End of an Era

by Len Beadell; 208 pages, illustrated with photos and drawings. As usual, it was hard work and rollicking adventure for the Gunbarrel Road Construction Party as they surveyed and built their last three highways across the deserts of Central Australia. The Gary Highway was to head for 350 km from the gun Barrel Highway to Gary Junction. Then a second Highway of 650 km was planned to join up with the Western Australia road system near Marble Bar. The third would connect the road system near Ethel Creek to a point halfway along the Gary Highway, another 470 Km. And all of This in One Years Work! Len Beadell's team had to contend with flat tires and broken gearboxes as well as all the natural difficulties of the outback country of seemingly never ending sandhills and limitless spinifex plains, searing heat, bitter cold and violent windstorms. But regardless of these conditions, the team maintained a much-needed sense of humor and an awareness of taking part in an exciting adventure. These and many other adventures of the outback are retold in details owned lively and entertaining style. On one forward reconnaissance Beadell discovered a small group of aborigines who had never before seen a white person and also rediscovered two wells on the Canning Stock route. These and many other adventures of the outback are retold in Beadell's on lively and entertaining style Len Beadell who has been called the last of the true Australian explorers was born on a farm at West Pennant Hills, NSW, in 1923. As a surveyor and road builder he has worked all over the Australian Outback from Arnhem Land to the Gibson Desert. In 1958 he was awarded the British Empire Medal for his work in building the Gun Barrel Highway across Central Australia. In 1987 he was made a Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Mining Surveys Surveyors, and the following gear was awarded the medal of the order of Australia. The author of 6 Best selling books.