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hunting outback gold s01e02
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00:11The Australian Outback.
00:15Vast.
00:18Remote.
00:21Hostile.
00:24For two men,
00:27this is the backdrop to a lifelong obsession.
00:31This is what we do.
00:33This 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.
00:50A lost fortune in gold.
00:56Clues from one man hold the key.
00:59I think he did find it,
01:00and he actually wanted somebody else to find it as well.
01:07In 1897,
01:08Harold Lasseter staggered out of the desert.
01:14Claiming to have discovered a massive outcrop of gold,
01:18known as a reef,
01:20worth billions.
01:23Decades later,
01:24while on an expedition to rediscover his fortune,
01:28Lasseter perished.
01:31Taking to the grave,
01:33the secret location of his gold.
01:37Now,
01:38a new expedition is out
01:40to discover the truth.
01:43Coming in real fast, eh?
01:46Survive the outback.
01:48Steak, steak.
01:48Big brown.
01:49Oh, 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!
01:59Oh, no, no.
02:08Last time...
02:10Give it, do it!
02:11The team began their quest...
02:13Your life is at risk going out.
02:14It's dangerous.
02:16Confronting the same threats faced by the 1930 expedition.
02:21It's that kernel of truth that I think is interesting.
02:23Tanya discovered that a bold claim from Lasseter actually stacked up.
02:29Looks remarkably similar to the bridge that exists today.
02:32So, goodness me.
02:33And a chance find from Andrew...
02:36Oh, my Lord.
02:38...a sign they're on the right track.
02:41We've been doing this so long.
02:43Oh, no way.
02:44Really?
02:45Our first day out.
02:47We've got relics.
03:04We've got a decent-sized huntsman spider here.
03:06Look at this.
03:07I just folded up my swag and he was crawling down my shoulder.
03:12They don't tend to bite, usually.
03:15They're normally pretty friendly.
03:19200 kilometres west of Alice Springs,
03:23lifelong friends Brendan Elliott and Geoff Harris,
03:27along with geologist Andrew Bales,
03:30are four days into a hunt for a lost fortune.
03:35And a lost legend.
03:38No, it's not about finding billions of dollars
03:41or running off with a whole handful of cash or gold.
03:43It's, um...
03:44It's never been about the money.
03:45It's just, um...
03:47Just show the world that Lasseter was actually telling the truth.
03:56The team are following the path of Harry Lasseter's
03:59ill-fated 1930 expedition.
04:04After leaving Alice Springs,
04:07they still have 250 kilometres to go
04:10to reach his base camp at Il Pili.
04:14Along the trail,
04:16they're hunting for traces of the infamous prospector,
04:20as well as anything pointing to the existence of his gold.
04:24We need a couple more clues,
04:26and we don't know what they are
04:28until we stumble across them.
04:30It could be a tin with one piece of paper in it
04:32that gives you that little bit of extra information.
04:34He left a lot of the secrets around,
04:36buried under campfires.
04:37He left messages.
04:40Metal detectors.
04:41It's interesting studying the McDonald ranges.
04:45It's not renowned in the western reaches
04:47to have gold occurrences full stop.
04:51I don't care.
04:52I want to see it myself,
04:53and I'll study it,
04:54and I can read the ground very easily
04:55and quickly say we're in a really good location.
04:58So there's always a chance.
05:03Meanwhile, in the archives,
05:05historian Tanya Evans is following Lasseter's paper trail,
05:10investigating whether the enigmatic Lasseter
05:13should even be believed.
05:17I find Lasseter really interesting.
05:19He's a man of mystery.
05:20He's a man of tall stories.
05:22He's a man of enormous ambition.
05:24But I look forward to digging up more
05:27about this particular story
05:28because I think this is going to be really important
05:30for trying to establish
05:31whether Lasseter was a man who told the truth.
05:44What's the fuel situation?
05:45Oh, we're well under half,
05:46so it's a good time to get some fuel right now
05:49and meet up aloud.
05:51The expedition covers a total area
05:53of 130,000 square kilometres.
05:59Out here, there are no petrol stations.
06:03Planned fuel drops are essential.
06:07Respected local guide and Arrindar man,
06:10Leo Abbott,
06:11is due to rendezvous with the team.
06:15I'm just looking at those coordinates, guys.
06:17We're not far off the location
06:19that we're going to meet Leo.
06:20There'll be an intersection you've got to look for.
06:25Oh, yeah, this will be it.
06:28Leo's not here.
06:31No.
06:40Just wait here and wait for him.
06:45Got a bit of dust coming.
06:46Oh, here we go.
06:49Beautiful.
06:50He's hooking along.
06:51He loves it.
06:59We are pleased to see you, mate,
07:00I can tell you.
07:01We're starting to worry.
07:02What's going on?
07:03I don't know.
07:04I thought you must have been having a coffee somewhere.
07:05I was, yeah.
07:06Were you?
07:07I was thinking,
07:08nah, they can wait a little bit more longer.
07:10Mate.
07:10I've got to enjoy this cappuccino.
07:12As long as he got here, eh?
07:14That's right, I'm here.
07:20We'll fuel it up now.
07:22Too easy.
07:26You ready?
07:27Yeah, mate.
07:27Rocket on.
07:30Oh, we're flowing.
07:32Beauty.
07:37I didn't expect to be finding what we've been getting, so it's great.
07:44For nearly 100 years, dozens of expeditions have been through this land, hunting for Lasseter's
07:51lost fortune in gold.
07:54Good job, Leo.
07:55Leo has seen many of them try and fail.
08:00Well, these are some of the fires we've got here, Leo.
08:02Here we go.
08:03All right.
08:04We found, which was a real, absolute, well, I was shocked.
08:09It was a gem of a fine, wasn't it?
08:10It was.
08:10We found this penny, dated 1928.
08:16Could be from the Lasseter expedition.
08:19Timing's about right.
08:20Timing's about right, yeah.
08:21Could be.
08:23Just from talking to some of the old people, they've had sort of different theories about
08:27it.
08:27Was he just getting away from troubles, or was he just the world's best con man, you
08:33know?
08:34Him coming out here for a big find and all this sort of stuff, well, nobody's found it.
08:40Not yet.
08:43There you are.
08:45Yeah, well, catch it.
08:46No worries.
08:47No worries.
08:47Thanks a lot for that.
08:48All right.
08:48No worries.
09:03For Brendan and Geoff, Leo's doubt in Lasseter feels all too familiar.
09:10Sometimes I feel it, Lasseter.
09:13No one believed him.
09:15No one believes us.
09:18We've been called crazy.
09:20You're nuts.
09:20It doesn't exist.
09:25It's difficult.
09:31Hey, check out that.
09:33Look at that.
09:34How beautiful is that?
09:39Well, it's interesting, I just had a look at my phone before on the geology, we're cross-cutting
09:44from north to south through these gaps in the range.
09:48And there's only a couple of places through the range here you can pass.
09:52I mean, when you think about it.
09:53They must have had to come through this way.
09:57Hey, hold on, bro.
09:58Check it out.
10:00Now, this looks like a place where Lasseter said he wants camping.
10:03Do I want to stop and have a look?
10:04Yeah, I can have a bit of a squeeze.
10:11Oh.
10:15This looks like a bit of a cave, is it?
10:17Yeah.
10:22This looks like a cave.
10:23At the same point on the 1930 expedition, friction between Lasseter and the team leader,
10:29Fred Blakely, was intensifying.
10:33Blakely was beginning to doubt Lasseter and the story of his gold.
10:38When Lasseter noticed a cave high up on a rock face, he told Blakely he'd camped there
10:4533 years before, aged 17, when he first found his gold.
10:53Blakely scoffed at the idea.
10:57Why would he have gone up there?
10:58Well, I'm looking at it myself.
11:01And if I was 17 years old, riding horse through this country on me own, if it was me, I'd
11:08want
11:08to hide up high and have a good view.
11:11Considering that's the only cave we've located since we've been on the track, there's a good
11:15chance that was a cave.
11:18I'd camp in that.
11:20Up there?
11:21Yeah, I'd get up there.
11:22Why would you get up that high?
11:23Oh, for a night?
11:24You don't want anyone in their right mind to just climb up there for a night.
11:27You reckon you'd get up there?
11:28Well, if I would.
11:29Come on, bro.
11:30You're not as fit as you used to be.
11:32I'll get up there, mate.
11:32Bet you a dollar.
11:34You don't make it.
11:35You're on.
11:36Rightio.
11:37You got the dollar?
11:38I've got a dollar.
11:39There you go.
11:41One Australian dollar.
11:43You've got the old type.
11:44Of course.
11:45I bet with this all the time and I'll always win it back at some stage.
11:48Well, I'll come on with you.
11:50See you on your own, OK?
11:51Yeah.
11:51What are you going to do?
11:52I'm going to take a bit of a keeper.
11:53I'll keep the radio on and I'll listen after he is calling me.
11:57All right, all right.
11:58Good, good.
11:59Reach the cave and for Geoff, it will reinforce his belief in Lasseter.
12:07The point is, one, you could get up there because that was one of Blakely's statesmen's.
12:11He says there's no way you climb up that height.
12:13So I want to see where he actually can get up into that cave.
12:17And let's just say Lasseter did roll up there when he was 17.
12:21Who's to say he didn't put his name on the wall or even leave something behind?
12:26Well, we're going to take the ladder up there.
12:27Because I don't want to come back down.
12:29I want to get in.
12:31You ready?
12:32I think we're all right.
12:33Let's do it.
12:34Good luck, boys.
12:43Which way?
12:45Well...
12:45Straight up there.
12:46Yeah, yeah.
12:47Let's do it.
12:49On the hunt for a multi-billion dollar gold reef, Geoff and Andrew are attempting to reach
12:55a cave that prospector Harry Lasseter may have camped in.
13:03Watch yourself.
13:05And if we can find one clue to get us closer to the reef, you know, if we can find
13:10another
13:11bit of evidence like a tin can with something written in it, it just might point us in that
13:15right direction.
13:18Midday, and the temperature is well over 40 degrees.
13:22I mean, jeez, isn't it hot?
13:25Made worse by heat radiating off the rocks.
13:29It's like inside an oven, a blast furnace.
13:31You're getting it straight up from below.
13:34But it's cooking.
13:41Let's go around here, on the left.
13:44You gonna go to the left?
13:45Yeah, there's a flat piece here we can walk up on.
13:48Whoa.
13:51Well, that's it, brother.
13:53It's like stepping stones all the way up.
13:56The distance from below to here didn't take long.
13:59Nah.
14:00So that just puts what Blakely said the last one about that's been too high up to climb.
14:03Yeah.
14:04Now I'm starting to think a little differently about it.
14:07We should get out there and have a look.
14:15You got it?
14:16Yeah, can you take your tithe?
14:18Yeah.
14:34You got it?
14:34Yeah.
14:42You got a copy up there Jeff?
14:46Copy Andrew?
14:50Copy Jeff, copy Jeff.
14:55They did say they'd keep that radio on at all times.
14:58They might have lost radio contact inside the cave or something.
15:01It's a bit concerning but a lot of things can go wrong in the cave.
15:09Copy Jeff or Andrew?
15:10Yeah there mate.
15:16It's different.
15:18It's much bigger than I thought it was going to be.
15:20Oh yeah. A lot bigger.
15:22Bit of scat lying around.
15:24Well there's definitely I reckon bats in here.
15:26I don't know about that.
15:27I'm just keen to see if there's any human activity.
15:30So if a tin has been left behind or something.
15:32Yeah.
15:39That rock there is out of place.
15:42Oh yeah?
15:43You see that?
15:44Oh I didn't want to put a rock there though.
15:45Don't know.
15:46There's nothing else in here that's of that colour.
15:49This is something that's been brought into this cave.
15:51It hasn't come from the cave, right?
15:53Did Lasseter ever leave rock things behind?
15:57Not that I know of.
15:58I know he used to mark trees.
16:00So is that a sign that there's something buried here?
16:03Yeah.
16:03I suppose if you ram the gold detector over and see what you come across then.
16:07It's worth it.
16:14Well I'm going right in around here.
16:16Really close to this marker.
16:19You're getting hit are you?
16:20Yeah.
16:21No.
16:22If it's metal it will really see.
16:24Yeah.
16:25Oh wow.
16:34A small metal detector known as a pin pointer helps find the exact location of the signal.
16:42It's giving a little something going on and it's giving a false signal I think.
16:49Unfortunately.
16:51That's alright.
16:52We had a look.
16:53We had a try man.
16:54But the point is it's big enough to camp in and it's not hard to get up here.
17:03Copy Geoff or Andrew?
17:05You there mate?
17:07Yeah I got a copy.
17:09Oh you're there.
17:10I was starting to get worried mate.
17:11You weren't answering.
17:13Put your pants on mate.
17:14We could hear you snoring from up here.
17:16Is it all good up there?
17:18Yeah all good brother.
17:19There you go.
17:21Love you.
17:26How'd it go?
17:27A lot bigger than you think.
17:29Detector.
17:30Gritted the whole cave.
17:31Yep.
17:32Not in Skarrick.
17:33So at least we can cross that off.
17:35There was something in there from Lasseter.
17:36We would have found it.
17:37Yeah.
17:37Well I guess I owe you a dollar.
17:39You owe me a dollar brother.
17:40I owe you a dollar.
17:41There you go.
17:42Well I'll hang on to that my friend.
17:43Yeah no worries.
17:44I'll win it back at some stage.
17:45I'll tell you.
17:45Let's go.
17:48While no clues have been found, Lasseter's story of camping here is highly possible.
17:55Reinforcing the team's belief that they're on the right track.
18:06Over 2,000 kilometres away, historian Tanya is continuing her own investigation into Lasseter.
18:17Lasseter strikes me as a really complicated individual.
18:19I haven't worked him out yet.
18:22I don't think we have the evidence to quite work him out yet.
18:26It's been important to try and piece together whether he was telling the truth, obviously
18:33for discovering the reef full of gold, but also to test his claim about designing the
18:39harbour bridge.
18:42So far, Tanya has found that Lasseter's extraordinary claim to being the original designer of the
18:50Sydney Harbour Bridge may have been true.
18:54And there is his drawing of the harbour bridge.
18:59Wow.
19:03But now she's uncovered a magazine containing an anonymous letter to the editor that casts
19:10doubt on Lasseter's character.
19:13It's an account that's been published in the Bulletin in March 1932, so after Lasseter's
19:21death.
19:21So we have here an account by somebody who calls himself Virax, which means to tell the truth.
19:28So, Virax, I haven't much faith in Lasseter's reef.
19:32I knew Lasseter.
19:34He claimed to be a Victorian by birth, but had spent many years in the USA.
19:39He used to write for a local newspaper, but one of his contributions being a bitter denunciation
19:45of the war in verse.
19:47Oh, goodness, he writes poetry as well.
19:49He told me he had invented a device to make battleships torpedo proof, but the naval authorities
19:55were not impressed by it.
19:57In short, Virax suggests, he was more or less of a crank, very aggressive, very self-opinionated,
20:06and full of large, hopeful visions.
20:08I fear his reef was only one of the many illusions and delusions that spattered his career.
20:17The more documentary evidence we gather about Lasseter, the more complicated and contradictory
20:25he becomes.
20:26So, you know, you think you find a piece of evidence that provides an answer and then another
20:31piece of evidence just throws that out of the window.
20:36It's really hard to find the truth.
20:38And all historians don't think in terms of black and white.
20:42People try and alter the story of their selves.
20:45Not just Lasseter, but other people as well.
20:47In fact, almost everyone plays with different versions of themselves.
20:50And that's why it's hard to find the truth.
21:00Back in the field, the team pushed through ancient mountain ranges on constant watch for landmarks
21:08that Lasseter said lay close to his gold reef.
21:13Three hills in the shape of women wearing sun bonnets.
21:17And there was another hill that he actually said to look like Quakers hat with the top cut off.
21:22And that's when he stumbled across the reef.
21:25And that's where he found the gold.
21:27Hang on, mate.
21:28Just pull up.
21:29Hang on.
21:29Hang on.
21:30No, seriously.
21:31Pull up here for a second.
21:32There's something I want to look at out here.
21:33This looks interesting.
21:45Really interesting.
21:47A pile of rocks has caught geologist Andrew's eye.
21:52This one's a nice piece of quartz.
21:54This is what's really exciting coming from an area like this.
21:58Quartz is like a carrier fluid for the gold.
22:02He's spotted what could be a much smaller version of Lasseter's quartz outcrop or reef.
22:09Could this be similar to what Lasseter found?
22:11Possibly.
22:13Lasseter claimed that his gold lay embedded in a quartz reef 14 miles long and up to 12 feet wide.
22:22Quartz is just a really nice sign where gold likes to be.
22:26This is a very white bucky looking quartz.
22:29What does bucky mean?
22:30Very little mineralisation and limited potential for gold.
22:34However, I've found gold in fairly bucky white quartz before.
22:37Yeah, right.
22:38So I don't discount it.
22:39Ninety percent, eighty percent of the time.
22:41The more mongery the quartz looks, the more iron stained, broken, brittle, mouse ridden.
22:47Mouse ridden.
22:48Little pockets looks like a bit of cheese.
22:51Oh, like it's been chewed out or something.
22:53Yeah, chewed out.
22:53Is that where the gold sits in those fractures?
22:56That's right.
22:56That's right.
22:57Gold likes space.
22:58So where there's fractures and joints, that's where the gold likes to be.
23:04Is this something we're looking for when we're looking for Lasseter's Reef?
23:06Absolutely.
23:07The strong theory back in the day was that the country out here didn't hold gold and hence
23:12there was a lot of controversy and doubt on Lasseter's part that there was gold out here.
23:18Gold and quartz are often found together, forming under similar geological conditions.
23:27Deep in the earth, water, heated by magma, is forced up through rock, dissolving gold.
23:35As the fluid cools or changes pressure, gold can crystallise with quartz, forming gold-bearing quartz reefs.
23:49Quartz veins, they pinch and swell.
23:52It's like a big sausage.
23:54Yep.
23:54It has a narrow point and then it blows out again.
23:57That's one of the clues with Lasseter's Reef.
23:59It went along above the ground and then went down underground.
24:03Yes.
24:04Down the track a bit, it'll come back up again.
24:06And I'm not saying this is Lasseter's Reef, but it can happen.
24:09Absolutely.
24:10How come it hasn't been found today?
24:12Yeah.
24:13Just for that reason.
24:14Yeah.
24:18So how would you work out if it's a gold-bearing line of quartz?
24:23So we'll collect maybe half a dozen pieces, crush these up and pan it.
24:32Yeah, that's nice.
24:33Potential.
24:40So this tool here is a very basic rock crusher for us.
24:45It's called a dolly pot, an old term.
24:48It's like a mortar and pestle really.
24:51I'm going to break it down.
24:53If there's a sniff of gold, any of this, it should show up.
24:57The chance of finding gold is slim.
25:00To find any gold in the quartz, first it needs to be shattered.
25:06The rocks are heated, then rapidly cooled.
25:11We'll pull those bits of quartz out.
25:12They'll be super hot and chuck them into cold water.
25:16It cracks it.
25:18Acting like bellows, a leaf blower generates furnace-like temperatures.
25:24Very hot.
25:27You ever seen anything like this before, Brendan?
25:29No, mate, I've never had the opportunity to actually cook rocks,
25:32so this is a bit different for me.
25:35I think we'll grab another piece.
25:43Oh, yeah, there we go.
25:44Look at that.
25:45This is broke straight off.
25:46Popped straight off.
25:48Oh, yeah.
25:50Sizzle whistle.
25:53So it doesn't take much cooking to really soften this material up,
25:56which is just...
25:58Well, I didn't expect that.
26:00It started as such a hard rock to end up so soft.
26:03So soft and brilliant.
26:04Put a few pieces in.
26:06Okay.
26:13So how far do you take that?
26:14Back to dust?
26:15Back to dust?
26:16Yeah, it's basically as fine as I can get it.
26:21It'll keep you fit, though.
26:22It does.
26:25Yeah, right.
26:26Pretty good.
26:26So now it's really about wetting this down and then panning it off.
26:31We'll now wash the lights off the top.
26:34Gold being a really extremely dense element, it's going to water sink to the bottom.
26:39Then stay at the bottom.
26:40Stay at the bottom.
26:40Yeah, right, yeah.
26:45I try to get it down to about a tablespoon quantity.
26:50So now what I'm going to do is just roll it anti-clockwise.
26:52It's effectively moving the water across it.
26:54All the lights brought down to the back.
26:56Yeah.
26:56And the front keep all the heavies.
26:59Oh.
27:01That's nice, is it?
27:04See?
27:04Yeah, I see it.
27:05Just see it.
27:06Yeah, I see it.
27:06There's actually gold there.
27:07There's two.
27:08Two specks.
27:10Yeah.
27:10We just found gold, boys.
27:15We just found gold.
27:17You're kidding me.
27:19Small, but it's gold.
27:22That's it.
27:23It's like a pair of eyes looking at me.
27:25Well, that's two more than I thought.
27:26We're going to get out of this load.
27:29Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
27:31It's mine.
27:32I see the dynamics already.
27:34Wow.
27:35That's just from crushing a bit of quartz.
27:37That's unbelievable.
27:39Where there's one sniff of gold, there's more.
27:42So what's stopping there being a better piece of country
27:46that suits gold coming along and being found?
27:49It's probable.
27:51It's really surprising and it sort of lifts your spirit up a bit too
27:55to know that gold can appear in a lot of areas.
27:58That's great.
27:59It was a great feeling.
28:00I didn't expect it.
28:02I didn't expect it.
28:03There's no way, obviously, I think, with their sample.
28:05So it's a good start.
28:06I'm really excited.
28:08We found gold.
28:11For me, it gives a conviction of what Lasseter was saying,
28:15that there's a big gold reef out here.
28:17It just makes the idea of it being in the ground a lot stronger.
28:38We're just doing a bit of a vehicle pre-start,
28:40just checking that the oil levels are good.
28:43In the remote outback,
28:45daily maintenance of your vehicle is crucial.
28:48There's a good chance you can perish really quickly if you break down.
28:52As team mechanic, this is Brendan's responsibility.
28:56If you run out of oil and damage the engine out here,
28:59you're not going to get very far,
29:00so you could be waiting for quite a while.
29:06If you don't look after your vehicles and your equipment,
29:09they can fail on you really quick.
29:13In 1930, Lasseter's expedition had their fair share of mechanical setbacks.
29:20One of their trucks had a crippling breakdown.
29:23The other caught fire.
29:27The bad luck didn't stop there.
29:30A boulder rolled down a hillside, narrowly missing the men.
29:35And most dramatically, their biplane crashed on take-off.
29:40The pilot, lucky to survive.
29:58Deeper into the outback, the team enter Aboriginal controlled land.
30:04A vast tract of country occupying the heart of the continent.
30:11For over 40,000 years, Aboriginal people have lived in this desert country.
30:20In Lasseter's time, most were still living traditional nomadic lives.
30:27Few had ever seen Europeans before.
30:33If any had met Lasseter, it would have left the lasting impression,
30:38becoming part of an oral history passed down through generations.
30:47To enter this part of Australia, permits are required.
30:53Access to sacred sites is by invitation only.
30:57A protocol that Lasseter did not follow.
31:04That's Leo there.
31:06Sitting in the shade.
31:08Before they continue on, the team are meeting with cultural guide, Leo.
31:13Three omega.
31:15Hey Leo.
31:16Hey Leo, how are you mate?
31:18Just have a seat.
31:19We'll have a little bit of a yard.
31:23You know, I wanted to sit down here with you fellas.
31:26When people do come out to areas like this,
31:28it's good for people to acknowledge the country that we're in.
31:33One thing that you've got to think about here is that, you know, this country's alive.
31:38Just like we're sitting here breathing and looking around here,
31:41so the country can see you too, for who you are.
31:46For yourself and for your own wellbeing.
31:49Acknowledging the country that you're on, the best way to do it.
31:53Just get a bit of sand like this and just let it run through your hand
31:59and just letting the country know, the spirits know that you're only visiting.
32:04And then that way, you know, you get a safe passage, you know.
32:11Wild country.
32:13We're just here to pass through and visit.
32:18It's over us.
32:21Appreciate where we are.
32:34Every land has got spirit.
32:37You don't want bad spirits attaching to yourself and that, you know,
32:40there's been stories that that's happened to people, you know.
32:43So it's real.
32:46Yeah, just give you that rite of passage, you know,
32:48so you can go through and, you know, visit safely.
32:52Nielsen.
32:53Thank you, Leo.
32:54Appreciate your time.
33:01You've got to remember what Leo said, you know.
33:03If the country doesn't want you to pass,
33:05it's going to give you a hard time on the way through.
33:07That's right.
33:08Makes you think about the Lusseters expedition,
33:11going to areas in this country where they shouldn't have been.
33:17Yeah.
33:17Yeah, that's right.
33:18So they really pushed the boundaries on all fronts, didn't they?
33:21The amount of bad luck they had is, in my eyes, above average.
33:26Yep.
33:26Playing crashes.
33:28The bolt was rolling down a hill.
33:29The rest of the team was lucky to make it back alive.
33:32Yeah.
33:32For sure.
33:47So we've come to Melbourne from Sydney because we found out that Lasseter was born in Victoria
33:55and also that he might have served in the Australian Army.
34:00Tanya's continuing her investigation into Harry Lasseter's credibility,
34:05where it's starting to feel like two steps forward, one step back.
34:11We have lots of different sources telling us different kinds of things.
34:15I'm not quite sure what kind of man he is, whether he's a man of his word or not.
34:20I think that's, for me, that's definitely still up for grabs.
34:27So we've come to the State Library of Victoria
34:29and the wonderfully helpful staff here have helped us dig out some sources
34:36that make mention of Lasseter.
34:39Tanya's first document is a regional newspaper.
34:42A really interesting poem, it seems, from the Foster and Tura mirror from 1918.
34:51So we're still, we're at the tail end of the First World War.
34:55It's entitled Christian Warfare.
34:58So here we have Lasseter calling himself Lewis, but we know in 1924 he changed his name to Harold.
35:06It's actually very, very moving.
35:08Earth shook beneath their arm tread as a charging squadrons met, while shot and shell fell thick as hail,
35:15till the face of Earth was wet, with the red lifeblood of the best of Earth.
35:21In stern, sad words he spoke,
35:23is this goodwill to men?
35:25Behold, a dream for I awoke.
35:29So this is really interesting.
35:31What he's doing in this work is really articulating the sheer desperation that many Australians felt
35:38when so many lives had been lost or injured as a result of the First World War.
35:44And we're seeing a side of his character that we haven't yet seen so far.
35:47I think it's important that we try and piece together what we can about his military contributions.
36:00It looks like Lasseter's military records here.
36:04This looks like his enlistment papers dated the 21st of February, 1916.
36:14So, right in the middle of the war.
36:18His name is Lewis Herbert Lasseter.
36:22Born in the town of Meredith.
36:25He's 35 years old.
36:27Oh, isn't that interesting?
36:29His trade is listed as a bridge engineer.
36:32Wow.
36:33And he served in the Australian Army.
36:36That is really interesting.
36:37I wonder what impact that had.
36:39We get a sense from that poem, of course, it did have a huge impact.
36:43And here we have a really interesting picture of him.
36:51He looks like a man on a mission.
36:55This is a new site to Lasseter.
36:57It adds a whole other chapter to his life story.
37:08Hey Brendan, just come across the creek and just turn right and come down that little track there.
37:13I'm on the bend of the creek here.
37:16See you in a bit later.
37:19Please don't get lost.
37:21Near the remote Aboriginal community of Ikunchi, the team are continuing their search for three distinct hills that Lasseter said
37:32looked like some bonnets.
37:33We know the reef lies not far from there.
37:37No one's been able to locate those hills.
37:39They might have seen them but don't know what they are.
37:42But now Leo has discovered a direct link to Lasseter that may point them in the right direction.
37:51Oh, you fellas found me.
37:53Yeah mate.
37:53You're always tucked away mate.
37:56Interesting thing.
37:56A couple of people across the way over there would be probably interested to have a bit of a yarn
38:01with them.
38:02Good.
38:02Thanks mate.
38:03I wonder what this is all about boys.
38:09Hello gentlemen.
38:10Hey Lloyd.
38:11Hello Lloyd.
38:11How are you?
38:12Got these two here.
38:14You guys might want a new story about Lasseter's.
38:18Yeah.
38:19So they're willing to say, tell us the story.
38:23Grab a seat.
38:24Wonderful.
38:26It's soft in that.
38:28Yeah.
38:28How do yous know the stories?
38:31My father told me.
38:34Yeah.
38:35Your father passed the story down?
38:36Yeah.
38:37Because he saw Lasseter when he was a little boy.
38:40Yeah, right.
38:41His father.
38:42Right.
38:42His father saw him when he was a little boy?
38:45Yeah.
38:46Even my father knows the story too.
38:49Yeah.
39:02So they come through this country?
39:05Yeah.
39:06He was just looking around the rock mountains, you know?
39:09Yeah.
39:09When he was traveling along.
39:11Does he know why he was there?
39:16Next to water.
39:17He's looking for water.
39:19Looking for water.
39:19Yeah.
39:20Yeah.
39:21On his own?
39:24Yeah.
39:26On his own.
39:41He tried to go through that tree hill.
39:46But when he was traveling, he saw another hill in the middle.
39:51A white hill there, halfway.
39:55quite. Pretty much, that's what Lasseter was saying. There was three hills in the shape
40:01of sun bonnets. I mean, a third hill in the shape of a quagis hat. We know the reef lies
40:06not far from there. I mean, that's pretty amazing.
40:28That makes sense. So somewhere in here, he said his gold was in that radial point.
40:38This is beautiful because we've been studying Lasseter ever since we were 10 years old, since
40:45we were boys. This is very important to me, to us. I really appreciate your help and your
40:54knowledge. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
41:02It's an amazing moment, mate. We've been doing this for 43 years and finding out
41:08something I get to sit down with someone who actually knows the story of where Lasseter
41:12actually stood. So that's first-hand knowledge. So that was pretty amazing.
41:21We were privileged to sit down with them and that is special in itself because it's not
41:28something they share with just anybody. So yeah, I do pinch myself just to make sure it's real.
41:46Well, that was an experience we've had, mate, that you'll probably never have again. That's not written down anyway. That's
41:52oral history.
41:53Yeah, and it's a story that's come from his father. That's not something that's come from generations.
41:57No, no. It's something that's just been spoken. He said, that's what it had come through here.
42:03We're on the track. I mean, we could have been 100 k's that way or 100 k's that way.
42:08That's right. But we're on his tail. Yeah.
42:12It's a different point of us and others has been they tried to jump to the end.
42:16We did that in the beginning. Don't get us wrong.
42:18This time's actually going to work out a lot better because we're starting from the start.
42:21And we're going to step our way right through the entire thing.
42:25And we've already seen the value of that. That's it.
42:28That's exciting. Exciting days ahead. Oh, yeah.
42:32I think the truth is always out there. It just needed to be uncovered.
42:42Oh, look at that. Oh, boy, she shredded, eh?
42:47We've got no spares. This is awesome.
42:51That's a cross.
42:54There it is. We've got it. You've done it, Jack.
42:59Might be on to something here, mate.
43:21Oh, yeah.
43:24That's a cross.
43:24Oh, my God.
43:29Holy shit.
43:30We've got it.
43:30Yeah.
43:33You
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