200 miles to Giles.. Pano
It was towed to this location for ages by Len's dozer.. see book covering the Sandy Blight Junction Rd.
"Beating About the Bush"
On a #roundAustraliawithSpelio trip
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunbarrel_Road_Construction_Party
In Len Beadell's book Beating about the Bush, he explained how the name of the party was derived. During many kilometres of driving around sand-ridges and spinifex hummocks, the mental picture of a corkscrew kept appearing before his mind's eye, when the word "straight" described what was desired. Suddenly the word "gunbarrel" representing something very straight materialised in his mind, so on return to camp, he announced to his team that they were to be known as the Gunbarrel Road Construction Party. This was well received by the men, and the name passed into folklore.
He later joked, "It didn't matter that when we got to the sandhills, a more suitable name might have been 'The Corkscrew Road Construction Party'".
Beadell's usual method for building roads was to carry out a solo reconnaissance in his Land Rover, bush-bashing through virgin scrub, referring to a magnetic compass for direction, and the vehicle's odometer for distance. When he had determined a feasible path he would return to camp and guide a bulldozer by standing on top of his vehicle while flashing reflected sunlight from a mirror towards the driver. Beadell joked that the bulldozer driver followed the flashing mirror for eight years and never caught it.
If large sandhills intervened, flares fired from a pistol were employed. Some of his reconnaissance forays took many days, hundreds of kilometres, and usually several punctured tyres. He used a theodolite to observe stars, the Sun and the Moon to accurately calculate his position which he termed an "astrofix".
If the path ahead consisted of thick scrub or trees, the bulldozer made the first pass with the blade above ground level to knock the scrub down, then returned with blade lowered to clear the debris. The next pass partially overlapped the first to widen the road.
A grader would then make up to five passes over the freshly cleared track, followed by a "cherry-picker" to remove sticks, roots, or stones by hand.
Beadell had built two roads prior to the formation of the GRCP. The first was from Mabel Creek station (west of Coober Pedy) to Emu Field (Feb-Mar 1953), the second was from Maralinga to Emu Field (Aug-Sep 1955). Bill Lloyd was then a member of his road building team. In November 1955, the first members of the GRCP all hand-picked by Beadell, rendezvoused near Coober Pedy with their vehicles and equipment to start work.
The convoy consisted of three trucks, two Land Rovers, a grader, a bulldozer and several trailers. Led by Len Beadell, the convoy made its way to Victory Downs just over the border in the Northern Territory to begin construction of the Gunbarrel Highway, the first east-west road across central Australia.
The original personnel of the GRCP were:
Len Beadell - Surveyor and Leader
Doug Stoneham - D8 Bulldozer
Scotty Boord - Grader
Bill Lloyd - Supply driver
Rex Flatman - General mechanic
Willy Appleton - Cherry-picker
Paul Christensen - Cook
See the ARB 1980s video... "AROUND ABOUT BACK AND BEYOND"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbPC4RWbou4
mentioned in the ARB 4X4 ACTION no.43 magazine!
200 miles to Giles.. Pano
It was towed to this location for ages by Len's dozer.. see book covering the Sandy Blight Junction Rd.
"Beating About the Bush"
On a #roundAustraliawithSpelio trip
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunbarrel_Road_Construction_Party
In Len Beadell's book Beating about the Bush, he explained how the name of the party was derived. During many kilometres of driving around sand-ridges and spinifex hummocks, the mental picture of a corkscrew kept appearing before his mind's eye, when the word "straight" described what was desired. Suddenly the word "gunbarrel" representing something very straight materialised in his mind, so on return to camp, he announced to his team that they were to be known as the Gunbarrel Road Construction Party. This was well received by the men, and the name passed into folklore.
He later joked, "It didn't matter that when we got to the sandhills, a more suitable name might have been 'The Corkscrew Road Construction Party'".
Beadell's usual method for building roads was to carry out a solo reconnaissance in his Land Rover, bush-bashing through virgin scrub, referring to a magnetic compass for direction, and the vehicle's odometer for distance. When he had determined a feasible path he would return to camp and guide a bulldozer by standing on top of his vehicle while flashing reflected sunlight from a mirror towards the driver. Beadell joked that the bulldozer driver followed the flashing mirror for eight years and never caught it.
If large sandhills intervened, flares fired from a pistol were employed. Some of his reconnaissance forays took many days, hundreds of kilometres, and usually several punctured tyres. He used a theodolite to observe stars, the Sun and the Moon to accurately calculate his position which he termed an "astrofix".
If the path ahead consisted of thick scrub or trees, the bulldozer made the first pass with the blade above ground level to knock the scrub down, then returned with blade lowered to clear the debris. The next pass partially overlapped the first to widen the road.
A grader would then make up to five passes over the freshly cleared track, followed by a "cherry-picker" to remove sticks, roots, or stones by hand.
Beadell had built two roads prior to the formation of the GRCP. The first was from Mabel Creek station (west of Coober Pedy) to Emu Field (Feb-Mar 1953), the second was from Maralinga to Emu Field (Aug-Sep 1955). Bill Lloyd was then a member of his road building team. In November 1955, the first members of the GRCP all hand-picked by Beadell, rendezvoused near Coober Pedy with their vehicles and equipment to start work.
The convoy consisted of three trucks, two Land Rovers, a grader, a bulldozer and several trailers. Led by Len Beadell, the convoy made its way to Victory Downs just over the border in the Northern Territory to begin construction of the Gunbarrel Highway, the first east-west road across central Australia.
The original personnel of the GRCP were:
Len Beadell - Surveyor and Leader
Doug Stoneham - D8 Bulldozer
Scotty Boord - Grader
Bill Lloyd - Supply driver
Rex Flatman - General mechanic
Willy Appleton - Cherry-picker
Paul Christensen - Cook
See the ARB 1980s video... "AROUND ABOUT BACK AND BEYOND"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbPC4RWbou4
mentioned in the ARB 4X4 ACTION no.43 magazine!