14-Oct-2023 -- Boomey NSW 2866
I wanted to visit this confluence on my way from Narromine to Bathurst. The recent visit by Ross Finlayson in 2018 was incomplete because he stopped at the locked gate of Savannah Farm.
The distance from Molong to the confluence is only 18 km. I typed the address as Boomey Lane on the car navigation and it asked for a house number between 305 and 868. I randomly picked 305 because who knows which number is which end of this gravel road, either way it will direct me to the destination. I was flying down the Euchareena Road which is the correct route I searched the other night and singing along the radio. Then I reached the tiny township of Euchareena, turned right to Burrendong Way, then kept going until the machine said “In 500m, turn right into Boomey Lane”. Hang on a second, I thought to myself, where is the first driveway of Boomey Lane on the satellite image? Then on the patchy map of my phone with 1 bar 4G signal, I realised that the ‘smart’ navigator had sent me on a detour of extra 25 km on a sealed road to avoid 10 km of gravel road, to the wrong (east) end of Boomey Lane. The confluence is on the west end of Boomey Lane!
I guessed it is possibly located in Savannah Farm as Ross suspected with a mailbox numbered 768 (Boomey Lane). However, the ‘’Do not enter property without prior approval’’ sign in 2018 is now replaced with ‘’I’m a grazier for climate action’’. There is also a ‘For Sale’ sign of a Real Estate agent in Orange. I had two options: call this Real Estate agent (closed on a Saturday) or climb over the gate. I don’t want to trespass so then decided to use the third option which I intended since planning: approach the first driveway on Boomey Lane which have a track on Google Maps that can also bring you to around 300m of the confluence. This is a private property which neighbours Savannah and with any luck, they may own this paddock with the confluence on it since there are many fences running in all directions, very hard to know for sure if it is in Savannah or not.
After a few noisy welcome barks of the dogs, the farm owner came out to greet me very friendly. I explained to him my ‘silly’ mission and asked for his permission. Not only that he does not consider it silly, but he also walks with me to the point which he confirms is on the property of Savannah even though it is only 300m away from his track. His name is Glen Walker. Glen knows about Geocaching but never heard of Degree Confluence and rather interested in knowing that a confluence (“with all zeros’’) is right in his (sort of) backyard. Savannah was subdivided from his farm, named Beri, and the owner’s house is way on top of the hill. We stepped over a few hot wires fences and found the confluence near the Weandre Creek with high but soft green grass all around. This weed is wild oat (Avena fatua) a good feed for cattle. Apparently, it is not what appears on the satellite image with tracks or (harvested) hay field. I was very glad to meet Glen and happily waving goodbye to him.
One more interesting point is on the Savannah’s farm gate, there is a poster “Yes”. It is about the referendum happened on 14 Oct (the day I visited) for Australians to decide to recognise Aboriginal people in the Constitution by a body called The Voice being added to Parliament. I and everyone I know in regional areas, including many Aboriginal people knew that the result will be “No”, totally contrast with the ‘’Yes’’ side strongly presents in the cities. The result announced the next day was overwhelmingly ‘’No’’ in which the Government and the Greenies (Green Party members, as how they are called informally/derogatorily in Australia) had not much to defend their initiative but much more to blame on the radio next morning.