Western Australian borders
That land border divides WA from the Northern Territory (NT) and South Australia (SA).
However, for various reasons, the actual border (as surveyed and marked or otherwise indicated on the ground) deviates from 129° east, and is not a single straight line.
By 1825, however, Britain was powerful enough and found it convenient to adopt the original line of the Portuguese under the treaty, 129° east.
On 16 July 1825, the western boundary of New South Wales was relocated at 129° east to take in the new settlement at Melville Island.
[4] From 1825 to 1829, 129° east was the NSW border, except that the settlement of King George's Sound, now Albany, was part of New South Wales – and thus a semi-exclave of New South Wales – from its establishment on 26 December 1826, until 7 March 1831 when it was made part of the Swan River Colony.
The name of the Swan River Colony changed to Western Australia in 1832 (6 February 1832 – MAP).
In March 1920 the Western Australian Government Astronomer, Harold Curlewis gave a talk at the WA Museum about the history of the determination of longitude, in relation to using what was at that time a new technology, by using wireless time signals to determine the position of the border between South Australia and Western Australia, as close to the 129th east meridian as possible.
[16] Preliminary work on the border determinations began in November 1920 when the Government Astronomer for South Australia, G. F. Dodwell and the Western Australian Government Astronomer, Harold Curlewis met at Deakin, Western Australia on the East-West Trans-Australian Railway.
[17]Concrete piers for the astronomical observing instruments were erected in readiness for the final determinations that were to be held in 1921.
[17] This expedition, to determine 129° east on the ground, created worldwide scientific interest and involved the cooperation of the Astronomer Royal and the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, with wireless time signals sent by the French wireless Service, that were transmitted from the Lyon Observatory at Saint-Genis-Laval, near Lyon, France, between 17 and 24 November 1920.
[17] After these initial tests a comprehensive program was then arranged for the second stage of the border determinations, which were to take place during the following year and dates were then set for that to happen, from 20 April to 10 May 1921.
Curlewis and party travelled by the State Ship Bambra to the port of Wyndham, Western Australia.
From the chosen position, two concrete pillars were erected similar to those described above and portable radio masts set up, before the determinations were carried out by the scientists using the same methods of wireless time signals as were used at Deakin.
