Is this a classic case of a Goldfields con?  As you can see from the google earth images below, there is a landmark clearly identified as Toonarrie Rock.  This was my planned destination of my 10km walk from Burra Rock.

I discovered the co-ords on the internet.  I entered them into my GPSr before leaving Perth.  This was in case of emergency as I had planned to walk the trek largely by compass bearing.  Only when I knew I was close, I switched on the GPSr and followed the arrow for the last 500m or so.  At the point where the distance to target read “0.0m” there was not a rock to be seen – near or afar.  Like previous (rock) landmarks I had expected to see this rock from a distance well before I stumbled across it.  The maps suggested it was of reasonable size.

A wave of panic swept over me – had I put the co ords in wrong and I was now in the middle of nowhere?  I decided to walk around and look for a suitable place to sit down and take stock.  Very soon I located a large pool of water and lots of orange dirt – eureka!

My excitement was short lived!  The area was not rock but a very large patch of course sand with a sprinkling of granite.  So where was I?  I retrieved my map from the backpack and manually calculated the co-ords at the centre of the rock.  I then re-entered these and pressed “goto” on the GPSr.  The arrow spun around and pointed 60m that way.  I had already explored the area in a 100 radius so I knew I must be on the money where I was..

I appreciate adjustments for declination, magnetic north, grid north etc but surely I couldn’t be this far out?  Other manual co-ords to map readings were fine.

I am still uncertain as to whether I got it wrong or there was an overzealous cartographer who had never been to Toonarrie Rock.  Either way I was suitably disappointed about the end result of weeks of planning! 

Ironically, when I returned to Burra Rock the next day (taking a slightly different route) I came across an expanse of rock some 2.5k ESE of Toonarrie Rock.  I’m convinced it was not the missing landmark – but I couldn’t help feeling slightly cheated.