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Centre Line Track off Anne Beadell Highway, remote bush Aussie

nugget

Well-Known Member
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245
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Where Gunner_45 can not find me
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.

sfa09-07-120197.jpg


Greeting me the first morning....only a 1 plug fix

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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.

sfa09-07-120182.jpg


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..

sfa09-07-120190.jpg


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

sfa09-07-120238.jpg
 

nugget

Well-Known Member
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245
Location
Where Gunner_45 can not find me
Reaching the 250 mile peg was really exciting. Len had been in this exact spot and done his thing in 1951, 4 years before I was born and the condition of what he left was amazing.
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A quick satellite phone call to Bushie to thank him for his help and a bit of a leg on trying to find the astro station and I was exploring again.

As this had not been part of my original plan, I didn't have a Garmin with me but drawing on all the available resources the white painted rock with Edjits post nearby by were found with my...IPhone...


sfa09-07-120211.jpg


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The heaviest going was between the 250 and Dingo claypan and I took a wrong option at a Y in the tyre tracks and whilst turning around....you guessed it, staked a side wall which needed 4 plugs. The investment in the tyre monitoring system paid for itself right there as I am sure I would probably shredded the tyre if I hadn't been able to stop so quickly before it started running on the rim.

By now I had decided to fix the tyre as much as possible as it was likely to get staked again anyway and this was the same tyre I had already plugged.

sfa09-07-120223.jpg


Between Dingo Claypan and the 300, the track is well defined and I assumed that it followed the original track but when I got to the 300 and checked the screen, I saw how much it deviated and how Edjits had fllowed the original track. No option but to head bush until I picked up their tracks and followed it until it met up with the manin track again. Some one else wasn't quite so keen on their new option and placed logs across their track..

sfa09-08-120310.jpg


Again a massive thank you to Bushie. This was of enormous help. My only regret is I didn't recover your pre cleaner for you!

sfa09-08-120312.jpg
 

ReconH3

Guardian Angel
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2,288
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Raleigh, NC
Coober Pedy is such a strange place. Made me feel like I was in an old western movie. Got me a beautiful hat there though.
 

Chook

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Messages
706
Location
Brisbane (Australia)
Looks like a great trip Nugget. Hope all goes well (& your beers stay cold).

I was going to call you today but then I remembered you were on your adventure. You haven't made a bushing for the H3 steering rack have you ??? (I am still kicking myself that I didn't ask about the bump stops before paying a motza for shipping from the States)

I am going to Ultimate Power Steering @ Brendale to see if they have a fix (or at least parts) for the Steering Rack.

Cheers,
Chook
 

Bigunit

Hammer Down!
Staff member
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6,558
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Arizona
Great trip, great report. How much extra gas and water do you carry for a trip like that one?

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapataint.
 

Chook

Well-Known Member
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706
Location
Brisbane (Australia)
Fantastic stuff! I love reading your trip reports Nugget. Question: You make reference to "The 250" and "The 300". What are those?

KM or Mile Marker I would suggest

Yep....... I just read Nuggets post above he mentions the 250 Mile Peg (and a photo of him standing beside it)
 
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Hunner

Well-Known Member
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2,334
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Arkansas
And all this time I thought you were older than me!!
Keep it coming, I love your tenacity and spirit of adventure.
 

nugget

Well-Known Member
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245
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Where Gunner_45 can not find me
Great trip, great report. How much extra gas and water do you carry for a trip like that one?

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapataint.

My main diesel tank is 75L (19.8 gal ) and I have another 100L (26.4 gall) in aux sill tanks. Highway distance is 1200kms (745miles) . Total track length was 1300kms (not including side track) with one fuel point at 850kms which I made it to with just 75kms of fuel left....cutting it a bit too fine.

I carried 60L of water.
 

nugget

Well-Known Member
Messages
245
Location
Where Gunner_45 can not find me
Fantastic stuff! I love reading your trip reports Nugget. Question: You make reference to "The 250" and "The 300". What are those?


Yes it is the 250 and 300 mile marker peg from the centre of the launch pad at Woomera. Unfortunately the 350 and 400 are on land owned by our Indigenious brother who no longer give permission to travel accross the land...don't get me started!!
 

alrock

El Diablo
Staff member
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10,442
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Scottsdale
Yes it is the 250 and 300 mile marker peg from the centre of the launch pad at Woomera. Unfortunately the 350 and 400 are on land owned by our Indigenious brother who no longer give permission to travel accross the land...don't get me started!!
We have those same problems here to some extent - well, at least according to the reservation cop that gave me a ticket.
 

nugget

Well-Known Member
Messages
245
Location
Where Gunner_45 can not find me
I should have posted this first so everyone could see where/what I was upto. The black line is the way out and the green is the return leg with a few days break in Perth to catch up with some relatives.

Total length of the trip was 9,609 Kms (5,965 miles) with 5,356 kms (3,328 miles) on my favoured dirt tracks...the use of the term highway in the Aussie bush is loose a description as you can get...bit like calling Gunner_45's scrotum tight.

Over all I used 1,486 litres of diesel which in my lingo worked out at 15.4l/100kms...not bad considering the amount of dirt and off road I did. Most expensive was a small indigenous roadhouse 350kms east of Laverton were I paid $2.70/L as opposed to $1.51/L in town. "Apparently" their eftpos was not working and I had to pay cash...bet that went through the books....

Expedition to SFA.JPG
 

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