Note about Lasseter's reef of gold

Lewis "Harold Bell" Lasseter was born 27th September 1880.He was only 20 years old in 1900 when he attempted to walk alone from Alice Springs to the Western Australian coast. He would have perished, had he not been found and cared for by a surveyor named Harding.

During this trip he claimed to have found a huge reef of gold 10 miles long (surveyed by Harding) at the western edge of the Macdonnell Ranges. He retold different versions of this story many times. In one version he was 17 at the time he discovered the gold. Consequently, he was not easily believed.

In 1930, during the Great Depression, he managed to gain the confidence of the Australian Workers Union to whom the prospect of finding a reef of gold on such a scale was enticing. A company was formed with a capital of £5,000 to find the gold. It was called The Central Australian Gold Exploration Company Limited (C.A.G.E).

After considering hiring a Fokker tri-motor for £2,300, the company purchased a DH60M Moth for £605. The Moth was registered as VH-UMR and the Co. named it Golden Quest.

Bushman, Fred Blakely, was the leader of the expedition. Pilot Errol Coote, a local Alice Springs carrier, was second in charge. on July 16th 1930 Coote left Mascot and landed the Moth on a street in Alice Springs on the 18th. He parked it behind the Government Resident's Office until a base-camp could be established. Eventually, they decided to use the now deserted base-camp set up by the MacKay Expedition at Ilbilba about 300 km to the west of the Alice. They set out on the 21st July with two unsuitable Thornycroft trucks.

A series of unfortunate incidents followed:

• The Golden Quest crashed, injuring the pilot and forcing the Company to purchase Golden Quest 2.
• The trucks became bogged in sand with temperatures exceeding 50 deg.C.
• Low on fuel, Coote was forced to land Golden Quest 2 at Ayres Rock and damaged the propeller.
• Coote was then replaced by pilot Captain W.L. Pittendrigh (a former World War 1 Ace).
• Pittendrigh got lost trying to find the base-camp and was forced to land, nearly perishing for lack of water.
• Three RAAF Moths were sent from Point Cook to find the lost pilot and one of them was damaged after hitting an ant-hill while taking-off.

On the 15th September 1930, Lasseter left the base-camp with 7 camels and headed South West in search of the reef that he had claimed to have seen from the air, in Golden Quest 2.

After about 6 weeks his camels bolted. He was able to recover most of his supplies on foot and was assisted to a cave at Tjuunti by Aborigines and lived there for about 60 days while he waited in vain for rescue. He kept a diary and wrote letters to his wife. These he buried under the ashes of his fireplace, before trying to walk out. Lasseter got close to Shaw Creek when he collapsed and died. He was buried by an Aboriginal couple who marked his grave.

This was about the end of January 1931. Coote had wanted to carry on and search for him because there also were 3 RAAF aircraft in the area. However, just a couple of weeks before Lasseter had died the expedition pulled out, leaving him to his fate.

In March 1931, local station owner Bob Buck found the grave, fenced it and retrieved the diary and letters before returning to the Alice in May 1931.

There is a commentary and occasional apocrypha on Harold Lasseter and the search for that fabulous golden reef, see LASSETERIA. According to its author, it is written for those who have read Lasseter's Last Ride or Hell's Airport or perhaps Dream Millions, or any of a dozen or so books and hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles written on one of Australia's most enduring frauds and legendary characters.