Online Catalogue last updated 17th of September 2023
Straight as a gunbarrel, they bulldozed their way through saltbush, sand-dunes, desert and salt lakes to make Australia's most incredible road - The Gunbarrel Highway.
TOO LONG IN THE BUSH is the story of how, from 1956 to 1958, Len Beaded and his team made the first road to cross Central Australia from east to west, 1500 kilometres from the Alice Springs road to Carnegie homestead 650 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie. On the way he surveyed and built the Giles Meteorological Station and aerodrome before moving on to skirt the edge of the infamous Gibson Desert. Beaded, using astronomical observations, would survey up to 400 kilometres of the projected road entirely alone, often in country then known only to small groups of Aborigines. Returning to his construction team, he would supervise operations as the road was pushed slowly forward through the heat and dust, over sandhill and desert, rounding the desolate salt lakes. In the telling of their adventures, Beadell's happy nature keeps the tale bubbling along with humorous touches that make this remarkable journey one that every armchair traveller will enjoy.
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 Gunbarrel Highway across Central Australia. In 1987 he was made a Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Mining Surveyors (Aust.) and the following year was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia. The author of six best-selling books, he is married with three children, all of whom have features in outback Australia named after them.
Code No. 003261, 176 pages, ISBN 1864367199, $25.00