
- 200 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Crossing the Dead Heart
About this book
This book is a classic narrative of modern exploration; a story of adventure, enterprise and patient scientific exploration, illustrated by photographs taken on the expedition.
The Simpson is a sand-ridge desert extending 200 miles (322 km) west to east, the ridges running parallel from north to south at roughly quarter-mile (0.4 km) intervals, some reaching as high as 100 feet (30 m). Madigan planned a ground crossing in the winter of 1939. A party of nine, including a biologist, a botanist, a photographer and a radio operator, with nineteen camels, made the exhausting crossing from Andado station in the Northern Territory to Birdsville in twenty-five days. It verified Madigan's previous conclusions that the area was a wasteland. This last classic Australian exploration adventure pioneered the use of mobile radio communication; national broadcasts were made through the Australian Broadcasting Commission from desert camps. The scientific results were published and also a popular accound, Crossing the Dead Heart (Melbourne, 1946). He saw the 'Dead Heart' as a land of everlasting sand-ridges and salt-encrusted clay-pans; while his conclusions seemed correct then, within twenty years the area was criss-crossed by petroleum explorers.
- Australian Dictionary of Biography
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Information
Table of contents
- PREFACE
- 1. THE SIMPSON DESERT, LAST UNTRODDEN AREA IN AUSTRALIA
- 2. EARLIER ATTEMPTS TO CROSS THE DESERT
- 3. PREPARATIONS
- 4. WE GET AWAY
- 5. ANDADO STATION
- 6. NORTHWARD TO THE HALE
- 7. EASTWARD INTO THE DESERT
- 8. RAIN IN THE DESERT
- 9. NEAR TO FAILURE
- 10. DANGER PAST, WE REACH THE HAY
- 11. THE MULLIGAN AT LAST
- 12. BIRDSVILLE
- 13. DOWN THE DIAMANTINA
- 14. LAKE EYRE
- 15. TOMORROW TO FRESH WOODS
- APPENDIX A
- APPENDIX B