Len Beadell
Encyclopedia
Leonard Beadell OAM
BEM
FIEMS (b. West Pennant Hills
, New South Wales
21 April 1923 - 12 May 1995) was a surveyor
, road
builder (some 6500 km), bushman, artist and author, responsible for opening up the last remaining isolated desert areas (some 2.5 million square kilometers) of central Australia
from 1947 to 1963. Len is sometimes called "the last true Australian explorer".
Survey Corps. In 1946 the British and Australian governments decided to build a rocket testing range in outback Australia, and Beadell was appointed to locate a suitable site. He chose the site which became known as Woomera
in March 1947. Further work was required to select and survey launching pads, the centreline of fire for rockets, an airfield, and a village. His discharge from the Army became effective in December 1948. In November 1949 he was asked to rejoin the project, and began further surveying for the Long Range Weapons Establishment in August 1950. A site for the secret testing of a British atomic bomb was selected by Beadell in 1952, and a road from Mabel Creek to the test site Emu Field
was built by him in March 1953, his first road.
, so named after the Gunbarrel Road Construction Partywhich was assembled under Len - he said he tried whenever possible to make the road as straight as a gunbarrel. The road was built with initial reconnaissance and survey by Len, usually alone, pushing through raw scrub in a Land Rover
. He used a theodolite
to observe the sun or stars for latitude
and longitude
calculations. Once the line of the road had been decided, a bulldozer followed to cut a raw track, clearing away the spinifex
and mulga scrub to form a basic level track. This was then graded using a standard road grader.
The Gunbarrel Highway was begun at "Victory Downs" homesteadwhich is 316 km (196.4 mi) by road to the south of Alice Springs, then pushed 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 about 1400 kilometres (869.9 mi). 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 after his family. The Connie Sue Highway
for his daughter, the Gary Highway
and Gary Junction Road for his son, the Anne Beadell Highway
for his wife and Jackie Junction for his youngest daughter. These roads further opened up the inhospitable country, for a variety of purposes. In addition, Beadell chose and surveyed the location for the Giles Meteorological Station and airstrip (during construction of the Gunbarrel Highway).
In modern times a newer road, the Great Central Road
, has superseded some of Beadell's original tracks by taking a more direct route, made possible with more modern heavy equipment. However, all of Len's original roads still exist, and are popular with hardcore four wheel drive
enthusiasts. They may be difficult to negotiate and require a great deal of preparation.
Almost all of them lie in aboriginal lands which require travel permits.
He was a good caricaturist and watercolour artist. He drew cartoons of staff working at Maralinga and paintings of aborigines who came to the Maralinga camps.
The Beadell family sell books and memorabilia, and his daughter operates a bush tour business.
Beadell Resources, an Australian resources exploration company formed in 2007 and mostly active in remote Western Australia, named itself after "The Last Australian Explorer".
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
BEM
British Empire Medal
The Medal of the Order of the British Empire for Meritorious Service, usually known as the British Empire Medal , is a British medal awarded for meritorious civil or military service worthy of recognition by the Crown...
FIEMS (b. West Pennant Hills
West Pennant Hills, New South Wales
West Pennant Hills is a suburb located in the Hills District region of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. West Pennant Hills is located 25 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district in the local government areas of Hornsby Shire and The Hills Shire...
, New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
21 April 1923 - 12 May 1995) was a surveyor
Surveying
See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...
, road
Road
A road is a thoroughfare, route, or way on land between two places, which typically has been paved or otherwise improved to allow travel by some conveyance, including a horse, cart, or motor vehicle. Roads consist of one, or sometimes two, roadways each with one or more lanes and also any...
builder (some 6500 km), bushman, artist and author, responsible for opening up the last remaining isolated desert areas (some 2.5 million square kilometers) of central Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
from 1947 to 1963. Len is sometimes called "the last true Australian explorer".
Survey Exploration
At the end of World War II, Len Beadell was required to serve a further 12 months in the Australian ArmyAustralian Army
The Australian Army is Australia's military land force. It is part of the Australian Defence Force along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. While the Chief of Defence commands the Australian Defence Force , the Army is commanded by the Chief of Army...
Survey Corps. In 1946 the British and Australian governments decided to build a rocket testing range in outback Australia, and Beadell was appointed to locate a suitable site. He chose the site which became known as Woomera
Woomera, South Australia
The town, or village, of Woomera is located in the south east corner of the Woomera Prohibited Area ; colloquially known as the Woomera Rocket Range...
in March 1947. Further work was required to select and survey launching pads, the centreline of fire for rockets, an airfield, and a village. His discharge from the Army became effective in December 1948. In November 1949 he was asked to rejoin the project, and began further surveying for the Long Range Weapons Establishment in August 1950. A site for the secret testing of a British atomic bomb was selected by Beadell in 1952, and a road from Mabel Creek to the test site Emu Field
Emu Field
Emu Field is located in the desert of South Australia, at . Variously known as Emu Field, Emu Junction or Emu, it was the site of the Operation Totem pair of nuclear tests conducted by the British government in October 1953.The site was surveyed by Len Beadell in 1952...
was built by him in March 1953, his first road.
Gunbarrel Highway
Beadell's best known road is the Gunbarrel HighwayGunbarrel Highway
The Gunbarrel Highway is an isolated desert track in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia. It consists of about of washaways, heavy corrugations, stone, sand and flood plains...
, so named after the Gunbarrel Road Construction Partywhich was assembled under Len - he said he tried whenever possible to make the road as straight as a gunbarrel. The road was built with initial reconnaissance and survey by Len, usually alone, pushing through raw scrub in a Land Rover
Land Rover
Land Rover is a British car manufacturer with its headquarters in Gaydon, Warwickshire, United Kingdom which specialises in four-wheel-drive vehicles. It is owned by the Indian company Tata Motors, forming part of their Jaguar Land Rover group...
. He used a theodolite
Theodolite
A theodolite is a precision instrument for measuring angles in the horizontal and vertical planes. Theodolites are mainly used for surveying applications, and have been adapted for specialized purposes in fields like metrology and rocket launch technology...
to observe the sun or stars for latitude
Latitude
In geography, the latitude of a location on the Earth is the angular distance of that location south or north of the Equator. The latitude is an angle, and is usually measured in degrees . The equator has a latitude of 0°, the North pole has a latitude of 90° north , and the South pole has a...
and longitude
Longitude
Longitude is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east-west position of a point on the Earth's surface. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees, minutes and seconds, and denoted by the Greek letter lambda ....
calculations. Once the line of the road had been decided, a bulldozer followed to cut a raw track, clearing away the spinifex
Triodia (plant genus)
Triodia is a large genus of hummock-forming grass endemic to Australia; they are commonly known as spinifex, although they are not a part of the coastal genus Spinifex. There are currently 64 recognised species...
and mulga scrub to form a basic level track. This was then graded using a standard road grader.
The Gunbarrel Highway was begun at "Victory Downs" homesteadwhich is 316 km (196.4 mi) by road to the south of Alice Springs, then pushed west to the Rawlinson Ranges, skirting south of the Gibson Desert
Gibson Desert
The Gibson Desert covers a large dry area in the state of Western Australia and is still largely in an almost "pristine" state. It is about in size, making it the 5th largest desert in Australia, after the Great Sandy, Great Victoria, Tanami and Simpson deserts.-Location and description:The Gibson...
, via the mission at Warburton
Warburton, Western Australia
Warburton or Warburton Ranges is an Indigenous Australian community in Western Australia, just to the south of the Gibson Desert and located on the Great Central Road and Gunbarrel Highway...
, to connect to an existing road at Carnegie Station. Total distance was about 1400 kilometres (869.9 mi). 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.
Later Roads
Beadell’s sense of humour was well known, and typical was his description (with tongue in cheek) of many of his roads as "highways". The name has stuck, and maps still show the subject roads as highways, despite the reality that they have degraded to single lane tracks through the remote arid areas of central Australia.Following the Gunbarrel Highway, Len built further roads by the same method, naming most of them after his family. The Connie Sue Highway
Connie Sue Highway
The Connie Sue Highway is an outback road that runs from Rawlinna on the Trans-Australian Railway to the Aboriginal community of Warburton on the Great Central Road. Approximately long and running north-south, it lies entirely in the state of Western Australia and crosses the Nullarbor Plain and...
for his daughter, the Gary Highway
Gary Highway
The Gary Highway is a remote road in central Western Australia built by Len Beadell's Gunbarrel Road Construction Party in April and May 1963 and named after Beadell's son who was born earlier that year....
and Gary Junction Road for his son, the Anne Beadell Highway
Anne Beadell Highway
The Anne Beadell Highway is an outback unsealed track linking Coober Pedy, South Australia, and Laverton, Western Australia. The track was surveyed and built by Len Beadell, Australian surveyor, who named it after his wife. -Overview:...
for his wife and Jackie Junction for his youngest daughter. These roads further opened up the inhospitable country, for a variety of purposes. In addition, Beadell chose and surveyed the location for the Giles Meteorological Station and airstrip (during construction of the Gunbarrel Highway).
Legacy
Len Beadell marked fixes (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 of central desert areas, showing such things as "Len Beadell's Tree", and "Len Beadell's Burnt Out Truck". Mount Beadell in Western Australia was formally named after him by the Surveyor General of Western Australia in 1958. There is a stone cairn, memorial plaque, and a replica of his theolodite atop the mountain. (S25°32’ E125°16’)In modern times a newer road, the Great Central Road
Great Central Road
The Great Central Road is a mostly unsealed Australian outback highway that runs 1126 km from Laverton, Western Australia to Yulara, Northern Territory ....
, has superseded some of Beadell's original tracks by taking a more direct route, made possible with more modern heavy equipment. However, all of Len's original roads still exist, and are popular with hardcore four wheel drive
Four Wheel Drive
The Four Wheel Drive Auto Company, more often known as Four Wheel Drive or just FWD, was founded in 1909 in Clintonville, Wisconsin, as the Badger Four-Wheel Drive Auto Company by Otto Zachow and William Besserdich.-History:...
enthusiasts. They may be difficult to negotiate and require a great deal of preparation.
Almost all of them lie in aboriginal lands which require travel permits.
He was a good caricaturist and watercolour artist. He drew cartoons of staff working at Maralinga and paintings of aborigines who came to the Maralinga camps.
The Beadell family sell books and memorabilia, and his daughter operates a bush tour business.
Beadell Resources, an Australian resources exploration company formed in 2007 and mostly active in remote Western Australia, named itself after "The Last Australian Explorer".
Honours
- Len Beadell was awarded the British Empire MedalBritish Empire MedalThe Medal of the Order of the British Empire for Meritorious Service, usually known as the British Empire Medal , is a British medal awarded for meritorious civil or military service worthy of recognition by the Crown...
in 1958 for his work constructing the Gunbarrel Highway. - He was awarded the Order of AustraliaOrder of AustraliaThe Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
medal in 1988 in the Queen's Birthday honours list. - He was a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Mining Surveyors, Australia, hence his postnominal, FIEMS (Aust.).
- He has an asteroidAsteroidAsteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
3161 Beadell3161 Beadell3161 Beadell is a main-belt asteroid discovered on October 9, 1980 by Shoemaker, C. at Palomar.- External links :*...
named after him, an honour bestowed because his roads led to the discovery of several important meteoriteMeteoriteA meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives impact with the Earth's surface. Meteorites can be big or small. Most meteorites derive from small astronomical objects called meteoroids, but they are also sometimes produced by impacts of asteroids...
s in the Australian outback. - The Len Beadell Library, City of Salisbury, Adelaide was renamed in his honour.
- In 1994, Len was named the Australian Geographic Society's Adventurer of the Year.
Books by Len Beadell
- Outback Highways (A compilation of the above books)
- Around The World In 80 Delays: A Traveller's Tale
Books about Len Beadell
- A Lifetime In The Bush: A biography of Len Beadell by Mark Shephard
- Len Beadell's Legacy: Australia's Atomic Bomb and Rocket Roads by Ian Bayly