Lasseter's Cave: Hunt for the NT's lost gold reef
Carpark at the Tjunti Reserve near Kaltukatjara (Docker River)
Detour off the road and discover one of Australia’s unique and contested legends.
Crossing the Australian continent on the Great Central Road is one of the outback’s most interesting and rewarding journeys, filled with colourful desert scenery, Indigenous culture and folklore written on the deeds and misadventures of explorers, pioneers and prospectors. One legend many travellers encounter on the route, near the Western Australia/Northern Territory border, concerns Lasseter’s Reef and the demise of its eccentric namesake.
Lewis Hubert (later Harold Bell) Lasseter was born in 1880 at Bamganie, Victoria. Self-educated, he was literate and well spoken, but described by many as a man of most eccentric nature and quite opinionated. The dream of making a fortune during the Great Depression led Lasseter into prospecting through the rocky hills of Central Australia. Claiming to have discovered the existence of a fabulously wealthy gold-bearing reef, he persuaded a group of investors to mount an expedition to “rediscover” it, with him as guide.
The path approaching Lasseter’s Cave
Led by Fred Blakeley, the seven-man party headed west out of Alice Springs on 21 July 1930, but was soon plagued by argument and dissent, stemming mainly from Lasseter’s moody and peculiar behaviour. No trace of the lost reef was found and, when accidents and rough terrain forced the expedition members to retreat in September, Lasseter carried on his search with dingo hunter Paul Johns, an English dogger, who had a string of camels. When they also quarrelled and parted company, Lasseter continued alone with two of the camels.
But he was no bushman or cameleer and, when the animals bolted, Lasseter was left stranded in a sun-scorched landscape without food or water supply. In desperate straits, he struggled westward until he happened upon a small cave in a rocky outcrop beside the Hull River. Lasseter sheltered there for 25 days during January 1931, at a time when the Hull would have been little more than a sandy course with a few shallow soaks.
Lasseter’s Cave (Kulpi Tjuntinya)
In a diary that was later discovered in this remote refuge, Lasseter recorded an account of his journey, claiming that he had rediscovered his vast gold reef and pegged a claim, but added poignantly “What good a reef worth millions? I would give it all for a loaf of bread.”
He was eventually found by a family of local Pitjantjatjara people, who shared enough of their meagre rations to revive him a little. Although still weak from starvation, Lasseter left the cave intending to meet a relief party at Mount Olga (Kata Tjuta), 140km to the east. After three days and 55km, he reached Irving Creek in the Pottoyu Hills, where he spent his final days before succumbing to exhaustion and dying. His body was found and buried beside the creek in March 1931 but was later re-interred in the Alice Springs cemetery.
The legend of Lasseter’s Reef continues to excite debate and ignite the imagination of Australian outback wanderers. Whether it is real or a grandiose hoax, his name is immortalised in the Lasseter Highway, which connects Yulara township with Erldunda on the Stuart Highway. Lasseter’s Cave (Kulpi Tjuntinya) is located at Tjunti [25°1′12.20″S 129°23′44.28″E], a small reserve off the Tjukaruru Road, about 40km east of Kaltukatjara (Docker River).
The gateway to Tjunti
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