CORNERED!
“
Who the hell is Baby?” I
asked. “And why is the baby
in the corner?”
I had no idea what had
just been suggested, “No-
body puts Baby in the
South Australia juts into the state of
Queensland. There’d long been con-
jecture regarding the exact location.
Some Queenslander’s suggested that
the border was much further west
while the South Australian’s argued
corner”.
otherwise. Poeppel had a clear direc-
What was I missing? Yeah, we
tive; answer the argument once and
were at one of Australia’s remote state for all.
corners, but a baby? Certainly not at
I sat, looking at the concrete pillar
this corner. This was Haddon Corner, marking the corner, a poorly main-
the middle one of the three closest
tained wood and wire fence reluc-
neighbouring state corners.
tantly sat just a few metres away. It
Australia has five state corners, all clearly marked a right-angle. Was
remote, all an adventure in their own this the actual corner?
right. Haddon Corner is certainly
We’d crossed a few mid-sized red
not the hardest to reach but perhaps
sand dunes to reach this corner. Not
is one of the most remote; it’s a little
a challenge, yet removed from any-
out of the way and you only head to
where near to civilisation. Could this
Haddon Corner if you want to head to be the reason for there being not the
Haddon Corner.
closest sign that anyone had been
First surveyed in 1880 by Augus-
here recently?
tus Poeppel, the corner located at
Poeppel’s party had started survey-
the intersection of the 26th parallel
ing the eastern boundary of South
south latitude and the 141st me-
Australia in January of 1880. With a
ridian, marks where the state of
post set every mile along the border,
TRAVERSE 103