Poeppel Corner

Poeppel Corner (known as Poeppel's Corner in Queensland) at latitude 26° S and longitude 138° E is a corner of state boundaries in Australia, where the state of Queensland meets South Australia and the Northern Territory. As with the other three corners it is a destination for four-wheel-drive tourists. Poeppel Corner is about 174 km west of Birdsville, in the middle of the Simpson Desert.[1]

AUS map with named state corners

Poeppel Corner Marker, South Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland

External image

Poeppel Corner, Australia. NASA Earth Observatory.

Augustus Poeppel, after whom the point is named, conducted a survey in the mid-1880s to find the exact location of the central Australian colonial borders.[2] His team used camels to drag a coolibah post to mark the intersection. Originally the point was located in a salt lake, but it was found that the measuring chain used was a few centimetres too long. Another survey was conducted by Lawrence Wells, who relocated the post to its current position.[2]

New Year's Eve occurs three times each year at thirty minute intervals in Poeppel Corner (also in Cameron Corner and Surveyor Generals Corner), because it is at the intersection of three time zones.