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00:11The Australian Outback, vast, remote, hostile.
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.
00:43We'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.
01:41To discover the truth.
01:43Coming in real fast, eh?
01:46Survive the outback.
01:48Snake, snake.
01:49Big 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!
02:09Last time.
02:10Whoa.
02:11Hot on the trail, Andrew and Brendan discovered a remote cave where Lasseter may have camped.
02:18I'm just keen to see if there's any human activity.
02:22Oh my goodness me.
02:23Historian Tanya found evidence of a troubled man, deeply affected by the Great War.
02:29The more evidence we gather about Lasseter, the more complicated and contradictory he becomes.
02:38I've never had the opportunity to actually cook rocks.
02:41And a surprise find.
02:43We've just found gold, boys.
02:45Injected the team with fresh hope.
02:48We've just found gold.
02:49Where there's one sniff of gold, there's more.
03:02It's a pretty mountainous terrain, you know.
03:04It's only hard.
03:06Beneath the imposing granite peak of Haast's Bluff.
03:10Well, I tell you what, that's an amazing piece of rock.
03:18Best friends Geoff Harris and Brendan Elliott, joined by geologist Andrew Bales,
03:25are following the trail of Lasseter's 1930 mission to rediscover his lost reef.
03:32Taking them into one of the most remote places on the planet.
03:41As far as you can see, you're the only man there.
03:44It's like being on the moon.
03:46I've been to a lot of places and I think probably the scariest place is out there, mate.
03:58The country itself is extremely harsh.
04:05Vehicles will stop.
04:07You could potentially end up perishing out in the desert without the right resources, food and water.
04:13You're not going to be found.
04:17I've been searching for Lasseter's reef now since I was 10 years old, so that's 42 years now.
04:23We've studied it that much.
04:25It made it easier for me to try to put myself in Lasseter's footsteps.
04:30In his mindset too.
04:32What was he thinking?
04:34And sometimes I'd even say there, will you bloody help me mate?
04:37You know.
04:40There's a lot of clues, really.
04:43The research I've done is all pointed towards Lasseter's telling the truth.
04:48So if anything, he'd left the clues for someone like ourselves to go and find it.
04:56On our way to Illbilly, eh?
04:58That's it mate.
04:58Illbilly.
05:04Now 250 kilometres west of Alice Springs, the team are heading to what was Lasseter's base
05:12camp at a place called Illbilly.
05:17Dry country like this, the waters.
05:20It was key.
05:20Yeah, it was a key, key factor.
05:22Yep.
05:25Illbilly was the ideal base camp for Lasseter's 1930 expedition.
05:30It had a permanent water supply and a ready-made airstrip built by a surveying team just months
05:37before.
05:38From here, the plan was to go hunting for the reef.
05:42From the air, Lasseter took just one flight from Illbilly.
05:49That was all he needed.
05:52From the air, he claimed to have spotted key landmarks he recognised from his 1897 gold
05:59discovery.
06:01His words were, there's three hills looking like three women wearing sun bonnets.
06:06And a fourth hill which looks like a Quakers hat with the top cut off.
06:10That's what we're searching for because we know the reef lies not far from there.
06:15In an attempt to locate the same crucial landmarks, Jeff is planning to follow the exact flight
06:23path that Lasseter took nearly 100 years ago.
06:27We find those hills, we find the gold.
06:30He plans to follow his footsteps all the way out to Illbilly.
06:34Then we're going to actually carry out a flight, see if we can see anything from the air that represents
06:41what Lasseter actually spoke about.
06:46It's pretty rough.
06:48It's rough, eh?
06:49Yeah.
06:51That wheel looks dodgy, man.
06:53Look at it.
06:55Oh, oh yeah.
06:56The trailer doesn't look like it's going straight.
06:58Nah, you better pull it up and check it.
07:02Field is not right?
07:03Something's all right.
07:10Oh, look at that.
07:15That's unreal.
07:17It's amazing.
07:20Whoa!
07:23Oh boy, she's shredded, eh?
07:25Oh, Jesus.
07:27Yeah, we've got a bit of a flat tyre.
07:29There's not much left of it.
07:30Nah, I'd say we just hit a good-sized rock pack there.
07:33Hopefully we don't get too many more, because we've only got one spare.
07:38Well, Lasseter had his own problems.
07:40I suppose it's only fair we have a few of ours, eh?
07:46Oh, hillbilly.
07:47Here we come.
08:002,000 kilometres away, the team's fourth member, historian Tanya Evans, is continuing her own investigation into Lasseter.
08:11What we hope to achieve while we're here in Melbourne is get some sense of what kind of man he
08:20came to be.
08:22Hoping to piece together the early bits of Lasseter's life, perhaps his boyhood.
08:32So we're trying to figure out a little bit more about his personality, his characteristics.
08:38Was he poor? Did he have to work hard to survive?
08:42We don't know answers to any of these questions there.
08:47We found some details about Lasseter.
08:52He was born in 1880 in Meredith, in Victoria.
08:56Ah, here we have an article from the Colac Herald, which was published in Victoria from 1875 up until the
09:04end of the First World War.
09:08Friday, the 11th September 1896, a lad well-known locally was lodged in the lock-up last evening.
09:20Charged with committing the recent robbery at Messrs Bellier and Fulton's establishment.
09:29So here we have Lasseter calling himself Lewis, but we know in 1924 he changed his name to Harold.
09:38Oh my goodness me, loaded revolvers when they were looting the premises.
09:43Crikey, this is an armed robbery, it's not just a robbery.
09:4716 years old and he's involved in an armed robbery.
09:51Wow.
09:55F***ing bloody hell.
09:57Great tyres, these f***ers.
09:59Yeah.
10:00Oh, these are the best.
10:01It's not going to go any further.
10:03Ah, so the brand new tyre that we've just put on is just blown out and it's the second tyre
10:07in about within 60 kilometres.
10:10That's put us in a bit of a world of hurt.
10:13We've got no spares.
10:14We're in strife.
10:25It's not repairable right now, we haven't got any valves either.
10:28There's no valve in it or anything, it's all gone.
10:31Deep in the outback, 300 kilometres from help, Geoff, Brendan and Andrew have been caught unprepared.
10:39It was a bit of bad luck having those two flat tyres within 50 kilometres of each other and only
10:45having one spare, it's a bit of a silly mistake.
10:49I reckon you leave it, keep rolling.
10:51Good luck mate.
10:53We've got about 100 kilometres to go and I reckon in about 20 that'll be down to that stub axle.
11:01Not a real good time considering it's late in the afternoon.
11:05The team are now late for a planned rendezvous with local guide, Leo Abbott.
11:11Hey mate, we're about to you.
11:15Yeah, you might have to do what you can come back mate.
11:19Yeah, we're stuck. We've just blown the second tyre.
11:35With daylight fading, finally Leo, with support driver Rex Spencer, comes to the rescue.
11:44Got a bit of strife here, Leo.
11:47I think we're better off backing up and going back home.
11:50No, we ain't.
11:51There's no way we're going backwards.
11:53I didn't come this far to stop here.
11:56The team need a plan to fix the trailer filled with vital supplies.
12:01I've got a trailer with four tyres, five tyres sitting in HQ there.
12:06All right. Yes, have to.
12:08As long as we can get our billyed and iron, if we can get our billyed and iron, we can
12:11worry about the tyres in the morning.
12:13Yeah, we can stash the trailer, take the essentials we need.
12:15I'll take these rims off it so it can't be moved.
12:18Just drop it on the ground so no one can borrow it.
12:22I'll just get my gear and just shoot into town.
12:23Okay.
12:24I'll get the tyres from HQ.
12:26As I come back with the tyres, I'll put them on and then meet us back to the building with
12:31the trailer.
12:31Probably mid-morning.
12:33Perfect.
12:34Let's not muck around, it's quarter to five.
12:36Yeah. Hopefully we can get there before it gets too dark.
12:40We need to put this table somewhere.
12:43Rex's plan will see him return to Alice Springs, collect replacement tyres, fix the trailer and then rejoin the team
12:52in Il Pili.
12:53A round trip of 1,000 kilometres and almost two days.
12:59Well, it's nobody's fault, other than Geoff's.
13:03It's always my fault.
13:04Geoff, it's on your side, both flat tyres mate, a brand new tyre.
13:09Can't blame anyone else.
13:11Yep.
13:12But there's actually a road that will take you right into that scrub in there.
13:14Oh, perfect.
13:15Perfect spot.
13:16Excellent.
13:17It's pretty good, Dan.
13:20Nice.
13:21Let's go, man.
13:21We'll get into it.
13:23Thanks, Rex.
13:25The team can't afford any more delays.
13:30Driving in the outback at night is notoriously dangerous.
13:34Dirt roads, combined with large animals on the move, can lead to disaster.
13:40Yeah.
13:40We've still got probably 70 k's till we get there.
13:44Yeah.
13:44So we'll be just on dark before we really set up camp and get some food organised.
13:49We don't want to push it too hard or we'll get more blown tyres.
13:51Oh, yeah.
14:09We've made it.
14:20It's been a long day.
14:24But I'm all so excited because here we are at Hillbilly.
14:27To be honest, we might have been wanting to get here for about 40 odd years and we're finally here.
14:33We're just lucky we have a good crew behind us to back us up and we got here safe.
14:57Overnight, a rare cool change in the desert has caught Andrew off guard.
15:02A little bit back.
15:04Yeah.
15:06It was torrential.
15:07So I'd gone to sleep and then at about three in the morning, bang, water's coming in.
15:13You know, things got pretty wet, pretty sun-saturated through here.
15:18It was a rough night.
15:23No one thinks it rains in the desert, but you know, here it is.
15:31No, it's Jeff, mate.
15:33I'm just ringing up and checking up.
15:34For Jeff, the unexpected weather...
15:36Yep, righto.
15:37..is causing more setbacks.
15:39Tomorrow?
15:41Alright, thanks, mate.
15:42His planned flight, retracing Lasseter's aerial search for landmarks, has been postponed.
15:50I couldn't use the flight to the ladle with all this rain.
15:53Oh, that's a shame.
15:54Yeah, it's just too windy.
15:55Though, um, I'll be here for a bit longer before, you know, I head off, so...
16:00Okay.
16:00This should clear up by another day, he reckons.
16:06Before any searching can begin...
16:09We're following you, mate.
16:11No worries.
16:12..the team need to pay their respects to the Aboriginal land they're on.
16:18This is a really big, significant site.
16:20It's really, um, sacred.
16:23So you've got to show that respect and that too, when you come in.
16:27Yeah.
16:27So you've got to keep to that protocol.
16:38Hello.
16:39We're only visiting.
16:41Why are we going to pick another one?
16:42Oh, I'm Geoff.
16:43Just to come to visit.
16:45Hi, Andrew.
16:46Just coming here to visit.
16:49Hello, Brendan.
16:50I'm just here to visit.
16:51Look.
16:52This is Ilpili Spring.
16:54For thousands of years,
16:56this has been a significant water source for the Pinterby people.
17:01If I could hit the main fella over here,
17:03we might go over and say hello.
17:07Hey, how you going, brother?
17:09Hello.
17:09Hello.
17:10Hello.
17:12I'm Geoff.
17:13I'm Geoff.
17:13I was waiting for your mob.
17:15Yeah, this is the spring now.
17:16This was an important place for my, um, families.
17:20People to be here.
17:21Yeah.
17:21In the old days?
17:22In the old days.
17:22This area sacred?
17:23Yep.
17:24Sacred place.
17:25Is this always, always got a soak, always wet, even in drought?
17:29Always never run out.
17:31Wow.
17:31All year round.
17:32Um, this was a really big gathering place.
17:37To have a big ceremony out of.
17:39Oh, right, yeah.
17:40Yeah, because of this water, yeah.
17:41Yep.
17:42Did you know the story of Lasseter?
17:44Um, yep.
17:45My grand-brand used to tell me a story.
17:49This is where Lasseter and his camel was drinking.
17:53Just here?
17:54Just here.
17:55Wow.
17:56So we're on the right track.
17:58Yep.
17:59Uh, it's raining now.
18:01Um, we better head back to the car then.
18:03We can have a Yarners car.
18:04Yeah, we'll do that.
18:05Good idea.
18:06Raining in the desert.
18:11This is a beautiful country, Terrence.
18:13Yep.
18:14It is.
18:15All this is Aboriginal land, all the way to Wusnersville.
18:18Yep.
18:19Not many people get permission to come here either, do they?
18:22No.
18:23So we're pretty privileged.
18:25When me and Brendan were ten years old, we learnt about Ipili.
18:30Now we're here.
18:31It's very exciting.
18:34Terrence is taking the team to where he believes the airstrip used by Lasseter is located.
18:42Were you told stories about this when you were a boy?
18:46Yeah, they told me the plane saw the smokes and they landed around here.
18:50Oh, okay.
18:52It would have been like a giant bird.
18:54Yeah.
18:55And they were really scared of it too.
18:58Yeah, really?
19:01Maybe through here.
19:03Keep going.
19:04Just keep an eye out the windows for anything.
19:08Lasseter always dug a hole and buried like tins or bottles with maps or letters.
19:16Might find something.
19:18Never know.
19:22At the time of Lasseter, this country was in the grip of a seven year drought.
19:29Photos from the period show the earth stripped bare.
19:34Recent conditions have been kinder, but the regrowth has concealed all trace of the now disused airfield and Lasseter's expedition.
19:45It's hard to believe that this is the actual area where Lasseter took off in his plane to look for
19:51his reef.
19:52Yeah.
19:53You see Terrence, I'm going to do a flight and we're going to come here above Ibili.
19:58Yep.
19:59And then we're going to fly south.
20:01The same way that Lasseter flew in his plane.
20:04Oh, yeah.
20:05So we're going to try to reenact the exact flight.
20:08Do you think we're at the end of the airstrip now?
20:10Yep.
20:11Want to jump out, Andrew?
20:14Have a look.
20:18This is old, Darren.
20:19Yep.
20:20It looks like old.
20:22You've never seen this before?
20:24No.
20:25It's an unusual picket, isn't it, Sven?
20:27It is.
20:27It's round.
20:29I thought it was a stick.
20:31Yeah.
20:32Maybe this is just to mark the rocks for the plane.
20:35Yeah.
20:36If the plane hit this, it'll tip over.
20:46It's unusual to have just one peg in the middle of a field where there's nothing at all and there's,
20:51so I can't see another peg anywhere.
21:01I wonder if this is like a corner.
21:03Yeah, cross.
21:05Yeah.
21:06It is too.
21:07It's a cross.
21:08Yeah.
21:16It's a cross.
21:21It's a cross.
21:22It's a cross.
21:22It's north, south, east, west.
21:23And it's like a compass bearing.
21:25Wow.
21:27This is a significant find.
21:30I think so.
21:30I think we're the first ones to find this.
21:33Yeah.
21:41So if we cleaned all this grass up.
21:44You'd see it like a compass bearing.
21:45From the air.
21:46From the air.
21:48This is awesome.
21:51That's a cross.
21:52I can't believe it.
21:53This is, this is a substantial marker.
21:58In remote outback Australia, on Pintobee country, the team have made an incredible find.
22:07That's it.
22:08It is north, south, west, east.
22:12Holy moly.
22:13A stone cross, accurately indicating the four points of the compass.
22:21To this day, pilots the world over use airstrip bearing marks like this to align their aircraft
22:29compasses.
22:31This is proof that the airfield's here.
22:33I reckon Terrence, look legit.
22:36Yeah, it would have been like that.
22:39And the lad would have looked down, seen the flag flying on your air ride and I'm coming down.
22:42Yep, absolutely.
22:43And then he landed.
22:44And then he seen your ancestors.
22:47Yep.
22:47And now I'm quite shocked.
22:49Yeah, they were shocked all right.
22:50Never seen a plane.
22:51No.
22:52We'd like something from outer space.
22:53They thought it was a devil landing.
22:54Oh really?
22:55Did they run away?
22:56Yeah, run away and then came back again.
22:59Yeah.
22:59First man landing on the moon.
23:01Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
23:03When I go up in the plane, we'll fly over this.
23:06If we can leave the sock there, I'll see it from up there.
23:10I'll come straight over and we'll fly from here because we know this is it.
23:14Wow.
23:18That's an airstrip for sure, mate.
23:20It is.
23:21Good work.
23:22That's what we're really chasing.
23:24At the end of the day, we're looking for the clues that Lasseter left behind.
23:28It started in 1930 and ended up with Lasseter's death.
23:32Somewhere in between those two moments was the fact that Lasseter said that he'd found a reef.
23:46He's on the way to put this up so well.
23:50Rax is back.
23:52He's back and he's got the trailer.
23:54Oh, there you go, Raxie.
23:56Yeah, no mate.
23:58You've been through some mud.
24:01A bit wet down the road.
24:03Is it?
24:04I borrowed all the tyres off my mate's trailer, so I got another three in the back.
24:08Oh perfect. The way you're going through tyres I thought you might need him to get home.
24:15Hello. Yeah g'day is that Jeff Harris? Yeah mate it is. Yeah mate. So you've got a flight booked
24:22with us haven't you? Yeah mate. Yeah nah we've got we've got it all cleared. The skies have cleared
24:27up and it's looking good now. All right mate hearing the flights back on I'm wrapped. I'm
24:32stoked. This is why I came out here for. We can finally get up into the air and have a
24:38look at
24:39Lasseter's landmarks if we can locate them and hopefully locate the reef. Hey fellas.
24:45Yeah mate. The flight's back on. Awesome. Yeah the weather's cleared up. That's good.
24:52See you later bro. Yeah boys.
24:58While Jeff heads for the skies Andrew and Brendan return to the airstrip to find any proof that Lasseter
25:06was here. So look I'm really excited we we've found the the X the cross it's a structural thing there
25:15for to show us an airstrip but it still doesn't really prove that this is what Lasseter used and
25:21we we've got to keep looking to find something else if we can. I mean it'd be really nice to
25:25find some
25:25evidence that suggests obviously Lasseter was here because then we lock it all in.
25:34If they had pulled up somewhere here to work they might have dislodged something moving around
25:40dropped it on the ground so by circling out radiating from that inner area I'm hoping to nail
25:48something just down the edge. It's not easy because we're actually we're really running out of daylight.
26:02I have a target. You've got a target. We're on the money. Really? I'm not sure whether it's iron or
26:08what it is but
26:10it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Thanks mate. All right we've moved to the top. What's that?
26:22Now that's an old tin. How old is that? This is a piece off a bully beef tin. Yeah that's
26:30great.
26:31Bully beef or tinned corned beef was a staple food item on Lasseter's 1930 mission.
26:41Records show that the expedition carted 200 pounds or 90 kilograms of bully beef which would have
26:49totalled 267 tins. It's that era that's from these guys. Yeah. This is a good chance that it puts it
27:00in
27:00the realm of the period that Lasseter was here. Yeah. They've sat here and had lunch. Absolutely.
27:05It's right here. Yeah. The fact they're here we've just got a quick scout here. Yeah. All right let's pick
27:12up the gold sovereign.
27:20Oh hang on. No way. There is something. All right. We can have a look at this. It's right there.
27:28All right. A little scratch.
27:35It's still there. Still there.
27:40What is that? Well. It's off a post.
27:46Oh man.
27:49That looks like brass. The markings on it. That's a brass marker pin. That's a surveying point. It's a surveying
27:57point.
27:58Man. Oh look at that. This has been surveying.
28:02N-T-L. N-T-L-1-6-2. 1-6-2. Wow. There's got to be a record of
28:09that. There'd be a record of them and if they've
28:11made this an extra for a specific reason and registered it it'll give us a specific date. It's awesome.
28:19I know little about these things. Well it makes it a definite marker. This is like the holy grail of
28:26proving this up. I'm just blown away. What a find. With the location of the airstrip firmed up
28:34Jeff can now confidently trace Lasseter's flight path from exactly the right starting point.
28:41Initially when finding that signal we're thinking what's Lasseter buried here? But to dig that up was
28:46just equally as exciting because you know this thing's been lost for years you know 100 years
28:51and now we've uncovered it so it's just incredible. It's great. All the puzzle pieces line up and start
28:58to link and the more we can do that along the way the closer we are to hitting that prime
29:03target and
29:04that's that's what it's about. Well we're about to lose the light mate. All right I know.
29:08Pulling away from it but we gotta go. I just wish I had night vision. Let's go.
29:18That was bloody great. Oh wasn't it amazing. To find that location right there is just like out of the
29:25box.
29:48So I've just come to Harts Bluff waiting for the plane to land. Repeating Lasseter's flight from 1930 so
29:55I'm pretty excited right now. I mean I've waited what 40 odd years to do this and finally the time's
30:02come.
30:05So I think I can hear him coming now actually.
30:10After all the delays it'll be great to get up in the air.
30:25So you ready for this big flight? Yeah. No worries mate.
30:29To faithfully retrace Lasseter's flight Jeff and Jack will first fly back to Il Pili
30:36passing directly over the airstrip and taking a bearing from the stone compass.
30:58There's a lot of crosswind here. Yeah I feel it. But if there's something I learned being Irish is you
31:05can't control the weather.
31:13Yeah so Jack. How long have you been in Australia for?
31:16I've been in Australia eight years. Northern Territory is a very different landscape.
31:22Requires you to be a bit more switched on. Yeah.
31:27This turbulence that we're getting it's uh because it's such a hot day it's it's heated the ground so
31:34quickly that all that hot air through convection is moving upwards at a very fast rate. When they're
31:39doing Lasseter's uh flights like I said they crashed one plane. Oh well I'm not going to do that today.
31:46No.
31:49In the 94 years since Lasseter flew over here aviation has advanced but the country has changed little.
31:59below it remains wild empty and vast. We are actually going into the middle of nowhere.
32:09Yeah we are. Definitely in the middle of nowhere. Oh yeah. Like now is the middle of nowhere but
32:14it really is even more the middle of nowhere. Yeah. Have you ever heard of the never never?
32:19Why is it called the never never? Never never ends. Oh right up. I like that one better than yeah.
32:25Never never return. Yeah. Well don't decide but if you had to go down. Are you always looking for
32:31somewhere to live? Out here uh the nearest airstrip is uh 73 miles away. Yeah right. So we're not going
32:38to
32:39make it um there are no roads. There are no paddocks. Yeah. At the end of the day we can
32:46only do do what we can.
32:50So Jeff um what is it that you actually are looking for at Ill Billy? We discovered a um
32:59a cross made of stones. That's the same airfield that Lasseter took off to fly in the direction
33:05we'll be going. Once we get closer to the dock and what I'm searching for is three hills.
33:11There's also a lake and about 35 miles away is another another hill. It should have a flat top on
33:19it.
33:20All three of those if we could find those would be great. We know the gold reef is close to
33:26those landmarks.
33:29Oh unreal. Here we are in Ill Billy. That should be the airfield right down there somewhere right there. That's
33:39it.
33:45Should be straight down here now.
33:51There it is. That's beautiful. That round circle there. You've done it Jack.
34:01From Ill Billy, Lasseter flew on a southwest bearing. According to his pilot,
34:08he spotted his landmarks one hour and ten minutes into the flight.
34:14Jeff's calculations put that in the vicinity of Docker River.
34:20Right now we head straight for uh Docker River. Yep. On the border.
34:28Safe flight path that Lasseter took 94 years ago. It's pretty amazing.
34:41In Melbourne, Tanya is digging deeper into some disturbing news. Here we go. The Colac burglaries.
34:50In 1896, at the age of 16, Lasseter is accused of a serious crime.
34:58Henry Borum and Louis Lasseter were charged with burglariously entering the establishment of
35:06Messers-Bellier in Fulton on the 30th of August. The burglary had been perpetrated with great deliberation and care.
35:14Crikey, this wasn't just a chance crime. This was this was carefully organized, which again doesn't sound good.
35:20Oh my goodness me, Lasseter had a mask and both prisoners carried loaded revolvers. No doubt if they were discovered
35:30in the act, they were prepared to take life.
35:33My goodness, what a story. Well, this does not paint a particularly good picture of Lasseter at all.
35:43Friday, October the 9th, both of the accused pleaded guilty. The judge was inclined to deal leniently with the accused
35:51and ordered that Lasseter should be detained in the reformatory.
35:57We know he's a minor. We have been told that the sentence he was given was lenient.
36:04But, you know, it could be six months, it could be 18 months, who knows.
36:09This is October the 9th, 1896, and he is supposed to have discovered the gold at the end of 1897.
36:21If he's in reform school in 1897, then his whole story about being in the outback discovering gold is not
36:30true.
36:33This is, this is a real worry.
36:41It's hard to get your bearings around here, isn't it?
36:46A world away from Tanya's shocking discovery.
36:50Yeah, the sky, well, you don't, you don't really appreciate it until you get up into the air, eh?
36:55Jeff is now approaching his primary target zone.
36:59That's Docker River.
37:01Yeah.
37:01But it's dried up.
37:02Yeah.
37:04According to reports, it was somewhere below that Lasseter spotted his landmarks, which he claimed pointed the way to his
37:13billion dollar gold reef.
37:15So I'm on the three hills around here somewhere.
37:19Three hills?
37:20Yeah, I know.
37:21There's lots of them.
37:21I know.
37:24I've studied these mountains for years looking on Google Earth, but now because you're upping the air, it's like, eh.
37:31Yeah, it's pretty difficult.
37:33They look different.
37:35Yet they look the same.
37:39Well, I'm not giving up.
37:40We're going to swing back around.
37:42Yeah.
37:43And I'm looking for a lake reporter in it.
38:03That knob there.
38:06Right, right.
38:07We're actually going over the exact spot that he flew.
38:11Yeah, I want you to head over that way a bit more.
38:21Three hills.
38:25Come on, Lasseter.
38:26Give me another flu.
38:33We've found the lake.
38:35I think that's it, though.
38:36Just there in front of us.
38:37Yeah, that's it?
38:38Yeah.
38:39That's it, mate.
38:40That's the lake.
38:43I reckon those three hills will be out there.
38:45The lake is here, right?
38:47Yeah.
38:48Well, this is one very distinct hill.
38:51Yeah, it is, eh?
38:51There's another very distinct hill.
38:53There's another one on the other side of it, too.
38:55Yeah.
38:57There's one, two, and three.
38:59Yeah.
39:01One, two, and three.
39:04And one of them's flat.
39:06The one that's 35 miles away is a hill, which is not cut off.
39:11Oh, flat.
39:12Yeah.
39:13Right in front of us.
39:14Yeah.
39:14Is that about 35 miles away?
39:19Yep, it's 35 miles away.
39:22That definitely fits three hills I can see in front of us, too.
39:25Like here, this one, east one, and this one.
39:29It definitely fits the bill.
39:32Might be onto something here, mate.
39:34This is amazing.
39:37All right, Jack, could you line us up, mate, so I can get a part of these hills here?
39:46Beautiful.
39:49I've got it.
39:51There it is.
39:54I've got a lot of photos.
39:57When you're ready to turn, you go for it.
40:05I've got a lot of photos.
40:09I've got a lot of photos.
40:09Oh, I needed that coffee.
40:19We've just got a message on the satellite messaging system.
40:22It says, call me urgently, Tanya.
40:25We'll have to get a Starlink up, then.
40:28You can hold that.
40:29Yep, you're going to take the aerial, and I'll plug it in.
40:36All right.
40:39I think it's connecting now.
40:42Hi, guys.
40:43How are you?
40:44Hi.
40:44How are you doing?
40:45Hey, where's Jeff?
40:47Well, he's up on a flight at the moment, having a bit of a look south of Ill Billy.
40:51Fill us in.
40:51What's the news?
40:52So what's the urgency with the call?
40:54You said it was an urgent that we contact you.
40:56Yeah, sorry.
40:56I was hoping to get all three of you together, but it's just...
41:00Look, I made a discovery in the archives down in Melbourne,
41:03and it was a bit of a shock, actually.
41:05I'm afraid I've discovered a glitch in Lassiter's story, in his chronology.
41:12Oh.
41:12We came across some newspaper articles that suggest he was not in the desert when he said he was in
41:181897.
41:20No.
41:20He was actually in reform school.
41:23What?
41:23You're sure?
41:24And he was being convicted of burglary, would you believe it?
41:27Really?
41:28No way.
41:29So that really puts a real kind of chink in Lassiter's story, unfortunately.
41:34Yeah, that really marks up the dates that he says he was out here then, doesn't it?
41:37So where does that leave us now?
41:40Yeah, we're back to square one.
41:42That's his first story of Fawn and the Reef, and he wasn't actually there, well then...
41:47It's a massive hole.
41:49Yeah.
41:49Jeff's going to be devastated when we tell him this.
41:52Yeah, look, I'm going to leave you guys to tell Jeff, and look, I'm going to go back
41:57to the archives and see if I can unearth any other evidence that might suggest otherwise.
42:03But for now, I just felt like I really needed to let you know that.
42:05Okay, I'll leave you to it, guys.
42:07I'm really sorry.
42:08Thanks a lot, Tanya.
42:09Bye.
42:09Take care.
42:10Bye-bye.
42:12I don't know what to say.
42:14Let's put a spanner in the works.
42:15That's a game changer.
42:17It is, yep.
42:18So Tanya's saying in 1897, when he was meant to be discovering the reef or had discovered
42:24the reef, he's actually in reform school.
42:26Yeah, a long way from where he's meant to be.
42:30We'll have to break this to Jeff and see how he...
42:32Yeah.
42:33Yeah, absolutely.
42:34See where we go from here.
42:36Yeah.
42:39Timeline doesn't seem to be right with last night.
42:42You know how to bring a man down, don't you?
42:44I'm not backing out now.
42:45We're going all the way.
42:46Well, hold on now, Brendan.
42:48You don't stop in here.
42:50No, don't stop.
42:50Don't stop in here.
42:51I'm not swimming.
42:56Check this out.
42:57This is amazing.
42:59This is the place.
43:00This is Lassa's Cave.
43:03Have a look at this.
43:05I think that's a great find, mate.
43:06This is something Lassa they would have carried.
43:09Jeff or Brendan, you on channel?
43:12Look, they should have been back.
43:15cease!
43:39There is a great find out.
43:41Here is a great find out.
43:43Here is what it is.
43:48Transcription by CastingWords