Lasseter's Reef
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Lasseter's Reef refers to the purported discovery, announced by Harold Bell Lasseter in 1929 and 1930, of a fabulously rich
gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...
deposit in a remote and desolate corner of
central Australia Central Australia, also sometimes referred to as the Red Centre, is an inexactly defined region associated with the geographic centre of Australia. In its narrowest sense it describes a region that is limited to the town of Alice Springs and ...
. Lasseter's accounts of the find are conflicting and its precise location remains a mystery—if it exists.


Timeline

In 1929 and again in 1930 Lewis Harold Bell Lasseter (1880–1931) made different (and possibly conflicting) claims that either in 1911 or in 1897, he had discovered a rich gold deposit. On 14 October 1929 he wrote a letter to Kalgoorlie federal member, Albert Green, claiming to have discovered "a vast gold bearing reef in Central Australia" 18 years earlier and that it was located at the western edge of the
MacDonnell Ranges The MacDonnell Ranges, or Tjoritja in Arrernte language, Arrernte, is a mountain range located in southern Northern Territory. MacDonnell Ranges is also the name given to an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia, interim Australia ...
. He made a similar claim to other officials and was interviewed by a commissioner and a geologist, however the government took no action to investigate the claim. It was revealed that from 1908 to 1913 Lasseter lived on a lease-hold farm near
Tabulam Tabulam is a rural village in the far north-east of New South Wales, Australia, 800 kilometres from the state capital, Sydney. Tabulam is located on the Bruxner Highway (Highway 44) between Tenterfield and Casino and on the Clarence River. Ac ...
. In March 1930, he provided a different story to John Bailey of the
Australian Workers' Union The Australian Workers' Union (AWU) is one of Australia's largest and oldest trade unions. It traces its origins to unions founded in the pastoralism, pastoral and mining industries in the late 1880s and it currently has approximately 80,000 ...
. In this claim Lasseter details that as a young man of the age of 17, he rode on horse from
Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...
to the West Australian gold fields, during which he stumbled across a huge gold reef somewhere near the border between the
Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...
and
Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...
. However Lasseter had been sentenced to reform school at that time. According to the story told to Bailey, Lasseter was about west of
Alice Springs Alice Springs () is a town in the Northern Territory, Australia; it is the third-largest settlement after Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin and Palmerston, Northern Territory, Palmerston. The name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William ...
in a line towards
Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie-Boulder (or just Kalgoorlie) is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder as the surroundi ...
. He claimed that subsequent to this discovery he got into difficulties and was fortuitously rescued by a passing
Afghan Afghan or Afgan may refer to: Related to Afghanistan *Afghans, historically refers to the Pashtun people. It is both an ethnicity and nationality. Ethnicity wise, it refers to the Pashtuns. In modern terms, it means both the citizens of Afghanist ...
camel driver who took him to the camp of a surveyor, Joseph Harding. Harding and Lasseter were said to have later returned to the reef in the attempt to fix its location, but failed because their watches were inaccurate. As the expedition with Harding dated in the years before World War I, the two different versions about the finding of the reef could have been unconflicting; it is possible that Lasseter did refer sometimes to his first finding in 1897 and sometimes to the first expedition with Harding. According to Lasseter, he spent the next three decades trying to raise sufficient interest to fund an expedition into the interior. But at the time the fortunes being made from the
gold rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, ...
at Kalgoorlie in Western Australia meant that no-one was prepared to risk trekking into the uncharted desert wilderness of central Australia, even if the supposed discovery was as rich as he claimed.


The 1930 expedition

By 1930, when Australia was in the grip of the
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
, the attractions of desert gold were much greater, and Lasseter succeeded in securing approximately £50,000 in private funding towards an expedition to relocate the reef. Unusual for the time, this expedition included motorised vehicular transport and an aircraft. Accompanying Lasseter were experienced bushmen Fred Blakeley (leader) and Frank Colson as well as George Sutherland (prospector), Phil Taylor (engineer, driver), John Blakeston-Houston (governor-general's aide, 'explorer') and Errol Coote (pilot). On 21 July 1930 the group left Alice Springs but Lasseter was a sullen companion and a vague guide. They headed for Ilbilba (aka Ilbpilla Soak) – an aerodrome created earlier that year for
Donald George Mackay Donald George Mackay Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE (29 June 187017 September 1958) was an Australian outdoorsman, long-distance cyclist, and explorer who conducted several expeditions to the remotest areas of the Australian c ...
's expedition, near
Lake Mackay Lake Mackay, known as Wilkinkarra to the Indigenous Pintupi people, is the largest of hundreds of ephemeral salt lakes scattered throughout the Pilbara and northern parts of the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia and the Northe ...
. The group endured logistical difficulties and physical hardships (including the loss of a plane). On reaching Mount Marjorie (now Mount Leisler), Lasseter declared that they were too far north of the search zone. Exasperated, Blakeley declared Lasseter a
charlatan A charlatan (also called a swindler or mountebank) is a person practicing quackery or a similar confidence trick in order to obtain money, power, fame, or other advantages through pretense or deception. One example of a charlatan appears in t ...
, and decided to end the expedition. They parted with Lasseter at Ilbilba. Lasseter insisted on continuing the trek, accompanied by a dingo-shooter, Paul Johns, and his team of camels. Lasseter, whose behaviour was increasingly erratic, set off towards
Kata Tjuṯa Kata Tjuṯa (Pitjantjatjara: , lit. 'many heads'; ), also known as The Olgas and officially gazetted as Kata TjutaMount Olga, is a group of large, domed rock formations or bornhardts located about southwest of Alice Springs, in the southern par ...
. One afternoon Lasseter returned to camp with some concealed rock samples and announced that he had relocated the gold reef. He refused to reveal its location. Johns, who by now doubted Lasseter's sanity, accused him of being a liar. A fight ensued, and Johns left Lasseter to his own devices, returning to civilisation. Lasseter himself trudged off into the desert sands with two camels. A search for Lasseter was conducted by the Eclipse Gold Expedition, which primarily sought to locate the reef, and his body was discovered by bushman, Bob Buck in March 1931. Buck found Lasseter's emaciated body in a shallow, oval shaped grave, in which the
Pitjantjatjara The Pitjantjatjara (; or ) are an Aboriginal people of the Central Australian desert near Uluru. They are closely related to the Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra and their languages are, to a large extent, mutually intelligible (all are v ...
had buried him. Buck reburied him.
Walter Smith (bushman) Walter Smith also known as Walter Purula (Perrurle) or Wati Yuritja (2 July 1898 – 14 June 1990) was a legendary Australian bushman from the Arltunga region in the Northern Territory of Australia. Wati Yuritja translates as man of the Water Dre ...
was also on this expedition and claimed to have reburied the body again after Buck as the grave was still too shallow. The burial of Lasseter would continue to cause contention until it was finally relocated to the Alice Springs Memorial Cemetery. Buck also located Lasseter's personal effects in a
cave Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's Planetary surface, surface. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance undergrou ...
at Hull's Creek and, from Lasseter's diary, it was learned that after Johns had left, Lasseter's camels bolted, leaving him alone in the desert without any means of sustaining himself or returning. He encountered a group of nomadic Aboriginal people (the Pitjantjatjara), who helped him with food and shelter; despite their help a weakened and blinded Lasseter eventually died of malnutrition and exhaustion after several weeks, having made a belated attempt to walk from the cave to
Uluru Uluru (; ), also known as Ayers Rock ( ) and officially gazetted as UluruAyers Rock, is a large sandstone monolith. It outcrop, crops out near the centre of Australia in the southern part of the Northern Territory, south-west of Alice Spri ...
or Kata Tjuṯa. Various statements by Paul Johns reveal the areas where he and Lasseter travelled and searched while together: the Petermann and Rawlinson Ranges, then south-west to the Warburton Range, then a zigzag course evidently following the ranges eastward to the Western Australian border ending at the Petadi rock hole at the eastern end of the Mann Range in South Australia. Almost out of supplies they then returned to Ilbilba where they parted. Geologists have made various statements as to whether or not there are gold bearing areas in this country. In 1931 geologists T. Blatchford and H.W.B. Talbot accompanying Bob Buck pronounced the region as unpromising but they only inspected the Petermann Range and the eastern end of the Rawlinson Range, travelling no farther west than Sladen Waters. In 2014 geologists W.D. Maier, H.M. Howard and R.H. Smithies likened the southern part of Lasseter's search area to the Bushveld Complex in South Africa where gold deposits do occur and said the region has high potential, quoting a 2002 report of copper-gold vein style material found north of the Cavenagh Range.


Later history

No maps showing the location of the fabled gold reef were ever found, and over subsequent decades the tale of the reef and its discoverer has assumed mythic proportions; it is perhaps the most famous
lost mine The "lost mine" is a popular form of lost treasure legend. Although there are countless examples around the world, several common themes can be traced throughout the various legends. Usually the mines are said to contain valuable elements or min ...
legend in Australia, and remains a "holy grail" among Australian prospectors. Popular adventure-story author
Ion Idriess Ion Llewellyn Idriess (20 September 18896 June 1979) was a prolific and influential Australian author. He wrote more than 50 books over 43 years between 1927 and 1969 – an average of one book every 10 months, and twice published three books i ...
, in his book ''
Lasseter's Last Ride ''Lasseter's Last Ride'' is an Australian book by Ion Idriess. It was his first best seller, selling more than 90,000 copies in Australia. There were five different editions of it.
'' (1931), gives a detailed description of Lasseter's time with the Aboriginal peoples. His diary's notes were hidden from the Aboriginal peoples by being buried under camp fires. They had shunned Lasseter after their Kurdaitcha man "pointed the bone at him" – he was condemned to be ignored and no longer cared for. Another story is told in Pintupi-Luritja language and English in Laatjatanya Yanutja, available in the
Living Archive of Aboriginal Languages The Living Archive of Aboriginal Languages (LAAL) is a digital archive of literature in endangered languages of Australia, containing works in over forty Australian Aboriginal languages from the Northern Territory, Australia. The project to bu ...
. In 1988, Senator
John Panizza John Horace Panizza (; 24 March 1931 – 31 January 1997) was an Australian politician. He was a Senator for Western Australia from 1987 until his death in 1997, representing the Liberal Party. He was a farmer before entering politics. Earl ...
stated that he had "spent a bit of time searching for Lasseter's Reef" and believed that the Telfer mine was the most likely candidate for the lost reef.


In popular culture

Lasseter's Reef became a famous Australian folk tale. It inspired a sub-plot in the film, ''
Strike Me Lucky ''Strike Me Lucky'' is a 1934 Australian comedy musical film starring popular stage comic vaudevillian Roy Rene in his first and only film. It was the fourth feature film from Cinesound Productions but proved a box office disappointment. Direc ...
'' (1934), and Lasseter's fate was recreated in the movie '' Phantom Gold'' (1936). In 1974, Bill Gill Productions and Australian Film School worked on a film version of ''Lasseter's Last Ride''. Two songs are titled "Lasseter's Last Ride"; the first by Peter Dawson and Edward Harrington and performed by Peter Dawson (May 1940), and the second by Dean Thomas (September 2012). Other songs dealing with the subject include: "Lasseter" (James Hermel), "Lasseter" (William Lovelock), "Lasseter's Dream" (
Keith Glass Keith Robert Glass (born 17 September 1946) is an Australian country music singer-songwriter, guitarist, musical theatre actor, record label owner, producer and journalist. In April 1967 he formed a soul music group, Cam-Pact, which released fou ...
), "Lasseter's Gold" (M Vijars, T Davis), and "Lasseters Reef of Gold" (Brian Letton).
Luke Walker James Luke Walker (born September 2, 1943) is an American former pitcher in Major League Baseball who played between and for the Pittsburgh Pirates (1965–66, 1968–73) and Detroit Tigers (1974). He batted and threw left-handed. Walker st ...
's 2013 documentary feature ''Lasseter's Bones'' explores the life and legend of Lasseter and documents the filmmaker's many attempts to locate the notorious Lasseter's Reef. The film also follows Lasseter's elderly son Bob on his last desert expedition to find his father's lost gold and explores the many complex strands of the Lasseter mystery. ''Lasseter's Bones'' was nominated for Best Documentary at the
Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards The Film Critics Circle of Australia (FCCA) is an association of film criticism, cinema critics and film review, reviewers. It includes journalists in "media, television, major national and state papers, radio, national and state, online and fr ...
. In January 2017, an episode of ''
Expedition Unknown ''Expedition Unknown'' is an American reality television series produced by Ping Pong Productions, that follows explorer, archeologist and television presenter Josh Gates as he investigates mysteries and legends. The series premiered on January ...
'' on the American
Travel Channel Travel Channel (stylized as Trvl Channel since 2018) is an American pay television television channel, channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, who previously owned the channel from 1997 to 2007. The channel is headquartered in Manhattan, with ...
, titled "Lasseter's Gold", examined the mystery.


References

;General * . ;Specific


External links


Central Australian Gold Expedition, MacDonnell Ranges, 1930 [picture]
at
National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...
, shows six expedition members: Harold Bell Lasseter in front; others, left to right: Errol Hampton Coote, George Sutherland, Frank Colson, Fred Blakeley, and Philip Taylor. Photo is describe
here

Lasseter's grave in Central Australia
photo at
State Library of New South Wales The State Library of New South Wales, part of which is known as the Mitchell Library, is a large heritage-listed special collections, reference and research library open to the public and is one of the oldest libraries in Australia. Establis ...
. * . Possible 1979 rediscovery of the reef.
Lassertia
– The Lasseter Encyclopedia * . 2007 article by Alison Bevege, reported in ''
The Courier-Mail ''The Courier-Mail'' is an Australian newspaper published in Brisbane. Owned by News Corp Australia, it is published daily from Monday to Saturday in tabloid format. Its editorial offices are located at Bowen Hills, in Brisbane's inner norther ...
''.
Sam Hazlett and the Search for Lasseter's Reef.
{{Authority control 1930s in the Northern Territory Australian folklore Australian gold rushes Australian mythology Exploration of Australia Gold History of Australia (1901–1945) History of Western Australia Lost mines MacDonnell Region