It’s on a little piece of rock which measures 85m east-west and 160m north-south, is located about 40km from the south-east tip of Wilsons Promontory and is called Boundary Islet.

Image from wikipedia

Latitude and Longitude details:

Latitude: -39 degrees 11 minutes 54.7362 seconds
Longitude: 147 degrees 1 minute 16.8954 seconds

-39.198537926698286, 147.02136039733887

From the GeoScience Australia website:

Of all the land-based borders in Australia, this is by far the shortest. Officially, the border between Victoria and Tasmania is a parallel of latitude 39°12′. Off the coast of Wilson’s Promontory in Victoria, there is a group if islands and islets known as The Hogan Group. Within this group is one islet, about six hectares in size, that straddles this boundary. Once called North East Islet, the name was changed to avoid confusion with another islet of the same name in the Kent Group, a short distance to the south east. In honour of the islet’s position, lying across the border between Victoria and Tasmania, it was renamed Boundary Islet.

From the Wikipedia entry:

Boundary Islet is an islet about 60,000 square metres in size in the Hogan Group of islands and islets at latitude 39°12′ S, south of the Wilson’s Promontory, the southernmost part of
both mainland Australia and mainland Victoria. The boundary between Victoria and Tasmania is a parallel similarly at latitude 39°12′; on it is thus Tasmania’s only land boundary, and at 85 metres long it is the shortest land border between any Australian states. The position of the island was surveyed in 1801 by Captain James Black, who erred in placing the islet further north than it is. It was later found that the border at 39°12′ S actually passed through the islet.

Boundary Islet was once known as North East Islet.

This article in The Age from 2005 talks about Boundary Islet.

Hmmm…i wonder how hard it would be to get a boat to take you out to Boundary Islet? It would certainly make for a great little expedition :)

“Let any man lay the map of Australia before him, and regard the blank upon its surface, and then let me ask him if it would not be an honourable achievement to be the first to place foot in its centre.”

Charles Sturt - An Englishman who in the 1800’s was an explorer of Australia, a Colonial Administrator and a grazier.

Burke’s farewell speech from the Burke & Wills Web website …

The Victorian Exploring Expedition left Royal Park, Melbourne on Monday 20th August 1860. Originally intending to leave at 1.00 pm, it was 4.00 pm before the party got away. Dr Eades, Mayor of Melbourne, mounted one of the drays and made a speech.

“Mr Burke, I am fully aware that the grand assemblage, this day, while it has impeded your movements in starting, is at the same time a source of much gratification to you. It assures you of the most sincere sympathy of the citizens. (Hear hear), I will not detain you; but for this great crowd, and on behalf of the colony at large, I say - God speed you ! (Cheers).”
His worship the Mayor then called for three cheers for Burke, then three cheers for Mr Landells and then three cheers for the party as a whole. Mr Eades then said ;

“God speed and bless you !”
…to which Burke replied;

“Mr Mayor, On behalf of myself and the expedition, I beg to return to you my most sincere thanks. No expedition has ever started under such favourable circumstances as this. The people, the Government, the Committee - all have done heartily what they could do. It is now our turn, and we shall never do well until we entirely justify what you have done in showing what we can do (Cheers).”

The band struck up “CHEER BOYS, CHEER” and the party headed northwards in the direction of the Sarah Sands Hotel before turning and traversing the whole length of the Park to the south gate and passing then round the cattle yards, the camels’ manure pile and then past the swamp and out of the South Gate onto Flemington Road then Mount Alexander Road towards Essendon.

While it is without a doubt one of the most famous and talked about expedition’s undertaken on the Australian mainland, it was also possibly one of the most badly organised expedition’s as well.

From the Burke and Wills Expedition Wikipedia entry…

In 1860-61 Robert O’Hara Burke and William John Wills led an expedition of 19 men with the intention of crossing Australia from Melbourne in the south to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north, a distance of around 2,800 kilometres (1,750 miles). At that time most of the inland of Australia had not been explored by non-indigenous people and was completely unknown to the European settlers.

The south-north leg was successfully completed (except they were stopped by swampland 5 kilometres (3 miles) from the northern coastline) but owing to poor leadership and bad luck, both of the expedition’s leaders died on the return journey. All together, seven men lost their lives, and only one man, John King, travelled the entire expedition and returned alive to Melbourne.

I’ve posted most of these links before, but since it’s the 148th anniversary of the expedition starting, i thought i would post them again.

Along with the Wikipedia entry, you can find a heap more information, photos, maps, and other things, at the links below.

Burke & Wills Web
Lots of info over at this website, including the Buke & Wills Walk.

The Burke and Wills Historical Society
A group of BUrke and Wills enthusiasts who also run the Burke & Wills Conference every two years, with the next one being held in Melbourne in 2009.

The Burke & Wills Walk 2008
Dave Phoenix is retracing the route of the Burke & Wills Expedition on foot and departed from Royal Park on the 1st if August 2008. You can track his progress via his blog.

Across Australia with Burke and Wills
A Google Earth Community complete with details Google Earth KML file and Google Maps route as well.

Memorials
A list of Burke and Wills memorials at White Hat.

In the Tracks of Burke and Wills
Follow Mike Wills (fourth cousin, four times removed of William John Wills) and friends as they trace the route of the Burke & Wills Expedition.

I would also recommend reading a book that was published in 2002 and written by Sarah Murgatroyd called, “The Dig Tree”, which is probably one of the better books about the expedition, and is available to buy online at Westprint.

Coincidently I finished reading the book today :)

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”

Robert Frost An American Poet. (An excerpt from “The Road Not Taken”)

Mount Augustus, or Burringurrah as it is known by the local Wadjari Aboriginal people, is about 850 kilometres from Perth and midway between the Great Northern and North West Coastal highways. One of the most spectacular solitary peaks in the world, it rises 717 metres above a stony, red sandplain of arid shrubland—dominated by wattles, cassias and eremophilas—and is clearly visible from the air for more than 160 kilometres.

The rock itself, which culminates in a small peak on a plateau, is about eight kilometres long and covers an area of 4,795 hectares. At about twice the size of Uluru (Ayers Rock) it is the biggest ‘rock’ in the world.

Mount Augustus has now been added to the official ExpeditionOz list of places to explore :)

“We should come home from adventures, and perils, and discoveries every day with new experience and character.”

Henry David Thoreau - An American author, naturalist, transcendentalist, tax resister, development critic, sage writer and philosopher from the 1800’s.

“There are two kinds of adventurers: those who go truly hoping to find adventure and those who go secretly hoping they won’t.”

Rabindranath Tagore - A Bengali poet, Brahmo religionist, visual artist, playwright, novelist, and composer who was also Asia’s first Nobel laureate when he won the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature.

“I’d rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than in any city on earth.”
Steve McQueen - An American movie actor

From the email i received:

CHALLENGE OFFERS EXCITING NEW ONLINE EXPERIENCE
The Land Rover G4 Challenge website has launched a range of unique new features offering a fascinating insight for those keen to learn more about adventure.

New videos, photo galleries and latest updates are now online along with the first in a series of unique innovative multimedia guides.

These “Challenge Guides” offer an insight into individual aspects of adventure – from kayaking to campsite cuisine – through the stories of former competitors’ and the opinions of experts in video, images and text.

“Adventure is worthwhile in itself.”
Amelia Earhart - An American aviation pioneer