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the Degree Confluence Project
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Australia : Queensland

4.7 km (2.9 miles) W of Moranbah, QLD, Australia
Approx. altitude: 242 m (793 ft)
([?] maps: Google MapQuest OpenStreetMap ConfluenceNavigator)
Antipode: 22°N 32°W

Accuracy: 5 m (16 ft)
Quality: good

Click on any of the images for the full-sized picture.

#2: the road west of the Great Dividing Range #3: many emu, kangaroo, bush pig on dusty unused roads #4: 22S 148E Confirmation #5: the Bavarian Taxi at 22s 148e #6: 22s 148e Looking West #7: start of the trek west to 22s 148e

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  22°S 148°E (visit #2)  

#1: 22s 148e Looking East

(visited by Kel Bendeich, Dan Michaelsen, Patrick O'Brien, Joseph Dadzie, Tara Bendeich, Anita Tarab, Jared Stohner and Ray Rutherford)

19-May-2012 -- For their 20th anniversary, the Boys from Borneo and their legitimate off spring are crammed together once more in tropical North Queensland. Far from the mud tracks that crisscross Borneo, the green jungle canopies of Ghana or the military regimes that rule Congo. The boys are now in OZ and they head west from the Barrier Reef. Not in Joseph’s Black-market Mercedes or Dan’s Dubai built Toyota, or Patrick’s English Landrover or Ray’s Bali Kijang but the Prussian’s Bavarian Taxi.

Also onboard were TJ (Tower Jumper), Jared (convict) from Denver and the darling of New York, Princess Anita. The Peak Downs Highway famed for its number of road accidents, where the local Eaton Highway Patrol knocks you off for -1 under the speed limit, where kangaroos feed on the side of the road and wild pigs zigzag between traffic delays. The early morning mine traffic and wide loads slow the boys. Once onto the open highway the taxi finds her legs and the road soon snakes behind.

To find 22S-148W was not to be easy, the sleepy mining town of Moranbah held many diversions and check-backs. The Black Nugget hotel being one. Young female bar staff realising that Ray was in town went home to get their younger siblings. The Moranbah vintage Land Rover Club having prior knowledge of this trek, arrange a street parade of 3 wheeled land rovers.

The Dadzie phenomena has now spread from Africa and Indonesia across Timor to the Bowen Basin where young maidens dressed as P.A.’s (personal assistants) wave from both sides of the wide street. Joseph was soon to be found missing. The German Brass Band from Dysart led the long line of 3 wheeled rovers into Mills Avenue. The Mongolian society of abandoned and wayward girlfriends followed the rovers holding banners of ‘Dan the Prophet - adopted father of many, fiancé of many more’. They do love their Bafana in Central Queensland.

Now with the taxi really overloaded, we hit the red dust that also makes the area famous. A dust trail follows like a vapour trail of a jet aircraft, the winding roads, the cattle grids, the mud holes, emus’, the bull dust, the Brahma bulls, numerous station gates and railroad crossings all join forces to stop the boys from reaching another goal. It was now past midday, the heat unbearable. The taxi ploughed on through the dust bowl as it were a Paris to Dakar Sunday picnic.

The GPS bleeping as the confluence nears, the excitement now electric. To stop the taxi in this bull dust, all would be lost, 5000 m. 4, 3. 2, 1 and then a rail crossing looms out of the heat haze. It is a steep climb to the top of the crossing, the taxi too over loaded to make it up and over; we are marooned with 3 wheels off the ballast. Maroon is a famous word in these parts. All now push the taxi to 22S 148W. The confluence point originally found by Owen Foley on the 12th March 2001 has been reconfirmed by the Boys of Borneo.

The Dom Pérignon is opened.


 All pictures
#1: 22s 148e Looking East
#2: the road west of the Great Dividing Range
#3: many emu, kangaroo, bush pig on dusty unused roads
#4: 22S 148E Confirmation
#5: the Bavarian Taxi at 22s 148e
#6: 22s 148e Looking West
#7: start of the trek west to 22s 148e
ALL: All pictures on one page