Canberra, Australia
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Canberra, Australia
The Canberra graticule lies at -35 degrees latitude, 149 longitude. It encompasses Canberra, Queanbeyan, Bungendore, Braidwood and a number of smaller towns.
The region consists of farmland, National Parks, a generally dry lake, and a few hills that we call mountains. Also to be found are dirt tracks, ravines, cliffs and at least one mountain worthy of the name. Canberra (the largest city found in the locality) is more commonly known as the Politics, Porno and Pyro hub of the nation, but sometimes also referred to as Our Nation's Capital. We love our city. We especially love the porno(graphy), pyro(technics) and pro(stitute)s.
With the city at about 800 square kilometers, compared to our graticule which is around 10,000 square kilometers, we can expect to have the target land in the city 8% of the time, or around two and a half times per 31 day month. Given 52 Saturdays in a year, we can estimate that the target will land nearby on about four of them.
Historical searches support this estimate, with 11 instances of the target falling within Canberra between 2008-01-01 and 2008-05-26 (146 days) - 8%; and with two of those instances being Saturdays, extrapolating to 5 Saturdays in Canberra per year.
The hits were:
- In a paddock/park a short distance south of Drake Brockman Drive, Higgins
- On the shoulder of the northbound lane of the Tuggeranong Parkway, just north of the Cotter Road overpass, just south of where the Cotter Road slip-lane enters the Parkway
- Across the road from 73 Warragamba Avenue, Duffey
- On the land between the Monaro Highway and the Mugga lane tip – it’s in Canberra, but less accessible than some that are not
- On the nature strip south of Antill St Hackett, near where it crosses Phillip Avenue. With adequate parking, even.
- Median strip down the middle of Drakeford Drive near Bonython
- Gunghalin Cemetary
- Next to the pool in the back yard of 8 Wickham Crescent, Forrest
- Just behind the airport, next to a farm house
- In the front yard of a town house on Pennington Crescent, Calwell
- On a logging trail in a pine forest near Sutton Road
Meetup Details
XKCD Geo Hash meetups occur at 4pm Saturday afternoons.
Eastern Australia is 14hrs ahead of NYC. So, like all other Australian cities, Canberra's target for the Saturday meet-up will be determined using Friday's (US Time) data - that means that we get Saturday's time on Friday at 23:30.
Where the target lands in the East of the graticule, -35, 148 may be the place to be. Likewise one notch to the North may be good where the target lands in an accessible spot there, and an inaccessible one here.
Mailing List
A mailing list has been established to allow those of us too lazy too keep watch on this page to be kept aware of Saturday spots, easily accessible spots, car pooling and anything else of interest.
See here for the list.
Locations
Today's Location: [Canberra, Australia]
Saturday 31st May 2008
A glitch on google financials gave us some bad data. irc.peeron was wrong, psud was wrong.
Correct locations follow: -35.0374870832648067,149.2812664767643918 1.2km from Faithful St, Gundaroo
-36.037, 149.281 Pretty much on Chacola Fire Trail. 4WD only, and probably behind a locked gate. 10km from the Monaro Hwy
Sunday 1 June 2008 -35.3491079341188037, 148.9162389042702137 Easily doable!!!! 800m off Paddy's River Road, just past Pierces Creek.
Monday 2 June 2008 INSIDE CANBERRA!!!!! -35.3859189793932023, 149.0292893119354716 On a shed off Kambah Pool road.
Activities
- Fondue party with Lake Burley Griffin water
- Play "Spot the Olympic Torch Relay rent-a-crowds"
- Climb the Carillion
- Steal the blinky light from Mt. Ainslie
- Throwing things at ADFA until they chase you
- Picnic at Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station (retired)
- Breaking the law by carrying such dangerous items as fire crackers and "laser" pointers into the New South Welsh portion of our graticule.
Notable Events
- The Annual Tulip Fest AKA Floriade
- Legal Fireworks Purchase Weekend
- Kangaroo Cull of 08
Expeditions
- 2008-05-24 -35,148 -- Failing to find the spot. Damn GPS navigation wanted to go via Tumut on fire trails.
Local Geohashers
Sign up, fellow xkcd hooligans
- Psud AKA Adam has started a mailing list and expects to attend on Saturdays
- Nemo expresses an interest too, hopes to get more involved after the current few months of busy get finished!
- Black Rattism is also an interested party
- Likewise for Somersault 00:59, 22 May 2008 (UTC). *puts up their hand*
- Luke is interested in attending. If not this weekend (may 24) then perhaps the next.
- Chris is keen
- Cameron is in the area.
- xen will try out his new GPS on saturdays
- 'gim is up for some random travelling
- Kieran is a Canberra resident, originally from a small place near Wodonga.
- Joanna is keen to meet people
- Raphael is in Canberra but relies on buses. You better not screw us up this year, ACTION.
- Terry can attend sometimes and should be able to provide a car seat or two for others.
