#3: [03-Mar-19]

#2: [12-Jan-08]

20-Aug-2001 -- It was a cold, wet and windy winter's day when I set out to visit this confluence on my day off work. Actually my main aim was to get two geocaches in northern Victoria, and I thought I might get to the confluence if I had time. I left my home in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne in persistent drizzle, and headed north. The weather cleared up a bit after I crossed the dividing range, but there were still showers around. I found the two geocaches easily enough, and headed up past the inaccessible 37S 145E (part of Puckapunyal Military area). I drove through Murchison, the industrial town of Tatura, and the back roads between Shepparton and Kyabram trying to avoid going too far east or west of the line I wanted to be on. Eventually I crossed the Goulburn River (Victoria's longest river), in which the water level is quite low at the moment, due to the persistent drought we've been having (though you wouldn't know it on this day) and got onto the Echuca-Nathalia Rd.

Now this road is marked in my street directory as running due east-west just a hair's width south of the 36th parallel. However when I got there I found my GPS read a rock solid 35 deg 59.945 minutes, meaning the line of latitude was just south of the road. Presumably this discrepancy is due to the difference between WGS84 and AUS66 or whatever the map uses. I continued onto the dead straight Myers Rd, which comes off from the main road at a tangent, and I followed this dirt track past one lonely farmhouse, and about a kilometre further, to within 50m of the confluence.

Parking the car I got out to work out the best place to jump the fence, and got caught in a sudden downpour of rain. I hid behind a tree, thinking it wouldn't get too heavy, and eventually decided to run back to the car, getting soaked in the process. After waiting 10 minutes there it cleared up and I jumped the fence and walked the mere 50m off the road to the confluence.

The area around the confluence is typical of northern Victoria. It's a grassy paddock, with a few gum trees, and the landscape is dead flat for hundreds of kilometres around. Not a hill to be seen here, in the huge floodplain of the Murray river. In August, it's quite green and damp, but come summer it will most likely be dry and parched. I encourage other visitors to come back at different times of year, as the view may be quite different. The only thing of note in the area was the strange stunted tree about 20m west of the confluence. There are no houses within view in any direction, but a few sheds and outbuildings a little to the southeast.

Heading home I stopped in Shepparton to stock up on cheap tinned fruit and soup from the food business capital of Victoria!