Len Beadell's Books

Mark Shephard has written an unashamedly eulogistic biography - anyone who has met Len Beadell will understand why. For the first time Len's life has been chronicled, from the early influences which spawned his love of the outback to the years as tour guide and unsurpassable bush camp yarn spinner.

Len Beadell can lay claim to being the last of the great explorers of Australia: in the 1950's and 60's he undertook solo surveys which led to the building of roads through the most inaccessible tracts of the outback. But Len was more than just a surveyor - he was an author, cartoonist, raconteur and, above all, a great family man.
This book is more than a biography. The detailed appendix is a gazetteer which will prove an invaluable guide to Lenny's greatest legacy to Australia, the 6000 km of outback highways. S/cover. 246pp.

First published in 1998, this edition 2009

When your grader breaks down in the middle of the desert, there's only one thing you can do - attach it to your bulldozer and tow it back to civilisation. For Len Beadell's team, that meant a journey of 800 kilometres at three kilometres an hour - the longest towing operation ever in the history of Central Australia. The party hitched up their 'train' and set off back along the road they had just built. But while they were all set for a long and arduous journey, the last thing they expected was for their ration truck to melt. This had its disadvantages but was the best entertainment they'd had for a year. 192pp.

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With his road building exploits behind him, Beadell was the perfect choice for the task of selecting and preparing the location for the weapons testing trials. With his characteristic humour and embellished with his own cartoons, Beadell tells the story of the people who worked on the project - in some cases it was as much a trial of them as it was of any weapon - and he recounts the sequence of events that led up to the gigantic explosion that was to BLAST THE BUSH. 212pp.

First published in 1967, this edition 2009  

In this book, Len Beadell tells the story of his second road across Australia which was driven 1600 kilometres from east to west, from South Australia to West Australia through the heart of the Great Victoria Desert. Construction took years, as the road was driven through the almost impenetrable mulga scrub and over sand ridges which until Beadell's bulldozer came had stopped everything but camels. 163pp.

First published in 1971, this edition 2009  

Len Beadell's team had to contend with flat tyres and broken gear boxes as well as all the natural difficulties of the outback as they endeavoured to build three highways in one year! On one forward reconnaissance Beadell discovered a small group of Aborigines who had never before seen a white person, as well as rediscovering two wells on the Canning Stock route. These and many other adventures of the outback are retold in Beadell's own lively and entertaining style. 206pp.

First published in 1983, this edition 2010  

Laden with trig poles, theodolites - and porridge - Beadell and his team built roads, laid out town sites and undertook an enormous survey programme in order to prepare a test launching area in one of the most isolated parts of the world. The problems ranged from taking astrofixes in a cloudy sky and becoming surrounded by a sea of red mud, to patching a bald spot on a pet joey. All were solved by using those two most necessary ingredients of life in the bush - ingenuity and imagination. Len Beadell's descriptions of the countryside, the adventures the team experienced, and the Australian bush characters they encountered are by turns illuminating and hilarious. His high-spirited account of the work that had to be done 'before they called it Woomera' makes vivid and entertaining reading. 175pp. 

First published in 1965. 

Too Long In the Bush is the story of how, from 1956 to 1958, Len Beadell and his team made the first road across Central Australia from east to west, 1500 kilometres from the Alice Springs road to Carnegie homestead 650 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie. On the way he surveyed and built the Giles Meteorological Station and aerodrome before moving on to skirt the edge of the infamous Gibson Desert. Beadell, using astronomical observations, would survey up to 400 kilometres of the projected road entirely alone, often in country then known only to small groups of Aborigines. Returing to his construction team, he would supervise operations as the road was pushed slowly forward through the heat and dust, over sandhill and desert, rounding the desolate salt lakes. 176pp.

First published in 1965

A compilation of the six books above. 

Len Beadell was often called the last of the true Australian explorers. As a surveyor and road builder he worked all over the outback - from Arnhem Land to the Gibson Desert.

Drawn from his best selling books, these stories sparkle with humour and paint a fascinating picture of the hard work, the bush characters and the rollicking adventures that were all part of Len Beadell's rich experience. 237pp.

First published 1979, this edition 2012

Len Beadell's name is now part of the folklore of the Australian outback, and he has achieved something resembling hero status amongst many people who might be inclined to describe themselves as "typical Australians". However, it would be quite incorrect and misleading to describe this notable man himself as a "typical Australian". Len Beadell was an exceptional Australian; he was a man of unusual and unique qualities and personality. He did not drink, smoke or swear, and was moderately religious. People who knew him well refer to his great personal integrity, strong sense of humour, cheerfulness in adversity, and extreme resourcefulness. He rarely if ever wrote or spoke ill of anyone; on reading his several books it would seem that if he couldn't write something favourable about a person, he said nothing. 144pp.

First published in 2009, this edition 2010