Fifty years since launch of 150-degree East Meridian information bay

A significant anniversary passed quietly earlier this year marking 50 years since the launch of the 150-degree East Meridian rest area and information bay.

Located 27km east of Gunnedah on the Oxley Highway, the significant landmark was the brainchild of Tourist Activities Promotion committee president, Mikie Maas.

Always looking for ways to promote her adopted home town, Mikie came up with the idea after asking her husband Max to make a sundial.

In his painstaking style, Max researched the subject and discovered that the 150-degree east meridian was the basis of Eastern Australian Standard Time used in all eastern states.

When he mentioned this to his wife, the wheels started to turn and it wasn’t long before Mikie came up with the idea of turning it into a tourist attraction.

Armed with the knowledge that the meridian was virtually on Gunnedah’s doorstep, Mikie was excited to have a surveyor’s report pinpointing the exact location where the meridian crossed the Oxley Highway. The next challenge was to convince the Department of Main Roads, the Tamworth Pastures Protection Board and a few other authorities before she could proceed with the project – a sundial embraced by a rest and recreation area.

Even with Mikie’s well-known powers of persuasion, it would be another four years before her dream became a reality, with the official opening of the community project held on 21 March 1986.

Gunnedah Apex Club members were heavily involved in the project, erecting a brick column for the sundial, a picnic shelter, vehicle turnaround area and barbecue.

Apex Club president Mark Goddard paid tribute to the members for their outstanding efforts, particularly Ian Carrington who was the chief organiser.

Local business houses provided material and made donations towards the project, with local signwriter Jack Beard spending 50 hours on a large double-sided information board, with a tourist information centre also established on the site.

The only other country in the world to adopt the 150-degree meridian is Papua New Guinea, with then premier of the West New Britain Province, Bernard Vogae, sending a message of goodwill that was read out in pidgin English. The message expressed his good wishes and his desire that there would be a lasting relationship between the Tourist Activities Promotions committee and the recently established centre in PNG.

Commonwealth Bank manager Adrian Watts with the Papua New Guinea Flag at the 150-degree meridian ceremony. The flag was sent by the Premier of West New Britain Province, Bernard Vogae.

The message had been arranged by Gunnedah Commonwealth Bank branch manager Adrian Watts, who had already spent several years with the bank in Papua New Guinea.

Mr Watts said the meridian passed close to two major centres, Kimbe and Talase, which were occupied by the Japanese during the second world war. The population suffered extreme hardship from enemy action and the Allied offensive. Along with the message came a Papua New Guinea flag, which was flown on a flagpole at the official opening.

The function was attended by the surveyor general, Don Grant, secretary-surveyor Ian Robens and chief surveyor John Wallace, all from Bathurst, along with executive director of the Australia Day Council, John Trevilian and Country Surveyors president Ralph Kidson.

Local surveyors Keith Miller and Cliff Stewart were also on the guest list, along with the director of Siding Springs Observatory Dr John Dawe and the executive director of the Australia Day Council, John Trevillian.

Mrs Maas told the gathering that 40 years ago she had stood on the equator in Borneo, a site marked by a bronze sphere, and had thought it very significant to be standing on the equator.

“I think that the 150-degree east meridian means something too as it is the basis of Eastern Standard Time,” she said. “I thought the rest centre and information bay might encourage people to spend a little more time in the Gunnedah district.”

She pointed to the magnificent Warrumbungle Ranges, Siding Springs Observatory, Coonabarabran’s Miniland, Waterways Wildlife Park in Gunnedah, Lake Keepit Recreation Centre and the Water Tower Museum as having great potential to encourage tourists to spend more time in the Coonabarabran-Gunnedah Area (Miniland and Waterways are no longer in operation).

At 12.06pm, the sundial was pressed into wet cement on top of the brick plinth and the attraction was officially declared open by Gunnedah Shire president Cr Bill Weakley, who paid tribute to the tireless work of Cr Mikie Maas.

“Mikie’s enthusiasm knows no bounds,” he said.

“She has put forward countless suggestions to develop the tourist potential of this district. Often, she has had to battle to gain acceptance for her ideas and many times she has been rebuffed – but she keeps coming back.”

MARIE HOBSON, GUNNEDAH AND DISTRICT HISTORICAL SOCIETY