Lambert Centre

Hands up all the Oz 365ers who have heard of the Lambert Centre. What no-one has heard of it? Neither had I.

In 1988 the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia undertook a project to determine the geographical centre of Australia as a Bicentennial of Federation project. The project determined the "centre" to be this location in Northern Territory, about 12ks north of the road to Kulgera, and named it the Lambert Centre after Dr. Bruce P Lambert, a former Director of the Division of National Mapping. The calculation of the centre used 24,500 points at the mainland high water mark.

How come this didn't receive more widespread recognition? I love points of interest like this. The most easterly this; the most westerly that; The point where A meets B; the highest whatever.

I can always remember one of David Attenborough's shows where he stood on a ridge line on the Andes in the snow and pointed out that snow flakes falling on his RHS would eventually melt and end up in the Pacific Ocean while those falling just a metre away on his LHS would end up I the Atlantic Ocean. For some strange reason, I find that fascinating.


See the background to this series of postings at http://365project.org/terryliv/365/2015-08-12

[Sam]

I had heard of it Poppo! That must make me special :)

[Poppo Livy]

I wonder if they remembered to include Tasmania :-)

[Poppo Livy]

@gigiflower We already knew that Sam

[Barb Newcomb]

That flagpole looks familiar!!!!!

[Jane Anderson]

I like how I can make so many local connections to the things that you post. I love learning about Australia. Here we have the continental divide where rivers flow in different directions, and also the Four Corners where four states meet, though the actual marker is off a bit.

[Debbie]

I'm not special... never heard of it before now. So does that make me special now

[Babs]

Interesting information. David knew about the 'pole' but didn't know it was called the Lambert centre.

[Poppo Livy]

@beachdog Ha ha I was wondering who would be the first to recognise it.

[Denise Wood]

I'm not special either, but I love learning new facts each day! We're never too old to learn :) Now I just need to learn more about Bruce Lambert as there was one (and not a common name) working at our shire when I was growing up - interesting if he is the same person!!!

[ShirleyB]

Interesting construction to place here to mark something so quirky. Interesting information for us none Australians.

[sally agnew]

Hubby remembers it, he has a better retentive memory for facts and figures than I have.:)

[Denise (lyndemc)]

Makes me wonder if there's some sort of flag pole that marks the middle of the continental USofA. Okay, I've just checked it out. Turns out I wasn't all that far away from the marker this past weekend. I missed a photo op for sure. Thanks for inspiring a bit of learning for the day.

[Rachel]

I've never heard of that! It would have been an interesting project to find that centre spot.

[Robyn]

I love the red dirt

[Margo]

I had never heard of it either

[Kane Arlow]

I think I have heard of it. And I find that fact very interesting too. He is one of my all time favourite presenters.

[Pam Knowler]

Very interesting! I love querky facts like this. Attenborough is my favourite presenter! I can just listen to him -,whatever he is talking about - always fascinating!