The Disputed Country: new book details the lost history of the South Australia-Victoria border

The 64-year legal rivalry between the states over a thin strip of land dividing them could have been forgotten if not for the diligence of Bob Dunn in collaboration with John Deckert.

The pair have compiled a comprehensive account of their findings about Australia's lost border in this fantastic chapter of Australia's history, a book titled 'The Disputed Country'.

Of all their findings about the trials the early surveyors' Wade and White faced, none is described in as much graphic detail as the following.

"Wade and White operated in a wilderness many days travel from the nearest town in the worst of weather conditions and using equipment which had bumped along in a bullock dray over countless logs, stumps and ant mounds."

"White suffered one of the cruelties of the harsh Australian landscape, thirst, and as the grim reaper peered over his shoulder once again he remembered an old bushies trick of bleeding a horse and drinking the blood for moisture.

"He cut a vein in one of his horses necks and drank about a half a pint of blood, which was black, thick and unhealthy."

"As revolting as this beverage was, it revived him enough to stagger the 2.5 kilometres to the Murray where he arrived in a state of exhaustion and undoubtedly had the longest and most pleasurable drink of his life."

On Tuesday, March 14, 2023, about 20 people met Mr Deckert at the historic sandy ridge known as Wades Termination Point (near Serviceton).

It marks the spot within 10 chains or 200 metres in diameter where it was claimed Henry Wade abandoned his survey assignment to peg out the South Australian and News South Wales border in 1847.

Wade began his assignment from Tyer's Arrow, near Nelson, on March 28 1847, not knowing it would lead to a legal dispute spanning 64 years.

Wade, an out-of-work surveyor from Queensland and South Australia, chose White, a trouble-prone son of a squatter, to lay out Australia's first surveyed border.

The unmarked section of the border had become a haven for criminals where neither NSW nor South Australian police could enforce the law.

When Wade left his assignment in 1847, he placed a peg in the ground to mark the point he would revisit and continue his assignment, but it was lost in a Victorian firestorm in 1851.

Wade did not return.

His assistant Edward Riggs White took over the survey two years later.

Mr Dunn's record of the historical events, the geographical landscape, and the early explorers' journeys are recorded in detail in the book.

Mr Deckert shared the results of many years of research by Mr Dunn and himself, an expert in surveying, mapping and historical records, with the small party that gathered in March.

Throughout the late 1800s, it is said, South Australia refused to give up its claim to the Disputed Country.

The case went to the High Courts in 1911 and was appealed to the Privy Council in London, which handed down its findings in Victoria's favour in 1914 that the border should stay where it was.

The author said that more than 150 years after White (and Wade) risked their lives to mark the border on the ground, many believe 250 kilometres of the state's border is still legally undetermined.

Joining the small party on Tuesday, March 14, were Tatiara mayor Liz Goossens, chief executive Anna Champness, West Wimmera Shire mayor Tim Meyer and former mayor Bruce Meyer.

Tatiara councillors also attended.

Mr Dunn and Deckert hope to persuade the two councils to install a plaque at Wades Termination Point with signposts on the West Wimmera Highway directing tourists and historians to the historical point.

Both mayors agreed to take the request back to their elected members for a decision.