02-Feb-2007 -- S34 E136 Confluence Visited by Stephen and Fiona Langman Friday 2nd February 2007

The main regret that I have is that I was not made aware of the degree confluence project until only last year. I have travelled to many isolated parts of Australia in the past, all where there are confluences very close and still remain un-logged. Now that I am aware of what is required to successfully record a visit, I will now always make it a priority to track down a confluence when I am in an area that shows one available, even if it has been previously logged.

Having to attend a family wedding in Port Lincoln on the Eyre Peninsula, West Coast of South Australia, I was not going to let this trip by without the opportunity of recording 2 confluences that we would be passing on the way to Port Lincoln. In Australia, it is not a right of way to enter peoples property without prior approval, so I contacted Nigel and Gina Eylward, third generation farmers of Eylwarra Sands property, 50 kilometres North West of Tumby Bay. Eylwarra Sands is a 4000 acre property, running approximately 100 head of prime Australian Beef “Murray Grey” Cattle and cropping about 2300 acres each year of wheat and barley. Providing that those wishing to visit this confluence on Eylwarra Sands do the correct thing and contact Nigel or Gina, they are only too happy to show you the correct way to locate this very easy to reach confluence. The road into Eylwarra Sands is the main access road for 2 private farms, so it is important to get prior details of the correct road to get to Nigel’s farm. The paddock where this confluence is located has not been cropped for a couple of years, and Nigel has only just rolled this land in preparation for cropping this paddock this year.

Arriving near the location of the confluence, the first thing that Nigel did was to try and locate a small metal plaque that was put down during the Second World War to mark this location. A lone Mallee Tree now stands as it did, over 60 years ago, as a sole reminder that is the place where the metal disc is located. It has been many years since Nigel has seen this plaque and we were not able to locate it because there was quite an amount of drift sand covering the plaque. Leaving this lone Mallee tree, we headed off on foot to reach the confluence, just 197 metres in a south easterly direction from the tree. With photos in hand, we returned to the tree, as Nigel was keen to try and locate this lost plaque. 10 More minutes of digging and that elusive plaque still remained hidden, until Nigel is out there again. Next time Nigel is out there, he said that he will locate it and place a star dropper along side it for easier location.

I would like to personally thank Nigel and Gina for their help on the day and allowing us to log this confluence.