Lasseter’s Diary: Transcribed with Mud-Maps

Harold Bell Lasseter had always claimed he had found an immense reef of gold hundreds of miles west of Alice Springs. In 1930, with Australia in the grip of Depression, a privately funded expedition led by Fred Blakeley, accompanied Lasseter in an attempt to relocate the reef. Blakeley left Lasseter at Ililba, and Lasseter continued his trek towards the Olgas with a dingo shooter and their camels. Lasseter continued to be introspective and brood, prompting Lasseter to go off alone with two camels.

In March 1931 an expedition led by bushman Bob Buck found Lasseter’s body at Winter’s Glen, and his diary at Hull’s Creek, wherein it describes how after his camels bolted, he was alone in the desert, encountering a group of nomadic Aboriginals who offered him food and shelter. Blind, exhausted and dying, Lasseter made one last attempt to walk from Hull’s Creek to Uluru.

The diary was purchased by Ion Idriess from Lasseter’s widow in 1931, and from it he wrote the best-seller Lasseter’s Last Ride. Here is the transcription of the diary with its original mud-maps and drawings.