Leonard (Len) Beadell OAM BEM FIEMS (b. West Pennant Hills, New South Wales 21 April 1923 - 12 May 1995) was a surveyor, roadbuilder (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". [1]
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At the end of World War II, Len Beadell was required to serve a further 12 months in the Australian 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 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. [1]
Beadell's best known road is the Gunbarrel Highway, so named after the Gunbarrel Road Construction Party[2]which 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" homestead[3]which is 316 km (196 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 1,400 kilometres (870 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.
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 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. [1] 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).
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’)[1]
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".[4]