nugget
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This a copy of a post I have done on an Australian Land Rover forum. As background information, Len Beadell was an army surveyor who cut roads thru the virgin bush in the 50's and 60's. He drove an army Land Rover and was followed by a D10, Grader and chuck wagon. It all revolved around the rocket and atomic testing being done at Woomera, Emu and Maralinga by the British.
I had already covered a couple of thousand k’s to get to Coober Pedy and was about to start the Anne Beadell Highway, another of his tracks named after his wife when I found the post and decided to do a “small detour.”
This is remote Aussie bush. The Centre Line track was cut by Len in 1951 and in fact is the centre line of fire from the launch pad at Woomera and he cut a track along it and placed pegs with canvas paged to the ground to form X's at 50 mile intervals for markers for observation from the air. The Edijt's boys had done the track 2.5 months before me in a convoy for 4 vehicles with 2 ex surveyors on board. The last entry in the visitor book before them was 2007! I was on my own and 400kms from the nearest help so this is how it went.....
I was sitting at Coober Pedy waiting to leave for the Anne Beadell the next day and cruising around the forum when I found Bushie's Centre Line post.
Firstly a massive thank you to Bushie for his help in very short time which enabled me to follow their footsteps. Without his help I would not have done it, being on my own but I was well prepared and with a copy of their Ozi Explorer track log and hopefully some tyre tracks to follow I set off.
The track wasn't that evident once you got along it a bit as the prevailing winds had erased EDJITS tracks in places which made things interesting.
Greeting me the first morning....only a 1 plug fix
Unfortunately when I went to fix the flat, I found that my trusty old 2nd battery had died and as the pump was connected to it, I had to rig up a by pass....this was doubly important as the fridge was also connected to the doggy battery and the beer was getting warm.
One thing I did forget in the packing was a jack plate for in the sand.... am sure I am not the first Defender driver to use the cover from under the seat..
The track was pretty tight between the mulga and took plenty with me..by the end of the track there was about a .6m of leaves and sticks between the back of the cab and the canvas on the crew cab
I had already covered a couple of thousand k’s to get to Coober Pedy and was about to start the Anne Beadell Highway, another of his tracks named after his wife when I found the post and decided to do a “small detour.”
This is remote Aussie bush. The Centre Line track was cut by Len in 1951 and in fact is the centre line of fire from the launch pad at Woomera and he cut a track along it and placed pegs with canvas paged to the ground to form X's at 50 mile intervals for markers for observation from the air. The Edijt's boys had done the track 2.5 months before me in a convoy for 4 vehicles with 2 ex surveyors on board. The last entry in the visitor book before them was 2007! I was on my own and 400kms from the nearest help so this is how it went.....
I was sitting at Coober Pedy waiting to leave for the Anne Beadell the next day and cruising around the forum when I found Bushie's Centre Line post.
Firstly a massive thank you to Bushie for his help in very short time which enabled me to follow their footsteps. Without his help I would not have done it, being on my own but I was well prepared and with a copy of their Ozi Explorer track log and hopefully some tyre tracks to follow I set off.
The track wasn't that evident once you got along it a bit as the prevailing winds had erased EDJITS tracks in places which made things interesting.
Greeting me the first morning....only a 1 plug fix
Unfortunately when I went to fix the flat, I found that my trusty old 2nd battery had died and as the pump was connected to it, I had to rig up a by pass....this was doubly important as the fridge was also connected to the doggy battery and the beer was getting warm.
One thing I did forget in the packing was a jack plate for in the sand.... am sure I am not the first Defender driver to use the cover from under the seat..
The track was pretty tight between the mulga and took plenty with me..by the end of the track there was about a .6m of leaves and sticks between the back of the cab and the canvas on the crew cab