In the Tracks of Len Beadell Featuring The Anne Beadell Highway, The Gunbarrel Highway and Sandy Blight Junction Road July - August 2013 Kaye Howells Map showing the 6,000km of roads built by the Gunbarrel Road Construction Party and the route we took in red. Map from Len’s Biography, ‘A Lifetime in the Bush’ by Mark Sheppard 2 Contents Map of Journey Page 2 Introduction Page 4 Chapter 1 The Adventure Begins Home to Coober Pedy Page 8 Chapter 2 Anne Beadell Highway Page 22 Chapter 3 Coolgardie Oka Repairs Page 74 Chapter 4 The Goldfields Page 90 Chapter 5 Gunbarrel Highway Page 118 Chapter 6 Sandy Blight Junction Road Page 161 Chapter 7 Alice Springs Page 189 Chapter 8 The Homeward Run Page 205 Postscript Page 219 Bibliography Page 221 Statistics Page 222 Appendix Page 223 Happy Camper 3 Introduction Well here we are again; the time for this year’s trip has arrived. We didn’t have our outback trip last year with me going over to Great Britain with the girls in May so Dean and I were both going through withdrawals during the winter. It has been a big build up to this year’s trip. Dean decided that for better travelling in times of inclement weather we really needed a ‘bus back’ on the Oka. This he organised with friends in the trade with another fellow very happy to have our multi-cab and tray. This all came at some expense but few other body repairs that needed to be done as well as a new paint job on it were attended to. Ian and Dean designed the body and Dean spent a lot of time designing how the interior lay out should go. When he had done that he spent even longer than expected making it all work. He built in an area for the bed with storage underneath from the back and in doing so made allowances for pantry shelves on the outside in the pantry/kitchen area, where two lift up doors were made. Under the bed will be all Dean’s bits and pieces; spare parts, tools, oil, spare water, camping gear such as shower, buckets and chairs. Dean built a well/box type storage area next to the bed and two small wardrobes for our convenience. The door had been moved along one module so Dean built in an area for the Engel Fridge and boxed in an area for the freezer and battery and another for the porta pottie directly behind the cabin. On these we had cushions to sit when needed. Then opposite the door he made another clever cupboard for storage and small indoor kitchen area for the use of the butane gas stove. The bedroom 4 Area behind the cabin, lounge and mini kitchen He wired in speakers and LED lights over the bench seat and reading lamps over the bed. He also put in an outside LED light as well as strip lights in the pantry kitchen storage area and under the back storage area. To assist with the delivery of power to all this, he installed solar panels on the roof in front of the cut down roof rack (for our fire wood) to help charge the multiple batteries he had installed. He also bought and installed a ‘Codan’ high frequency radio for logging into the VKS-737 4WD radio network. This can also be used for emergencies and we also had a satellite phone. Dean even made a special bracket for the large aerial on the back of the vehicle so as not to spoil the photos I sometimes take out of the front window. He had registered our radio and received a call sign, VKS-737 mobile 1366. Dean did much research on the internet for all sorts of things. One of the convenient things he bought was a stainless steel methylated spirit two burner stove. This proved to be very successful and saved carrying gas bottles and having to connect everything. With the butane gas stove as well for boiling the cute one litre kettle he also bought, everything was well organised. Everything took much longer than expected but the finished work was fantastic. He still has some fine tuning to do but it was all systems go for the departure date. The biggest frustration was where to put the spare tyres. When travelling remotely like we do it is wise to carry two spare tyres. One is in the carrier under the vehicle. In all our years of travel we have only had two flat tyres on the land rover due to sharp rocks. The Oka tyres are big and heavy. 5 The Oka before and after 6 For the moment Dean stored the second tyre in the back under the bed, taking up too much room but another system will need to be devised at a later date. In the meantime I carried on doing all the day to day things and working nightshift and gathered bits and pieces together for the trip. I was in charge of getting permits to travel through the Woomera research area on the Anne Beadell Highway and the different aboriginal land areas in the centre of Australia. Between us we devised a route through the remote areas of the deserts of central Australia. As in previous trips we have done a little research on the geography and history. We had chosen to travel along more of the remote roads made by the Gunbarrel Construction Party led by Len Beadell in the 1950s for the then Weapons Research Establishment at Woomera, South Australia. This network of roads then assisted in mapping huge tracts of the Australian outback by the National Mapping team. Len Beadell was a surveyor, bushman, author and pretty well the last Australian explorer. He has written several books about his work, exploits and adventures which are very informative and humorous reading and are also of historical significance. He was a man both Dean and I admire greatly and we were keen to travel in his footsteps albeit in much much more comfort. So first it was back along the Anne Beadell Highway from Coober Pedy across the Great Victoria Desert to Laverton which we travelled west to east in 2011 then north to Wiluna and maybe travel the first six wells of the Canning Stock Route where you are not supposed to take Okas. Then we would travel from Wiluna across the Gibson Desert via the Gunbarrel Highway to Giles Meteorological station which will include the old abandoned section of the Gunbarrel Highway. A new more direct road was built in 1977 connecting Warburton to Giles (The Great Central Road, which continues south west to Laverton). Then we planned to travel south to Surveyor Generals Corner where the South Australian, Northern Territory and Western Australian borders meet, which is also part of the Gunbarrel Highway. This highway continues east to Mulga Park and Kulgera. Though we would be travelling west to east, the road was actually made from east to west over a period of time. We were not continuing all the way but returning to the Great Central Road where we would travel another of Len Beadell’s roads, the Sandy Blight Junction Road to the Gary Junction Road then east to Alice Springs. I worked my five shifts for the fortnight in one week to give me an extra week’s leave. We had 5 busy nights and 2 frantic ones with 5 babies one night and 4 the next all with no dramas. So having worked on Friday night I slept on Saturday morning. Dean continued working on the Oka and I cleaned up the house and got a few last minute things organised. On Sunday morning I was up early buying the perishables then spent the day packing the Oka. When it was all finished Dean couldn’t believe we had done it, and we were actually ready to leave on the scheduled day. On Saturday night I sent the kids to get pizza for tea but on Sunday night I cooked roast turkey breast. The boys had been working on Shane’s car all weekend so when tea was ready Shane and Joel took their meals and one for Erynne back to her place and left us in peace. 7 Chapter One The Adventure Begins - Home to Coober Pedy Monday 8th July Home to Mildura 651kms After a few last minute things we farewelled our friends Mick and Shirley and dropped off some discs of photography and journal backups for safe keeping. After refuelling at Nar Nar Goon we were on our way at 10.45am, a bit late but really a whole day earlier than we expected. Leaving Maryknoll we drove along the dirt Moore Road to the service station on the highway in Nar Nar Goon when a little red car came towards us in the middle of the road. When she didn’t move over we noted she was looking across the paddocks and pointing to her right and veering further across the road to her right in front of us. Fortunately there were no trees on the verge here so Dean moved right over to the left with just the right hand wheels on the road. The woman finally saw us and I noticed the surprised and horrified look on her face as she corrected her vehicle, thank God. It would not have been a very good start to the holiday cleaning up a little car only 5kms from home! We travelled the usual route along the Princes Freeway over the Bolte Bridge in Melbourne and onto the Calder Freeway heading towards Bendigo.