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00:11The Australian Outback.
00:15Vast.
00:18Remote.
00:21Hostile.
00:25For two men, this is the backdrop to a lifelong obsession.
00:31This is what we do. This is who we are.
00:34A childhood pact.
00:38To solve a 100-year-old mystery.
00:42We've been called eccentric and all sorts of different things.
00:46Finding Australia's El Dorado.
00:49A lost fortune in gold.
00:56Clues from one man hold the key.
00:59I think he did find it and he actually wanted somebody else to find it as well.
01:06In 1897, Harold Lasseter staggered out of the desert.
01:14Claiming to have discovered a massive outcrop of gold, known as a reef, worth billions.
01:22Decades later, while on an expedition to rediscover his fortune, Lasseter perished.
01:31Taking to the grave the secret location of his gold.
01:37Now, a new expedition is out to discover the truth.
01:43Coming in real fast, eh?
01:46Survive the Outback.
01:48Snake, snake.
01:49Big for him.
01:50Oh, whoa.
01:50And just maybe become billionaires in the process.
01:55Look at that.
01:55Bad income.
01:56Check this out.
01:57We found gold.
01:58Yes!
02:10Last time.
02:11Been looking at these spots since we were kids.
02:14Jeff and Brendan achieved a 40 year long dream.
02:18You're here now.
02:19Thanks a lot.
02:21Reaching the location where Lasseter's journey ended.
02:26Claiming could have hidden something up in little holes or something.
02:30And a Eureka moment.
02:31That's gold.
02:34It's gold everywhere you look at it, isn't it?
02:37Sent the team hunting high tech underground.
02:40So Lasseter said the reef was 14 miles and this isn't 14 miles.
02:45It's not what we're looking for.
02:46It's not it.
02:46Time to call it quits.
02:47Call it quits.
02:48Call it quits and move on.
02:50We're done.
02:52With the expedition coming to an end and the reef still not found,
02:56the team head back to base at Alice Springs to restock and regroup.
03:02Yeah, a bit of a let down.
03:05Lasseter's reef is out here somewhere.
03:07It's a vast country.
03:10I'll go back and do some research, cross-reference everything and see what we'll come up with.
03:15Hopefully we'll pinpoint a new location where either Lasseter was or the reef is.
03:20It's not so much about the money and the wealth.
03:23It's more about just following the clues and proving this is actual for real.
03:32Meanwhile, 2,000 kilometres away in Sydney, the team's historian Tanya continues to uncover new leads.
03:42So I've been trying to fill up some loose holes in this story.
03:46And one of the names that keeps cropping up is that of Bill DeCarly.
03:52Amateur explorer Bill DeCarly has dedicated half his life to cracking the case of Lasseter's gold.
03:59In his book, Bill reveals an explosive new theory.
04:04After 40 years of research and his own expeditions, he's actually suggesting that the reef is on the other side
04:13of Australia.
04:14It's like a 180 degree flip.
04:18And there's no doubt that Bill has done his homework.
04:22Goodness me, I think this is definitely worthy of further investigation.
04:31Hi Bill.
04:33Hi Tanya, how are you?
04:34I can't wait to hear more about your theory about Lasseter.
04:37So tell me, where do you want to start?
04:40It would have been in 1983.
04:42I saw a documentary and it had Lasseter's Reef.
04:46And I said, Hunt, I know where it is.
04:48It's a reversal of Bering.
04:50East of Alice Springs, not west of Alice Springs, because no one's ever found it there.
04:54Because back in those days, miners used to use reversal of Bering to hide the location of their mines.
04:59The key to all this is the man they called Harding.
05:04A mystery man named Harding plays a pivotal role in Lasseter's account of finding gold.
05:13Bill believes he's worked out Harding's true identity.
05:18And I found the man called Joseph Harding.
05:23Joseph Harding was a prospector who lived in Adelaide at the same time as Lasseter.
05:28I have documents that show that Harding and Lasseter were in the same hospital in 1917.
05:36Did Harding tell Lasseter about the reef?
05:39Lasseter starts talking to his family about the reef in 1917.
05:45If Harding told the story, where's the link?
05:48You can see that, 1917.
05:50Are you suggesting that this is when Lasseter first found out about the reef?
05:55In the hospital in 1917, because that's the first time that Lasseter mentions this to his family.
06:01I believe that Harding and Lasseter, they were planning to go out together and relocate the reef.
06:07But what happened is Harding died.
06:10And Lasseter's retelling Harding's story and made it his own.
06:14But he made a terrible mistake.
06:17Harding never told them everything completely.
06:19He said that the reef lay 300 miles from Alice Springs and 800 miles from Carnarvon.
06:24Everyone's going Carnarvon, Western Australia.
06:26They didn't realise that there was a Carnarvon in Queensland.
06:30And that's where the mistake was made, the two Carnarvons.
06:35D'Carly believes Harding also told Lasseter about the key landmarks that lay close to the reef.
06:43Bill went in search of them.
06:45Towards the eastern Carnarvon.
06:491991, I was able to go out there.
06:52That's where the three hills were.
06:5435 miles southeastern.
06:56There had to be another hill.
06:57And there is.
06:58The top cut off.
06:58Quakers have.
06:59East of that, there has to be a 15-mile iron-stained quartz reef.
07:03And there is.
07:06This might sound funny.
07:08It's never been about the gold.
07:10It's always been about finding what really happened.
07:14I went looking for the story, the truth, what really happened.
07:18No two ways about it.
07:19I can show evidence to substantiate everything that I say.
07:23Thank you so much, Bill, for sharing all of your knowledge, all of your expertise with us.
07:28I really, really appreciate it.
07:30No worries, Daniel.
07:34While DeCarly claims he's found a reef, the jury is still out whether it's the reef.
07:41DeCarly claims that Lasseter...
07:45He discovered the story of the reef from...
07:49Another miner called Joseph Harding.
07:52Who he met in Adelaide.
07:54In 1917.
07:56And DeCarly has suggested that Lasseter mixed up.
08:01And he's sort of flipping the location of the reef.
08:05180 degrees.
08:07And has suggested that actually the reef...
08:09Is not located in Western Australia, but is in fact located in Queensland.
08:16Gee, that's a twist.
08:18That's one major twist, Daniel.
08:19That's a total flip, isn't it?
08:22According to DeCarly, Lasseter's confusion around the two places named Carnarvon meant he went hunting for Harding's Gold Reef.
08:321,000 kilometres in the wrong direction.
08:36I think the theory's pretty out there.
08:39What worries me is effectively they're saying that Lasseter never found a reef at all.
08:43Yeah.
08:44So there is no Lasseter's reef.
08:46That's right.
08:46I mean, there's a lot of questions now.
08:49If true, DeCarly's theory could rewrite history.
08:54Lasseter's reef would become Harding's reef.
08:59To be told that it's in the total opposite direction to what we've been researching on the Western side.
09:04I'm pretty sceptical about the whole situation.
09:07How Lasseter could mix that sort of information up.
09:11Personally, I'm sceptical.
09:13I don't know if anyone's actually investigated his work and either debunked the theory or investigate it even further to
09:21see if it's true.
09:22Certainly, it sounds plausible.
09:24Yeah, well, the landmarks that he stated they were out there, yeah, that was surprising.
09:29If that's there, well, then we'll have to reevaluate all our research.
09:34I think it's certainly worth your while taking another trip.
09:37I'm pretty sceptical, but we'd heard some stories about things being flipped upside down and things like that.
09:43Let's go and have a look at these different theories.
09:45We'll have a look.
09:45No, we'll definitely look.
09:46We'll definitely have a look.
09:47An upside down theory.
09:51There's Carnarvon National Park there.
09:54I was thinking this guy's just come up with a whole wild story to why he couldn't find it.
09:58But I'm not going to dismiss the theory.
10:01And if you look at the Carnarvon over here, it's almost in a straight line.
10:04Yeah, it is.
10:05It's really interesting.
10:08Maybe, possibly, Lasseter had heard this story from this Harding and got it all wrong.
10:14And this Dakali might have just worked out the clue that everyone's been missing.
10:20If we prove it wrong, we'll then cross it off.
10:22We can cross it off the list and we can carry on.
10:24Any gold's good gold.
10:26Yeah, but I'm only after one gold, mate, and that's Lasseter's three.
10:30Well, I'll keep all the others.
10:33To verify the radical theory, the team will head 600 kilometres east to where Dakali claims he saw Lasseter's famous
10:42landmarks.
10:43In the vicinity of Tobermory Station.
10:48I was working on a cattle station right next to Tobermory, so I'm very familiar with that country.
10:53It's the kind of country you don't take for granted.
10:56The location of the reef found by Dakali remains a secret, but the team do have one concrete lead.
11:05Tanya gave us the coordinates for Bill Dakali's three hills.
11:09We've come up with a triangulation for an area.
11:13If the landmarks exist, the team will target a nearby quartz reef they've located on a satellite image.
11:22So that's the location, lads, that we're going to.
11:26We might be able to find something.
11:27Yeah, absolutely.
11:29There's only one way to know, though, it's to get out there.
11:37Ready to go.
11:38Ready to hit the road.
11:54Alright guys, well this is our turn off.
11:56I think we've got roughly about 600 kilometres to go from here.
11:59Probably six, seven hours maybe.
12:03Following Dakali's controversial theory,
12:07Geoff, Brendan and their team are heading east into cattle station country
12:14on the hunt for Lasseter's multi-billion dollar gold reef.
12:21With the Dakali story, it's just another story that I've heard.
12:25So we're going out now to actually get on the ground to see if his clues actually do line up
12:31with what Lasseter says.
12:32And if they don't, well, we don't have to be hanging around too long.
12:40Tober Mori Station.
12:451.8 million acres.
12:4915,000 cattle.
12:53And countless more bugs and flies.
12:57Flies.
12:58Flies.
12:58Flies.
12:59So you just get sick of eating them.
13:01And at night you've got 20 million mosquitoes.
13:03So you can take your pick.
13:21Alright fellas, the plan is, the chopper's en route.
13:24Ok.
13:25What we're going to do is I'm going up in the chopper.
13:27We're going down here to the three hills that Dakali has mentioned.
13:30Check that out.
13:31You'll hear from me when I see the three hills,
13:34and then you'll hear from me as soon as I see the Quaker's hat.
13:37If that pans out, I'll fly back and we'll meet you at the meeting point.
13:40How far is it?
13:42I don't know, 160 kilometres.
13:44Pretty rough country.
13:45It's rough, yeah.
13:50I don't think people really grasp what it's like living out here
13:54in these isolated cattle stations.
13:57You can get stuck in a heartbeat, you know.
14:01You've got to expect the unexpected.
14:05We've also got the option if we do need it,
14:07there's some guys on a station nearby that I know of
14:10who they work on geophysics.
14:12We could draw on them if we need to.
14:14That'll come in handy. Really handy.
14:16Yeah, I want to get up in the helicopter.
14:18This is the cartridge theory.
14:20But, you know, I'm not going to knock it
14:21until we get out there and have a proper look.
14:24Actually, here comes the chopper now. I can hear it in the distance.
14:37I'll take it easy. I'll see you out there.
14:39Yeah, mate.
14:40Alright, mate. We're ready to roll.
14:58Oh, I've got to get you one of these.
15:00One of these, you reckon? It's a good thing.
15:02Oh, yeah.
15:03Yeah, they're good.
15:03Cover a bit of country.
15:11So have you got the coordinates to the Three Hills?
15:14Yeah, yep.
15:14I flew a few geologists and that down this area.
15:18Yeah, I also flew Bill Bacali in here.
15:20Oh, so you know Bill?
15:21Yeah, yeah. I know Bill, yeah.
15:23Oh, cool.
15:24When was the last time he was out here, do you know?
15:26You'd have to be a good four years ago.
15:28Hell, I would have thought.
15:29Yeah.
15:38Are you going there, Brendan?
15:39All caught up, ready to go?
15:41Yeah, mate.
15:41Ready to go, mate.
15:42I'm rolling.
15:43Right behind you.
15:44Alright, mate.
15:45We've got about 180 kilometres to go.
15:50While Geoff searches for the key landmarks from the air, the team make the drive to the quartz reef they
15:57identified from a satellite image.
16:08Is this the hills that we're going to, or is it further?
16:11Nah, nah.
16:11A bit further than any, yeah.
16:14We've always had the belief that it's our west.
16:16Yeah.
16:17But I want to come out here and have a look at the Kali's work and see what he was
16:22looking at, you know?
16:23Yeah.
16:25Line of quartz running out of this hill here.
16:31What direction are we flying?
16:33South.
16:33Yeah.
16:38This is important, so good.
16:40Yeah, right.
16:43One, two, three, just here, right?
16:45Yeah.
16:46Nah, this is them, I reckon?
16:47Yeah.
16:48These are the ones.
17:10There's three hills here.
17:11There's definitely that.
17:14We've got the one here on the right, we've got one hill.
17:17Second hill's over here on the, behind me, and the third hill on the right here.
17:22That's three hills, and they're in a semi-circle, so you could say they're kind of looking at each other.
17:28And that was when the last of the tails was, you know, that the three hills are women out of
17:32the Dickens book, and they were chatting to each other.
17:36Yeah, at the moment, it's shaping up to what Dekali's saying.
17:38It's all looking positive at this stage.
17:40I'm going to get on the radio to Brendan.
17:42Copy Brendan and Rex.
17:44You there?
17:47You there, Brendan?
17:48Copy?
17:51Yeah, copy Jeff.
17:52Yep.
17:52I've got you there, mate.
17:54I'm at the three hills now.
17:55They're exactly as Lusseter described.
17:59Really?
18:01We're going from here to the Quaker's Hat.
18:03Yep.
18:04Took us on over and out, mate.
18:16Yeah, what is a Quaker's Hat?
18:18So, basically, we're looking for a flat-topped hill.
18:21Yep.
18:22That could possibly look like a hat.
18:24Yeah, righto.
18:24Yep.
18:26Yeah, so that's basically 35 miles away from the three hills.
18:30Yep.
18:32Yeah, we've got a good mob of camels here in front of us by a little bit.
18:34Oh, yeah.
18:37Big camel, that follow?
18:38Oh, isn't he?
18:47What about this one in front?
18:55Well, that's the best description of that for Lusseter's Quaker's Hat with a top cut-off.
19:00Yeah, definitely.
19:01I reckon this is it.
19:02Yeah.
19:02Sure, especially 30-odd mile straight back up there to the Three Sisters.
19:07I can see what Nicali was looking at.
19:09Yeah, yeah.
19:14You got a copy, Brendan?
19:17Yeah, copy, mate.
19:19We just left the Quaker's Hat.
19:22And, um...
19:23Yeah, again, mate.
19:24He's looking promising.
19:25You're heading out to the camp?
19:26Because I'm on the way back there now, mate.
19:29I'll probably beat you.
19:30Copy, mate.
19:31See you soon.
19:33Oh, yeah.
19:34I see them motor cars coming down here now.
19:36Look.
19:37See that dust?
19:38Up on the horizon there.
19:40You got good eyesight, son.
19:41You got some?
19:42Oh, yeah, yeah.
19:44Yeah.
19:49Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
20:10Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
20:11We got the three sisters anyway, the three hills.
20:14Yeah.
20:15We got the Quakers hat, but what's in between,
20:19that's what we've got to go and suss out.
20:20So matched up with the map?
20:22Matched up with the map.
20:23Perfect.
20:24Yeah, finding those landmarks that match what
20:26Leicester described is quite surprising for me.
20:28I didn't expect it.
20:29I mean, is it a sheer fluke?
20:31Maybe.
20:32We don't know yet.
20:34Right distance, right shape.
20:37But is there a 40 mile reef on the ground?
20:39I'm not going to say no.
20:40We've got to go and check it out.
20:42We've got to check it out.
20:42Yeah.
20:55Oh, yeah.
20:56Love the dust.
21:00Jeff's flight was a great success.
21:02He's found the three sisters, Quakers hat.
21:06We've pulled up camp a little bit short of our target,
21:09which is the reef zone.
21:10It was getting late in the day.
21:13G'day, Mike.
21:14Yeah, Andrew here.
21:16So we've had some interesting data.
21:17Jeff's been up today in the chopper.
21:19If you and Lee could make your way over, it'd be fantastic.
21:22Cheers, mate.
21:24So that was Mike and Lee, a couple of mates of mine who are working on a station nearby
21:28doing some geophysics work, which is just fantastic.
21:31And they've got this amazing technology.
21:34So what they can cover in an hour or two would take us weeks.
21:39So hopefully they'll be here in the morning.
21:54Well, I've been thinking about the last few days and everything Takali's stated was coming true at the moment.
22:04Is it Lasseter's Reef?
22:06Is it here?
22:08Is everything I've been learning about in the last 40 odd years wrong?
22:13Well, I don't think so.
22:25We've got visitors, boys.
22:28G'day.
22:29Lee, is it?
22:30That's a legend.
22:31Hello, mate.
22:31How are you?
22:33We're a little way off where this target, this reef target is.
22:36Yeah, yeah.
22:36So it sits a little bit further out to the east from here.
22:39Okay.
22:40This is the quartz reef here.
22:42Geoff, what direction was the reef running that Lasseter was talking about?
22:45North-west.
22:46So, you know, that's exactly what this is.
22:48Exactly.
22:49Yeah, it's north-west.
22:50My concerns are how long it is.
22:53Yeah.
22:54You know, because I'm looking for quartz that goes in and out of the ground for 40 miles long.
22:59In letters he sent to the government, Lasseter stated that the reef ran for 14 miles
23:06with three ounces of gold for every tonne of rock.
23:10Details that Carly believes Lasseter learnt from Harding.
23:16Well, that's what we're looking for.
23:17Well, that's what we're hopefully using some of your technology.
23:20Technology.
23:20Yeah.
23:21It might clear that up a bit, you know.
23:23With this drone we can add various different payloads.
23:26We can add laser scanners, photogrammetry, RGB sensors, thermal imaging.
23:32It's range is about 15 kilometres.
23:35The positives for me is when you're up in the air, it opens up a whole different world.
23:40You'll see other things like old diggings.
23:42You'll see where other people have been.
23:45Yeah, I think we're good to go.
23:57A 45 megapixel camera with a 200 times zoom will reveal if the reef has the type of quartz that
24:06commonly carries gold.
24:08So you're actually getting this...
24:10Multiple views.
24:10Yeah, this planned view image from above, like Google Earth.
24:15So you can see the ridge line coming through.
24:17Is that it there?
24:18That's it there.
24:19So we can start looking in there now.
24:21Oh, quartz.
24:22See the rock structure, quartz.
24:26It's pretty amazing.
24:28He was well back 200 metres from it.
24:30And he's been able to zoom in and we can see literally the rock outcrop.
24:35You can work out the shape of the quartz, how it's broken, the angles, any mineralisation in it.
24:41It's just extraordinary, the technology.
24:45It looks juicy.
24:47I mean, what would take us hours of wrecking out there, you've done within minutes.
24:53That's correct, yeah.
24:55There was places there that the guys got closer to the reef there and you start to see the ground
24:59fall away and the change of colour and you go,
25:01wow, that's something that I probably would have never seen before.
25:05The next attachment will provide even more detail on the topography and dimensions for the reef.
25:12OK, so what we're going to do now is we're going to attach the L2 LIDAR, the laser scanner to
25:17the drone.
25:18Right, let's press start.
25:20Moving to start point.
25:22So basically this is an automated flyer plan, so it'll take off on its own, fly to the first start
25:27point and then create doing its waypoint mission.
25:30There you go, she's off now.
25:32So it'll go up and down the reef.
25:34The total distance is about nine kilometres.
25:37It's an area map, basically.
25:38So this is the actual view from the camera.
25:40Yes.
25:41And this is the laser scanning scanning.
25:43So it'll go down, turn around, come back, turn around and go back.
25:46That's exactly what it will do.
25:48The LIDAR removes all of the vegetation which then might be hiding dips and little channels and that's mapping the
25:55surface.
25:56Basically like surveying the surface of the ground.
25:59The LIDAR fires up to 240,000 laser pulses per second.
26:05By measuring the time it takes for the light to reflect back, a three-dimensional model can be created.
26:12And then we'll have this fantastic image of the total length of the exposure of the reef.
26:19It's finished now, so it's on its way back.
26:22I've got another set of batteries.
26:24We've got about 1,200 photographs.
26:26These will all be stitched together by the software.
26:29See the mineralisation?
26:30It looks a little bit darker.
26:31Yeah, darker there.
26:32Yeah.
26:33From a point of view of gold, if we can see more of that iron staining.
26:37Okay.
26:37Yeah, and it runs straight down into those gullies.
26:40They'd love to detect these gullies.
26:42I'm more concerned about the distance of this reef.
26:44How long is it from point to point?
26:47Yeah, we're looking about...
26:481.5km?
26:491.5km.
26:50Yeah.
26:51That's just the exposed part as well.
26:53Yeah, yeah.
26:53We've looked on the map before and there's a fault line that runs all the way along here.
26:56Probably about 30km.
26:57Because that fault line runs through there, this could extend further, a lot further.
27:01We're in dune country here, so what Harding may have discovered could be covered.
27:07Yeah, right.
27:07It's worth getting your detectors up there and see if there's anything there.
27:10Come on, let's go, go, go, go.
27:11No worries.
27:14We'll just head out around this tree line out here through this paddock.
27:18We'll just head south from there.
27:21Yeah, I'm still a bit sceptical, but at the moment all signs are looking good.
27:33Looking across to your left there, it looks bloody beautiful.
27:43It's bloody awesome, mate.
27:45Well done.
27:46Coming in here, Brendan, no one has been here.
27:48It doesn't look like it, mate.
27:49Well, I don't feel like...
27:50It looks like it's just naturally broken itself.
27:52Oh, I'm into resting ground.
27:54Yeah.
27:55Dad's got everything going for gold to start with.
27:57Yeah, right.
28:00I think we just have a good scout around.
28:02Yeah, go for it.
28:03That's what you guys are here for, just to let's see what we can find.
28:07Well, while you guys are out there, keep an eye out for any marker stains, you know,
28:10that are in a funny position.
28:11Yeah, absolutely.
28:13Yeah, we might just do a bit of a scout around and check the place out
28:17while these guys swing the detectors, yeah?
28:18Yep.
28:19All right, cool.
28:20Okay, mate.
28:20Keep rolling.
28:24Yeah, a lot of the signs do point in the same directions as Lusseter stated,
28:28you know, there's three hills over there and yonder over here.
28:32Way down there is the hill that looks like a Quaker's Hat.
28:35But still, we haven't located any gold as yet.
28:46Looks like really, really good ground running through here.
28:51The good thing about these machines, they're very, very sensitive.
28:55They pick up fine gold.
28:57They're brilliant for things like that.
28:58But one of the downfalls, so sensitive, it's going to give you a sort of false signals
29:03all the time.
29:05If it gives you a little signal and you swing it over once or twice more
29:09and it's the same signal, well, then you know you're onto something.
29:30Oh, that's, all right, so this is what we've been talking about.
29:33It's giving you the same signal every time I put it near these rocks here.
29:37So we're going to have a bit of a kick here.
29:42It's either that rock there or the...
29:44It's that.
29:46It's all right.
29:46It's this one here.
29:57No way.
29:59Andrew!
30:00Yeah, mate?
30:01Come over here.
30:02Have a look at this.
30:09Andrew!
30:10There's a speck of gold sticking out.
30:12I'm hoping that that gold runs all the way through.
30:15That is exactly what we're following along this reef here.
30:20600 kilometres to the east of Alice Springs, JC has struck gold.
30:26All them hours of sweat and flies.
30:30According to a radical new theory, this may in fact be Lasseter's Reef
30:35on the opposite side of the country.
30:38Come over here, mate.
30:39You got something, yeah?
30:41Yeah.
30:42I wasn't real sure when I picked it up.
30:43Look at that.
30:44You bloody rimbo, eh?
30:47You too, mate.
30:47Let's go, man.
30:48That's awesome.
30:49I am right.
30:50Have a look at this.
30:50It takes it to a whole new level.
30:52A heap of quartz?
30:53Yeah.
30:54Same, exact same thing we're following.
30:55Look.
30:56Hey, we're on the line.
30:57You started up here, right?
30:58Yeah, that's correct.
30:59And this on that line, and I'm connected over here.
31:01That's the juice stuff.
31:03Oh, that is so cool.
31:04Mate.
31:05Well done.
31:06Where there's one, you've got more.
31:09I'd like to think so.
31:10Pretty excited.
31:11JC's already got it a piece.
31:13So the pressure's on.
31:14It's up to me now to start performing.
31:16A sniff of something would be really good.
31:23Walking across it, we've done a walk right across this ridge here
31:26and over the other side, and it carries on further.
31:29It looks really promising with the rock and everything else,
31:31and that's a wait-and-see situation until you see what they come back with the detectors.
31:46Now that sounds really good.
31:47That's a crack of a signal.
32:00The end of the hole.
32:09Oh.
32:12It's in the quartz, and that can only mean one thing.
32:15Gold.
32:20There it is.
32:21It's gold all right.
32:23That is an absolute beauty.
32:26Wow.
32:27It looks like it's just snapped off the reef.
32:30This is really, really good evidence because it is quartz reef material.
32:37It's got gold right on that corner there, which is absolutely superb.
32:43Hey, JC.
32:46Oh, don't tell me.
32:49No way.
32:50Mate, I tell you what, we are now on the money official.
33:03Look at that.
33:04Oh, man.
33:05That is reef gold.
33:06It's right off it.
33:06That is reef.
33:08Right off it.
33:09Oh, man.
33:09This is so crazy.
33:11It's going to be loaded.
33:12It's all loaded last year there.
33:13It's going to be loaded.
33:15Oh, mate.
33:17That is maybe a gram, two grams in there.
33:19I'm not sure how much more is in there, but we're talking, you know, this is the three
33:22ounces to the tonne scenario.
33:24Jeff's been, you know, I know he's hammering on about the three ounces.
33:27This is it.
33:28This is a three ounces to the tonne.
33:30This isn't a little bit of gold.
33:31No.
33:31This is the start of something big.
33:33It is.
33:34Real bloody big.
33:35You know what?
33:36This could be it.
33:39Why am I excited about a tiny bit of gold?
33:43Because there's a really, really good chance that it belonged to a big piece of gold.
33:48And a big piece of gold can change someone's life.
33:52If we can get a real nice little juicy spot and we take a few samples, it'd be really interesting
33:57to see what we can get out of the crusher.
34:00This could be a game changer.
34:02It never gets old finding gold.
34:09You made it back.
34:10Well, have we got some news to share with you guys?
34:14In there?
34:16Yeah.
34:16We've got some gold.
34:17It's a nugget.
34:19How good is that, eh?
34:20Bang.
34:21Bang.
34:22Yeah.
34:22It just blew us away.
34:23If we crush this and it's got gold in it, we're on to something.
34:28We're on to something.
34:28On to something really bloody good.
34:30Start on that stuff.
34:37How does it look good?
34:40Nice.
34:41To find gold hidden inside the rocks, they first need to be crushed.
34:47We got a good bag out of that.
34:49Well done.
34:51Then panned.
34:54It's a pretty vital sample.
34:57So I've now got down to a smaller volume.
34:59So by doing a circular motion with the water, it's going to pull the light material to the
35:05back.
35:05Oh, is that a speck there?
35:09So you're just shaking the little bit in one spot.
35:12A little bit.
35:12A little bit of a swirl.
35:13That is just what we like.
35:15What's that?
35:16That's all metal.
35:17And...
35:18Oh, I can see already the gold.
35:20Look, it's freaking loaded.
35:22It is too.
35:22All sitting at the back of it.
35:23It's fine, isn't it?
35:24Look how fine it is.
35:25Yeah, it's fine.
35:26It tells us it's gold right here in this hill.
35:28Yep.
35:29If you guys just want to wait here, I'm just going to slip out and put some pegs in the
35:31ground with my name on it.
35:32Yeah.
35:33Don't be concerned.
35:37While they've found the precious metal they've been hunting...
35:41How good's that, hey?
35:42One team member remains skeptical.
35:45This is Lasseter's legendary reef.
35:50For Dick Ali to claim it to be in Lasseter's reef, he's got a lot to hold up to.
35:55We need gold at three ounces to the tonne.
35:58When you get one ounce of the tonne, you visibly see the gold.
36:03So at that point it's rich.
36:04When it's three ounces, you well and truly are seeing gold in it.
36:11That's pretty awesome to see.
36:13Especially after coming this far and all the research we've done and all the research
36:16that Dick Ali's done and wham bam here's some gold.
36:19That's beautiful.
36:21Yeah.
36:21Everything we've touched has turned to gold.
36:23It's turned to gold.
36:24It's turned to gold.
36:29There's something really interesting going on here.
36:31You know, at this point there's still a very good chance that this was the story
36:35that Harding told Lasseter.
36:38So it's the whole Dick Ali story.
36:40We've come here and we've proven it physically.
36:44To confirm the concentration of gold over the length of the reef,
36:49dozens of samples are taken.
36:52These will be analysed in a laboratory back in Alice Springs.
36:57The real proof for Lasseter's story to tie in is to get the continuity.
37:01The gold just doesn't occur in one little patch.
37:04It's occurring over a fairly long stretch of the reef.
37:07So that's what these rock samples will do for us.
37:14Good on you.
37:15Well done, mate.
37:15That was great.
37:17We've done it.
37:18Got it, hey?
37:25We've got a few samples here, Geoff.
37:26Good to know what's in this stuff, mate.
37:29Well, I was really sceptical before, but now we've seen the hills.
37:34Everything sort of lines up to it.
37:36That's like 40 years of research that we've been doing this down the drain.
37:39Yeah, but if this doesn't come to three ounces a ton, lady dungie.
37:46At the moment, it's all up to these samples.
37:49We'll get them into Alice. We'll get them tested.
37:55That data has to come back with grades that measure and are equal to what Lasseter quotes.
38:01Is it as rich as we've been told? That's the question.
38:05Some of the boys are like, this is Lasseter's reef, where I'm more, if it's three ounces a ton, let's
38:12not jump the gun.
38:25Well, I guess it's the defining moment in the samples to work out if it is the reef or not.
38:31We're needing some really good high-grade results.
38:34There's 31 grams per ounce, so we're looking at maybe 93 to 96 grams per ton that we need to
38:41see.
38:42Alright.
38:43Okay, guys. Well, the results have come in. This is the moment of truth.
38:48So 31 grams is an ounce. We're needing 93 grams.
38:5293 grams.
38:53Per ton to get up to Lasseter's.
38:55Yep.
38:55Looking at this.
39:00We're a long way short.
39:01All a long way short.
39:03We're looking at 0.33 grams per ton. Not even half a gram.
39:10Yep.
39:10The other good sample we got there was 0.57, half a gram per ton.
39:15So it was obviously what we picked up were hot spots.
39:18Hot spots.
39:18There isn't the consistency.
39:20Not in.
39:20That's it.
39:20It's not Lasseter's reef.
39:24To be honest with you lads, I'm not surprised.
39:27Yep.
39:27I'm not saying there's no gold there.
39:29It's definitely a gold-bearing reef.
39:31Totally.
39:32But it's not Lasseter's reef.
39:34Being that it's research, we have to uncover every stone.
39:38And this was just another stone we had to roll over and have a look under.
39:42The thing is, we couldn't just, like, shovel it aside.
39:45We had to investigate it.
39:46We had to get on the ground.
39:47We had to check out everything that Takali had stated.
39:50And then we've done that.
39:52We definitely found gold.
39:53Yeah.
39:54Absolutely.
39:54We've found gold everywhere we've been.
39:55Yeah.
39:56It's just not in the quantities that we need.
39:57That's right.
39:58What do you say we call up Tanya?
40:00Yeah.
40:03Yeah.
40:04G'day Tanya.
40:04G'day Tanya.
40:05How are you going?
40:06G'day.
40:06How are you?
40:07Well, we've all come back from Tobermory and we found some gold.
40:12Coarse gold that looks like it's shed from the reef.
40:15We just could not go wrong.
40:17Everything we looked at was there.
40:19Especially after we'd done a flight and we'd seen all the things that Takali had stated,
40:23it all panned together that it was probably the right area.
40:26But it's not.
40:27But it's not.
40:28It's not.
40:28It's not it.
40:30So, really not sure where to take it.
40:32Can you suggest anything?
40:34So, some of my investigations have uncovered a rumour that a man who was a really well-known
40:41aviator came into possession of a significant gold nugget and he claimed that it came from
40:50Lassiter's Reef and it's really substantial and it is very gold.
40:55Yeah.
40:55Wow.
40:56And it's really interesting because this guy has a really close connection, it is said,
41:00to the Lau Thomas documentary crew, remember that documentary crew that dug up that grave
41:06site.
41:07So, the search needs to continue.
41:10That's great.
41:10That's amazing news.
41:12And you know what that means?
41:12Lassiter's Reef is still out there.
41:14It's still out there.
41:19I believe it may be further west, the western border of the Northern Territory.
41:24It sort of makes sense of where he's died and where he's been buried and to carry on
41:29looking in that area.
41:31I think we need to go and do some research.
41:33Oh, yeah.
41:33Get ready for another one.
41:36Yeah, I'm definitely positive for the future.
41:42What I've learned is anything's possible.
41:45Things could change at any moment.
41:48Hang on.
41:49Grab all the sun.
41:52Rain, floods, all that.
41:54And it all affects your expedition.
41:57We couldn't have done it without the traditional owners.
42:00This is the place.
42:02This is Lassiter's Cave.
42:04The communities that have helped us along the way has been invariable.
42:08It is north, south, west, east.
42:14Holy moly.
42:16The professionalism of everyone involved.
42:19Yeah.
42:21Tanya with the archival information.
42:23He was being convicted of burglary, would you believe it?
42:26Really?
42:27No way.
42:28JC.
42:30Oh, but look at this!
42:31He knows what he's on about.
42:32We're not prospectors.
42:34There's fortunes to be made.
42:36Andrew, with his equipment that he uses.
42:39Oh, no, no, no, no, no.
42:40He can actually help us read the country.
42:43It's cold.
42:44It is.
42:45Look at you.
42:47Well, we made a promise to each other when we were ten years old.
42:50We're going to find that reef.
42:52And, well, we shook on it that day.
42:54To find Lassiter's reef and to be able to sit back and say,
42:58yeah, we've fulfilled our promise to each other.
43:00To be able to share that with the country,
43:03that's a pretty major discovery.
43:07I feel pretty much the same way as Def,
43:09that it's something that we're going to fulfil.
43:12Right up until we die, possibly.
43:16There's more clues out there.
43:18We're determined to find them.
43:20It still continues.
43:52We're determined to find them.
43:52Next time is crazy.
43:52People are嗚呼.
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