03-Jun-2006 -- This was the first of two confluences we planned to visit during the Foundation Day long weekend (Western Australian public holiday) and our eighth point along the 30S latitude.

This CP is situated on the northern fringe of the Nullarbor Plain roughly 100km north of the Forrest railway siding and 100km west of the Western Australian / South Australian state border.

Our group of 6 left Kalgoorlie at 6:00pm on Friday 02/06/06 and headed east along the transline access road in two vehicles, arriving at our nights destination Rawlinna around midnight. As on previous trips we made our camp in the grounds of the abandoned primary school.

At first light the next morning we continued east along the transline, the track after Rawlinna is not maintained anymore and is pretty rough with plenty of loose rocks strewn along it that give the tyres a hard time. These days railway maintenance crews in their adapted vehicles drive on the rails which is far more comfortable and quicker.

We arrived at the railway siding of Forrest (population 3) around midday and had a BBQ lunch in the local park. Forrest was named after Western Australia’s first premier Sir John Forrest and was one on the many railway maintenance towns originally set up across the Nullarbor to service the line. Today with its aerodrome and sealed tarmac it provides fuel and accommodation for light aircraft travelling to and from the eastern states.

From Forrest we headed north along a track we had digitised into our GPS that took us to within 10 kilometres of the CP. For the final leg we followed a heading on the GPS through the scrub to our point, arriving just before sundown. We made camp for the night at the point and took the required photos the next morning before heading off to our next CP 29S 129E on the state border.

GPS : Garmin 12XL (precision 4metres)

Map Names : Australia’s Great Desert Tracks (SW Sheet) 1: 1250000, Forrest SH5210 1:250000