Canberra, Australia

File:-035149.png

The Canberra Graticule

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]

Monday 26th May 2008 Meetup location:

• -35.673129°, 149.607308° or
• S35°40.3876', E149°36.4384' or
• S35°40'23.26", E149°36'26.3"

DJIA adjusted for location east of the 30W longitude

That's on farm land 85m off the East side of Jerrabattgulla Road. I reckon it's accessible.

Tuesday 27th May 2008

• -35.125368°, 149.57711° or
• S35°7.522', E149°34.6266' or
• S35°7'31.32", E149°34'37.59"

DJIA adjusted for location east of the 30W longitude

It's either a 1.2km walk from Bungendore Road (a fairly significant rural road) or a much shorter walk from a track that's not mapped, but shows on satellite. Either way, I think it's on farmland.

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
• 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
• Publius lives in Canberra.