End of An Era

Beyond the Gunbarrel Highway: The Final Push Across the Western Deserts

by Len Beadell

Rigby, 1983, [First Edition], ISBN 0727018000, black and white photographic plates, black and white illustrations in text, illustrated endpapers (maps), hardcover, dustjacket

Very Good Condition, some edge and shelf wear, some rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, some foxing to some pages, no inscriptions, ex-library stickers to back endpaper, tape residue to covers, stamp to bottom fore edge, dustjacket shows a little edge and shelf wear, with a little rubbing, bumping and creasing (see photographs)

“The Gunbarrel Road construction party has gone bush again… and in this his sixth book Len Beadell shares their hard work and rollicking adventures as they survey and make their last three ‘highways’ in the deserts.  The difficulties they faced called for all their ingenuity and imagination, yet through it all is seen the thrill of a great adventure.
The Gary Highway was planned as a connecting road heading north from the Gunbarrel Highway 340 kilometres to Gary Junction.  From this point a second highway would be surveyed and constructed heading north-west for 650 kilometres to connect with the Western Australian Road system somewhere near Marble Bar.  The third highway was planned further south to connect the road system near Ethel Creek with a point halfway along the Gary Highway, a distance of 470 kilometres.  And all this in one year’s work!
Len Beadell and his party had to contend with the heat, cold, and windstorms of the outback, as well as countless flat tyres, broken gearboxes and clutches, and what seemed like never-ending sandhills or limitless spinifex plains.  Regardless of the conditions, the party maintained a sense of humour and a sense of taking part in a history-making adventure.
A small native tribe which had never seen a white person were discovered by Len Beadell on a forward reconnaissance and two wells on the Canning Stock Route were rediscovered.  These and many other adventures will keep the reader engrossed in this latest entertaining book of outback adventures with Len Beadell.”