Gunbarrel Road Construction Party

During many kilometres of driving around sand-ridges and spinifex hummocks, the mental picture of a corkscrew kept appearing before his mind's eye, when the word "straight" described what was desired.

[3] 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 odometer 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.

[4] 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 Australia.

[1] 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.

The whereabouts of the D8 dozer was a mystery for some years, but when an article in Australian Geographic was published in 1995, its owner Bill McLay from Perth WA recognised a photograph of it.