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If the path ahead consisted of thick scrub or trees, the bulldozer made the first pass with the blade above ground level to knock the scrub down, then returned with blade lowered to clear the debris. The next pass partially overlapped the first to widen the road. A grader would then make up to five
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for distance. When he had determined a feasible path he would return to camp and guide a bulldozer by standing on top of his vehicle while flashing reflected sunlight from a mirror towards the driver. Beadell joked that the bulldozer driver followed the flashing mirror for eight years and never
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The D8 Caterpillar bulldozer that was used to build the
Gunbarrel Highway was left at Carnegie Station by Doug Stoneham when the road was finished. Other D7 cable bulldozers were used to build subsequent roads. The whereabouts of the D8 dozer was a mystery for some years, but when an article in
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hummocks, the mental picture of a corkscrew kept appearing before his mind's eye, when the word "straight" described what was desired. Suddenly the word "gunbarrel" representing something very straight materialised in his mind, so on return to camp, he announced to his team that they were to be
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The convoy consisted of three trucks, two Land Rovers, a grader, a bulldozer and several trailers. Led by Len
Beadell, the convoy made its way to Victory Downs just over the border in the Northern Territory to begin construction of the Gunbarrel Highway, the first east-west road across central
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There were subsequent changes in the composition of the GRCP which included Frank Quinn as supply driver, Shorty
Williams as grader driver, Eric Graefling as Cherry-picker. Two other cooks were briefly employed, Cyril Koch and Tom Roberts, but Paul Christensen was the longest serving cook.
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to Emu Field (Aug-Sep 1955). Bill Lloyd was then a member of his road building team. In
November 1955 the first members of the GRCP, all hand-picked by Beadell, rendezvoused near Coober Pedy with their vehicles and equipment to start work.
91:. This was well received by the men, and the name passed into folklore. He later joked, "It didn't matter that when we got to the sandhills, a more suitable name might have been 'The Corkscrew Road Construction Party'".
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was finished. Doug
Stoneham had left the GRCP in 1960 to get married, but returned in 1963 to operate the grader. In 1988 Len Beadell drove the grader into its final home for preservation, a steel cage.
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caught it. If large sandhills intervened, flares fired from a pistol were substituted. Some reconnaissance forays took many days, hundreds of kilometres, and usually several punctured tyres. He used a
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Beadell's usual method for building roads was to carry out a solo reconnaissance in his Land Rover, bush-bashing through virgin scrub, referring to a magnetic compass for direction, and the vehicle's
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was named. Over a period of eight years, Beadell and the GRCP built more than 6,000 kilometres of dirt roads in remote areas of central
Australia for the Weapons Research Establishment at
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On completion of road building in
November 1963, the Gunbarrel Road Construction Party's grader, a Caterpillar No 12 Model S8T, was retired from duty at
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By the time they had completed their work in
December 1963, the GRCP had built eleven major roads in twenty-four separate stages across
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Beadell had built two roads prior to the formation of the GRCP. The first was from Mabel Creek station (west of
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passes over the freshly cleared track, followed by a "cherry-picker" to remove sticks, roots, or stones by hand.
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to observe stars, the sun and the moon to accurately calculate his position which he termed an "astrofix".
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was published in 1995, its owner Bill McLay from Perth WA recognised a photograph of it.
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the founder of
Australian Geographic, purchased it from Mr McLay.
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43:(GRCP) was the name bestowed upon a team of road builders by
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A Lifetime in the Bush:The biography of Len
Beadell
47:in 1955, after which the well known outback track
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31:A plaque on the Caterpillar No.12 grader at
23:The original grader of the Gunbarrel Highway
135:The original personnel of the GRCP were:
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361:. New Holland Publishers (Australia).
301:. New Holland Publishers(Australia).
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118:(Feb-Mar 1953), the second was from
139:Len Beadell - Surveyor and Leader
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89:Gunbarrel Road Construction Party
41:Gunbarrel Road Construction Party
16:Team of Australian road builders
329:. Seaford Vic: Bas Publishing.
244:Vokes Hill Corner to Cook Road
157:Willy Appleton - Cherry-picker
154:Rex Flatman - General mechanic
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276:. Adelaide: Corkwood Press.
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394:Roads built by Len Beadell
234:Sandy Blight Junction Road
151:Bill Lloyd - Supply driver
389:Australian outback tracks
53:Woomera, South Australia
272:Shephard, Mark (1998).
160:Paul Christensen - Cook
299:Beating About the Bush
80:Beating about the Bush
78:In Len Beadell's book
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357:Beadell, Len (1965).
297:Beadell, Len (1976).
183:Australian Geographic
170:Giles Weather Station
148:Scotty Boord - Grader
33:Giles Weather Station
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359:Too Long in the Bush
327:Len Beadell's Legacy
199:Anne Beadell Highway
325:Bayly, Ian (2009).
35:, Western Australia
214:Gary Junction Road
204:Connie Sue Highway
64:Northern Territory
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229:Mount Davies Road
219:Gunbarrel Highway
68:Western Australia
49:Gunbarrel Highway
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142:Doug Stoneham -
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60:South Australia
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209:Gary Highway
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144:D8 Bulldozer
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127:Australia.
112:Coober Pedy
45:Len Beadell
383:Categories
368:1864367199
308:1876622156
283:1876247053
250:References
187:Dick Smith
101:theodolite
74:Background
131:Personnel
120:Maralinga
116:Emu Field
193:See also
96:odometer
84:spinifex
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62:, the
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363:ISBN
331:ISBN
303:ISBN
278:ISBN
66:and
39:The
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
