4. FYI UPDATE NOVEMBER 2010
One of the more interesting pieces of information relating to the Kelly's is the 1884 survey map. To understand or interpret it, one needs to know how such a map was made.
The method used was a surveying technique called stadia. The positions of geographic features were measured in relation to a series of base stations (pegs) using a theodolite and staff. The base stations were laid out at strategic positions using a theodolite and chain (measuring tape). A theodolite is a kind of telescope attached to vertical and horizontal protractors, mounted on a tripod.
The chain man would hold the staff vertically and call out the name of the feature being identified. The surveyor first measured the distance to the staff. This was done by subtracting the lesser reading from the greater reading of two small horizontal cross hairs above and below the main viewing centre. The result was multiplied by 100 giving a distance in the units of the graduations (commonly in feet) of the staff. The bearing was read from a horizontal protractor on the theodolite.
Thus the surveyor recorded distance, bearing and remark for each feature. He would also draw a sketch to make it easier for the draftsman.
The 1884 map shows 'scene of the police murders' on the east bank of Stringy Bark Creek. This could have been placed there based on the draftsman's own knowledge or copied from the surveyor's sketch. It also shows a hut opposite across the creek. I believe this hut probably wasn't there in 1878. The map also shows a deliberately marked spot at the flat clearing on the east bank of the Creek where the police set up their camp.
This stadia position probably refers to the ruins of the 'shingle hut' that Ned referred to. In the original photos taken at the crossed logs the two posts were said to be the ruins of the other hut. The shingle hut was located behind the camera and its condition at the time of the shootings cannot be known with any certainty. It was built in the 1860's and was a known landmark. If it were still standing in 1878, it would have taken only one cracked shingle for the roof to leak making it uninhabitable or significantly unbearable during the frequent rain periods.
A close look at the features marked 'old gold diggings' and the springs on Kelly's Creek shows filling within the perimeter of the features. This is a standard method of showing the location of the area of the map referred to. This contrasts the area marked 'dead timber' on Kelly's Creek. The words cross the dotted line that must have represented the fence line, as the area within has not been filled. Different symbols can be used to represent a fence, but a dogleg fence needs no post holes, and much of it would have fallen by 1884. The fence line would have been located using stadia, and the 'dead timber' copied off the surveyor's sketch. The 'old gold diggings ' on Kelly's Creek originated in the 1860's and the reworking by the Kelly's would have been hard to distinguish by 1884.
When the road was built to the sawmill, the designer drew a line into Kelly's Hut on the 1884 plan. The surveyor would have traversed a line into the hut with a series of stations (pegs) not necessarily in a straight line, as long as each peg could be seen from the one either side. The distance and angle from peg to peg was then measured and the offset of each peg from the theoretical straight line calculated. Thus by placing a new peg at its correct offset a straight line was formed. This line was cleared. The road was built right over the prospector's hut site and beyond it across the Creek.
The 1884 survey map also shows lines of tuff-like features that appear to follow some kind of contour. A comparison with a modern contour map and the actual site itself shows they don't follow the actual contours. They are more of an artistic impression and tend to misrepresent what was actually there.
I first saw the 1884 survey map in Keith McMenomy book in 1987. It rekindled my interest in the Kelly story. I was trained as a survey technician in the early 1970's and studied surveying at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
Steve McCarthy
08/11/2010