Description

The Tropic of Capricorn Marker, a Bicentennial community project, is set back 15 metres from the road, along the Stuart Highway 30 kilometres north of Alice Springs. In 1987 the local Alice Springs newspaper ran a competition for a design to replace the Tropic of Capricorn marker. The winning design was submitted by a local resident, it consists of a stylised globe of the world on top of a slanted pole around 6. 5 metres high. A local artist was commissioned to carve the Capricorn Goats into either side of the cement base and the new marker was officially opened late 1988. Overnight camping for 24 hours only is permitted. From Wikipedia: The Tropic of Capricorn (or the Southern Tropic) is the circle of latitude that contains the subsolar point at the December (or southern) solstice. It is thus the southernmost latitude where the Sun can be seen directly overhead. It also reaches 90 degrees below the horizon at solar midnight on the June Solstice. Its northern equivalent is the Tropic of Cancer. Its latitude is currently 23°2611.4 (or 23.43651°) south of the Equator, but it is very gradually moving northward, currently at the rate of 0.47 arcseconds, or 15 metres, per year. Less than 3% of the world's population lives south of it; this is equivalent to about 30% of the population of the Southern Hemisphere.