Gold Search Diary

Harold Lasseter’s last days 1930-31

Golden Delusions

What good a reef worth millions? I would give it all for a loaf of bread.

Harold Lasseter claimed to have discovered a gold reef between the Ehrenberg and Petermann ranges in Central Australia where the gold was ‘as thick as plums in a pudding’.

The expedition to find this reef left Sydney in July 1930 and reached its search area, but was soon abandoned by all except Lasseter owing to the latter’s uncooperative and odd behaviour. Lasseter struggled on and died of hunger.

A search party discovered his body several months later and retrieved his diary. The diary records his deluded folly but also his final contact with the local Aboriginal people and their attempts to communicate with and help him.
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