set of legs because they gave more stability to the heavy theodolites then used to take longitudinal and latitudinal observations. This Astro station was used as part of the survey to fix the position of principal towns extending from Brisbane to Boulia via Roma, Charleville and Blackall and enabled the mapping of Queensland on a more accurate basis. It was considered at the time that country to the west of Blackall was beyond the 'black stump'. A stump of petrified wood which marks the location of the original Astro Station is found at the monument in Thistle Street () near Blackall State School. This petrified stump replaces the original blackened timber stump destroyed by fire. Modern culture Beyond the Black Stump is a syndicated cartoon strip, featuring Australian native animals as characters. It is published in papers across Australia including The Courier-Mail in Brisbane, Queensland. The Black Stump Music and Arts Festival was a four-day Christian festival that is held in the Greater Sydney Metropolitan region over the Labour Day long weekend, often the first weekend in October, from 1985 to 2014. In Adelaide, the Grenfell Centre, the city's tallest building during the 1970s, is nicknamed "the black stump". A restaurant chain also operated under the same name, serving popular Australian food, with branches forming as far away as Hong Kong. In the United Kingdom Laithwaite Wines market a durif/shiraz blend from Casella Wines called "Black Stump". See also The Bush Outback Beyond the pale External links Beyond... the BlackStump References Australian culture Rural culture in Oceania