Poeppel Corner Survey Marker
| Poeppel Corner Survey Marker | |
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Poeppel Corner Survey Marker, 2013
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| Location | On the border corner of Queensland, South Australia and Northern Territory, Birdsville, Shire of Diamantina, Queensland, Australia |
| Coordinates | 25°59′48″S 137°59′57″E / 25.9968°S 137.9991°ECoordinates: 25°59′48″S 137°59′57″E / 25.9968°S 137.9991°E |
| Design period | 1870s - 1890s (late 19th century) |
| Official name: Poeppel Corner | |
| Type | state heritage (built) |
| Designated | 9 November 2012 |
| Reference no. | 602808 |
| Significant period | 1880- |
 Location of Poeppel Corner Survey Marker in Queensland
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Poeppel Corner Survey Marker is a heritage-listed survey marker at Poeppel Corner on the border corner of Queensland, South Australia and Northern Territory. In Queensland it is with the locality of Birdsville in the Shire of Diamantina. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 9 November 2012.
Poeppel Corner was marked in 1880 during the official survey of the western section of the border between Queensland and South Australian undertaken in 1879-1880. It defines the most westerly corner between Queensland and South Australia. Its marking was a surveying feat of its time.
Letters Patent issued by Queen Victoria in June 1859 separated the new Colony of Queensland from New South Wales (NSW). They described Queensland's border as the watershed from Point Danger (28°8"S) west to the Dumaresq River; the Dumaresq, Macintyre and Barwon Rivers to latitude 29 degrees South; and along latitude 29 degrees South to the 141st meridian of East longitude, which was the eastern boundary of South Australia.
Although legal opinion advised that the 141st meridian was the western boundary of Queensland, Surveyor-General Augustus Charles Gregory believed otherwise. In a memorandum of 28 September 1860 he wrote:
"the western boundary ... appears to be the 141st meridian; but it is probable that it was not described in the Letters Patent erecting the Colony, with greater distinctness, expressly with a view to a future adjustment, when more certain information should have been collected as to the natural features of the country... It is now submitted that the 141st meridian passes through the tract of country known as the `Plains of Promise" and that the Eastern shore [of the Gulf of Carpentaria] possesses no harbours. It would therefore be desirable to adopt the 138th meridian as the boundary; as that line would pass through a barren tract of country, and bring 'Investigator's Road' [an anchorage] within the limits of Queensland."
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