observation team using special recording instruments of the day, and some serious triangulation maths gained from the bearings of beacons on other peaks. From this, your position can be worked out. In this way each trigonometrical (trig) point was one-by-one established and, based on this, maps could be grounded, with mountain positions fixed, and their heights determined with greater accuracy. Hence, PNG’s most photographed trig cairn is before, such as the one in the Flinders Ranges on Yarrngarri Arraindanha Vambata (Mt Hack, 1086m) that was part of a triangulation survey done way back in 1954 that linked Broken Hill, the home of mining giant BHP in western New South Wales, with a series of beacons and cairns in South Australia. the one on Mt Wilhelm. I had come across many cairns in my lone climbs
When I climbed that peak some 30 years later, the vanes of the beacon had been blown to the winds. Another I came across when I was a young lad was on Alhekulyele (Mt Gillen, 944m) in the mountain range that overlooks Alice Springs. This was a peak within a triangulation survey in the Northern Territory done in 1957. If you look carefully, you will see that the cairns in Australia have relatively straight sides, being made of flat sedimentary rocks, while those in PNG are cone- shaped because they are made out of rounded igneous, altered volcanic rocks. At the time of these surveys in the 50s, many maps of the interior of PNG were still sketchy, with the heights of many peaks and their exact position lacking accuracy – not good in a country where flying by light aircraft to remote airstrips and communities is
Find out more
Located at Boroko Motors dealerships in: Port Moresby. Lae. Kokopo. Madang. Goroka. Kimbe.
VOLUME 42 2025
35
Made with FlippingBook Learn more on our blog