2008-06-17 -35 149

Geohashing goes political

At roughly 11:30pm AEST on the 16th June 2008, the geohashing point for the 17th was announced, as per the 30W rule. For Canberra, this turned out to be a most excellent and central location. Within the parliamentary triangle, and yet in a public park!

Triangle man?

Canberra is a planned city. Part of the plan is the central so-called "parliamentary triangle". This is a triangle with apexes on the centers of government, military, and people. (Parliament House is at one corner, the main military offices are on another, and the CBD is on the third)

This triangle is then split by a lake, and filled with a number of government offices, buildings of national interest (National Gallery, National Library, High Court, National Film and Sound Archives, National Science and Technology Centre, Old Parliament House, and so on). The remainder of the space is full of well tended parks, lawns and gardens.

It is in one of these lawns that the hashpoint fell.

The People

We take photos

We had three separate visits, for a total of seven people. Psud visited twice...

Joanna - who went solo in the morning
Psud - another double visit. Morning and Lunch
Nemo - Who claimed a no batteries achievement as the first of the lunch crowd
Bernard - Joined for lunch crew
Dan - Part of the lunch crew
Dana - Also of the lunching crew
`Gim - Of lunch crew

Group 1

Well, Joanna doesn't know if she counts as a group by herself, but anyway...

Joanna ventured out at 6:40am or so, soon after she woke up. She is driving to Melbourne today, and is not impressed with the Geohashing gods, who have bad timing :(

She got a few curious stares by people working far too early.

Having not read this page, she thought it was in the Old Parliament House gardens, and plotted to break in. It didn't work, there were gardeners working inside, who would've been upset.

However, she figured it out, and managed to get photos, which will be uploaded later. Apologies in advance for the shaky photos: it was cold.

She also missed Psud by about 20 minutes

The National Archives, which were near the hashpoint.
Closeup of the sign.
Mushrooms = bad
The path has the National Archives on one side...
... and Parkes Pl (behind the walker) on the other.
The horizontal road is Walpole Crescent/Queen Victoria Terrace
Obligatory grinning like an idiot photo, in front of the tree I decided was the hashpoint.
Street directory + hand-drawn map

Group 1.5

Psud saw on IRC that Joanna was planning a pre-dawn raid on the hash. So he decided to try to meet her there. He would have been successful too, if it wern't for the distance, timing and the fact that he didn't mention his plans to Joanna.

Psud was equipped with GPS and found the hash within a few metres of the Mushroom Tree.

Psud will return by bicycle later in the day.

Morning Hash by Psud
Psud left pre-dawn for the hash, hoping to catch Joanna there.
Psud had to wait for an ambulance to pass.
Free parking at the hash - due to the parliamentary triangle.
The hash was empty of people.
Psud marked the spot with a pile of leaves. They were still there at lunch.
Balloons were up.
And the swans were out.

Group 2: The Lunch Crew

I want to believe

Nemo got in just before the organised 1pm meetup and setup picnic blanket, and was soon joined by Bernard, Psud, Dan, Danny and Dana in some semblance of an order. Lunch and discussions of our relative geeky pursuits was had. Photos were taken, fudge was eaten. Psud used his awesome GPS skillz to determine that the exact hashpoint was 10 metres to his left. When he got there, it was still 10 metres to his left (though possibly his other left). Sometime later he confirmed that he was within 1metre of the hashpoint - with a margin of error of 8 metres. (though the margin of error had it's own margin of error of 1 metre). Suffice to say, the picnic was at the point, and Nemo claims a no-batteries achievement. Finally, frisbee was thrown, and mushroom-sign tree was found right next to us (earning Joanna the no-batteries also) as people departed back to their respective occupations of the day.