Australia's 'Straight' Borders Truth 🤯

Transcript: Did you know Australian states' borders appear completely straight on the map but they’re actually far from it?

Well, If you zoom in on Western Australia, you’ll notice the eastern border actually deviates here, creating a gap of 127 meters.

So, how did this happen?

You see, back when the borders were first drawn, surveyors decided to place them along the 129th Meridian. They started drawing from opposite ends, hoping to save time and meet in the middle. Unsurprisingly, the lines didn't match up. And rather than correcting the mistake, they simply drew a horizontal line to connect the points.

However, there’s another straight border with a hidden twist.

The border between Victoria and New South Wales has an even bigger deviation.

It was supposed to set along the 141st Meridian, but it was mistakenly drawn 2 miles west of the intended line.

When the mistake was discovered, New South Wales moved its border to the correct location.

Victoria, however, decided to keep the land they had claimed, leaving us with the oddly mismatched borders we see today.

#history #geography #map #facts #australia #travel #shorts

[blakedickenson]

As a surveyor myself. Having only 127m of error on a 1, 860km border made in the early 1800’s is absolutely insane to me

[Zadrias]

TBF… 127 m of difference when you’re measuring a continent sized line is pretty damn good.

[abcj]

Definitely in keeping with the 'fuck it that will do' attitude of Australia.

[wreckingopossum]

127m is the size of one Costco from end to end, just in case anyone is wondering

[Jordan-vrip]

Real Aussie energy lol. When they found out it was 127m off they said “ah fuck it close enough, let’s go have a beer”.😂

[SeverityOne]

'Ah, bugger, we made a mistake. Now we'll have to start over again.'
'Nah mate, leave it as is, nobody will ever notice. Let's go and have a beer.'
'Fair dinkum.'

[SpooderKng]

As an Australian, this seems like a very Australian thing to do

[Robostate]

"Let's cut off western Australia and make a state! What should we call it?"
"How about Western Australia?"
"Brilliant! Now let’s cut a line across here and put a state south of it! What do we call that?"
"How about South Australia?"
"Brilliant! Now let’s follow this river and put a state down south of that. What do we call that?"
"Why don't we name it after Her Majesty Queen Victoria?"
"Oh, yes, just like the capital of British Columbia! How original! How about this one northeast, what we call that?"
"Why don't we name it after Her Majesty Queen Victoria?"
"Again? Of course! But this one will be Queen?"
"No, Queens!"
"Well, that may get confused with the one in New York City."
"Then how about QueensLAND?"
"Perfect! Now this one down here. What about that one?"
"Wales?"
"Well, there's already a Wales."
"South Wales?"
"Well, there's already a South Wales."
"How about NEW South Wales?"
Yes! So original! And now for this territory up in Northern Australia. We can't call it Northern Australia because it's not a state."
"How about Northern Territory?"
"Excellent! Now there's just this state left on the island of Tasmania. What do we call that?"
"Tasmania?"
"Ridiculous! But then you're probably out of original ideas, so we'll just keep it."

[rifa]

it’s insane how many things have the number 127 like i can’t escape it now

[failthesun]

- hears 127
- sighs
- opens comments

[QuilloManar]

Ultimate "She'll be right" energy 😂😂

[TheRealGregariousGreg]

Imagine living in New South Wales and one day you're in South Australia

[rodbojorge]

I am surveyor my self and I love this historical story keep this type of shorts coming 👏🏽

[enricoiraldo]

“They look straight, but they are far from it”

*describes a discrepancy of the length of a school bus*

[Skye-qjjf]

I’m actually going to cry if this man uses miles instead of km for Australia again

[Admre]

I can just imagine a guy in the middle of nowhere, Australia, trying to draw the border on a bit of paper. Then he sees his buddy 127 metres away and realises he’s messed up

[runoutofnames]

"They are far from it"
"Gap of 127m"

[GoogleUser-ifxi]

To be fair the fact that they measured from opposite ends of this massive country and only got 127 meters off is pretty impressive

[Allrounder]

"Nobody's gonna know...."

"They're gonna know"

[shashankks]

Bro was like, "Nobody's gonna know".