Room with a View

Our Surveyors had a room with a view recently, when asked by DSE to mark 360 degree directions on the cornice of their recently constructed fire tower at Mount Brenanah north east of Inglewood.

The fire lookouts line up the central string line with the smoke and read the direction on the cornice. Two towers can then compute the fire location by a quick bit of geometry. Following the recent floods, access was compromised and in one point we appeared to be driving down a stream bed rather than a road. After unlocking a series of 8 locks we gained access to the tower, the views from which are impressive. Most of our equipment was hauled up the tower by rope (Josh’s belaying skills proved handy). Our GPS gear was used to orientate to north and then our robotic theodolite was set up in the middle of the tower, with the red spot laser pointer on marks were precisely placed as needed.

Certainly not a routine task and was in fact quite the opposite, being one of the more logistically and physically challenging roles our Field Survey staff have undertaken. Full marks to our guys, for their persistence and problem-solving ability.