Len Beadell

Len Beadell (b. West Pennant Hills, New South Wales 1923 - May 12, 1995) was a surveyor, roadbuilder and bushman, responsible for opening up the last remaining isolated desert areas (some 2.5 million square kilometers) of central Australia in the 1940s and 1950s. Len is sometimes called "the last true Australian explorer". Working as a surveyor in the British Army (Army Survey Corps), he was asked by the government to build a road across the interior of Australia in 1947 as part of the search for a suitable site for weapons testing. This first road was the Gunbarrel Highway, so named after the "gunbarrel crew" which was assembled under Len - he said he always tried whenever possible to make the road as straight as a gunbarrel.

The road was built using initial reconnaissance and surveying by Len (often working alone) by pushing through raw scrub with a Land Rover, using Celestial navigation for latitude and longitude measurements. Once the line of the road had been decided, a bulldozer followed to cut a raw track, clearing away the spinifex and mulga scrub as needed, and forming a basic level track. This was then graded using a standard road grader.

The Gunbarrel Highway was pushed through from east to west starting at the Stuart Highway to the west of Alice Springs, due west to the Rawlinson Ranges, skirting south of the Gibson Desert, via the mission at Warburton, to connect to an existing road at Carnegie Station. Total distance was over 1,400 km. Len's stories of the building of this road are told in the first of his numerous books Too Long in the Bush, a reading of which will give some insight into the incredible feat that building this road was. Len suffered near starvation, many mechanical breakdowns, countless punctures and other mishaps, all in searing desert heat, but seemingly took it all in his stride with good humour.

Following the Gunbarrel Highway, Len built further roads by the same method, naming most of them for his family. The Connie Sue Highway for his daughter, the Gary Highway and Gary Junction Road for his son, and the Anne Beadell Highway for his wife. These roads further opened up the inhospitable country, for a variety of purposes. The main reason was to establish the weapons testing facility at Woomera, and also the place where the British atomic bomb was tested, Maralinga (aboriginal for "thunder"). These sites were surveyed and selected by Len. In addition, Len surveyed and chose the location for the Giles Meteorological Station.

In modern times, a newer road, the Great Central Road has superseded some of Len's original tracks, by taking a more direct route - possible with more modern heavy equipment. However, all of Len's original roads still exist, and are popular with hardcore four wheel drive enthusiasts, though they are difficult going and almost all of them lie in aboriginal lands and require travel permits, as well as a great deal of preparation.

Len Beadell marked many waypoints along his roads with aluminium plates on which latitude, longitude and other information was stamped. Many of these have sadly been taken as souvenirs; there is a program underway to replace these with replicas. Len's legacy is also to be seen on many standard Australian road maps showing the central desert areas - apart from geographical features such as Mt. Beadell, named after Len - most maps show such things as "Len Beadell's Tree", and "Len Beadell's Burnt Out Truck", these being the only notable landmarks in an otherwise vast and featureless region.

Len Beadell was awarded the British Empire Medal in 1958 for his work constructing the Gunbarrel Highway. He was awarded the Order of Australia medal in 1988 in the Queen's birthday honours list. He also has an asteroid named after him, an honour bestowed because his roads led to the discovery of several important meteorites in the Australian outback.