that back 14 years ago, there was no fence across the driveway, unlike how it appears in the streetview image of December 2009 (right). However I don't recall it looking as crummy as it does in the picture from December 2007 (left). The renovations were clearly in some sort of halfway stage when we visited.

We were fully prepared for the possibility of coming across other xkcd readers, but we happened upon no-one. In hindsight, we were right to expect the possibility of meeting others, what with 6 people converging on the geohash the following Saturday, in a much more difficult location at that! I wonder why others did not attempt the hash this previous Saturday. The most mind-boggling thing though about the close miss of just a week in terms of meeting other hashers, was that 3 of the hashers who made it to the geohash on the 21st , Felix, Steve and Talex, I would go on to get to know a few years later, in a way entirely unconnected to geohashing, through a music society at uni. It’s rather strange to think how close I was to bumping into them years before I actually met them.

But as it was, it was just us at the hash on this day. After hanging around for a little while to see if anyone else would arrive, we decided to go for a wander around the Boroondara General Cemetery, that was just a few hundred metres further north along the road we were on. After we had done this, we would have made our uneventful way home, back on the tram and train.

Later that evening Matt messaged me to ask if I had an account on the wiki. I did not, I replied. But did he? Yes. And that was the last we spoke of this geohash. We were to launch another expedition in July however, where we were to be joined by our friend Martin.

Even though we seem to have been the first to make it to a hash in Melbourne, I think I will hold off awarding us the virgin graticule achievement, due the lack of any sort of direct proof that we made it to the hash, beyond the copious amount of evidence of planning that I have included here.

One other tidbit from the chat logs that I found amusing was a comment of Matt's that "after thousands of years geohashing wiki should have descriptions of the entire world", to which I replied "if all goes well". The fact that people are still hashing 14 years later is a good sign that things are going at least somewhat well, even if geohashing hasn't quite taken the world by storm... yet.