Lasseter's reef of gold
Lewis Hurbert Lasseter, born in 1880, claimed in 1929 that 18 years earlier,
he had discovered a vast gold bearing reef in Central Australia, at the
western edge of the Macdonnell Ranges. He later changed his story, giving
a date that would have made him 17 at the time. In 1930 he accompanied an
expedition that turned back after finding nothing. Lasseter remained with
one man, with whom he quarrelled. Left alone, he watched his two camels
bolt into the bush. He lived with Aborigines for the next four months but
died of starvation. Rescuers found his body and buried it.
His diary claimed
that he had rediscovered his lost reef and pegged his claim.