Trips 2012 - click to print (pdf).
Tour Order Form
Site Map
WHAT ARE TOURS?
Oxford Dictionary : Tour - a journey through a country, town or building etc visiting various places or things of interest
Tours for example would travel the Anne Beadell, Connie Sue or Gunbarrel Highways and include all of the sites and features along the route as well as the history of the area. Sensible preparation is required and basic facilities such as fuel, water, showers and food items will be available from the various Roadhouses several times during the tour. We normally average about 150kms per day, and a day-off from travelling is included.
One of Beadell Tours main aims is to make sure you return home after the trip knowing far more about the Australian western deserts than when you left. To do that we offer smaller groups more points of interest and more historical information at a slower pace.
Tag-a-long vehicles & camper trailers are welcome to join our tours.
** Please note : we prefer order forms & deposits returned by the end of January for booking & permit purposes **
** Please note -: Final itineraries are dependent on permit approvals **
OFF-ROAD TOUR
By the early 1960's apart from a scattered network of Sandalwood tracks the Great Victoria Desert, Australia’s largest, had no made road through it. Then in 1962 a surveyor, his wife and their baby daughter in a scarred and battered Land Rover carefully picked a path for a bulldozer & grader to follow. Two roads were carved out of the virgin scrub, one east & west, the other north & south. That tiny road-making crew became famous for opening up the western deserts for the first time, they have become immortalised as The Gunbarrel Road Construction Party. Of course the surveyor was Len Beadell, his wife was Anne & the infant daughter Connie. As they say in the classics, the rest is history....
Fifty years on the Great Victoria has changed little, an immense area some 6% of Australia’s landmass still lies virtually untouched. Len Beadell’s road network has endured the test of time and almost all of his tracks have now become famous as 4WD adventure trips for folk from all over the country, many of the roads have become household names.
2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the finish of construction of both the Anne Beadell Highway and Connie Sue Highway and to celebrate Beadell Tours (Connie & Mick) are devoting 26 days towards travelling both. With local Aboriginal permissions the trip will include a variety of extra features & sites not normally seen by travellers. Anecdotes and diary entries from Len himself with journals & maps from the earlier explorers such as Giles, Hann " Lindsay will combine to offer a unique perspective of an environment unlike any other in the world.
If you want to travel safely and have the time to look around, enjoy & learn as much as possible this trip might be for you.
 |
| Anne & Connie at Neale Jn, pointing the way |
Distances
OFF-ROAD TOUR Aboriginal Artwork
This is a shorter trip focusing on the little known Central Ranges, an area sprawling over the borders of South & Western Australia, and the Northern Territory. Early explorers such as Giles, Gosse, Forrest and MacKay passed through this region and from them the maps we see today have come. Aboriginal culture is alive and well in the Central Ranges with the bulk of the remote area communities nestled in and around the Musgrave, Mann, Tomkinson, Rawlinson and Petermann Ranges.
Kata Tjuta dominates the skyline as we turn west and head into the Central Ranges. Near Docker River in the Petermann Ranges we get onto Len Beadell’s Sandy Blight Junction Road in the same country as explorers such as Giles, Terry & Hann once walked & rode, in fact Lasseter’s lost reef is in this same country.
The Schwerin Mural Crescent stretches out of sight to the west as we continue on to the Gunbarrel Highway, Rawlinson Range & Warakurna Roadhouse. A visit to Giles Weather Station and surrounds are next on the agenda. It is here that modern science interacts with ancient Aboriginal culture.
Following the Gunbarrel Highway south we visit the exceptional Blackstone Community Art Centre then swing east for the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Lands of South Australia. The Tomkinson Ranges loom large and the picturesque community of Kalka in the very north west of S.A. is next. Staying on the Gunbarrel Highway we pass along the Mann & Musgrave Ranges calling in at Amata Community on the way east.
As the Central Ranges taper off we pass Victory Downs Station and join the Stuart Highway at Kulgera Roadhouse. This ends a trip through remarkable country that few people see as permissions are difficult to obtain especially in South Australia.
Please note -: The route will depend upon permits being issued for Aboriginal Lands. Beadell Tours will advise all interested parties of any changes to the above itinerary.
OFF-ROAD TOUR
During the early 1870’s rivalry developed between three Australian colonies, South & Western Australia & Victoria. The reason was simple enough, at that time the country between the newly constructed Adelaide to Darwin Telegraph Line and the sparsely settled pastoral stations of Western Australia were still unexplored. Nobody knew what that vast amount of country held and many men of vision wanted the problem solved and were prepared to pay to find out. Of course they held the hope that any outlay would be recouped by the riches & opportunities waiting to be found on that large blank space of the maps of the day.
Four men led parties into the field to find out; Giles was first in 1872, Gosse & Warburton in 1873 and two young brothers, both surveyors, by the name of Forrest were sent from the west to force a way through to the east in 1874. Only two of the four parties succeeded.
Beadell Tours will be retracing the Forrest brothers’ route with a trip through history. These days the western deserts those men were sent to investigate have been mapped and access roads built. By chance a great part of John & Alexander Forrest’s route is now easily travelled by a series of roads & tracks in modern 4WDs, a far cry from horses & camels.
This is a unique trip that will appeal to travellers with a sense of adventure and a curiosity about the pioneers, explorers and a vast part of our country that most Australians will never see. Take the opportunity to see, feel and experience regions almost untouched by people.
Become an explorer for a short time.
 |
| Mt Worsnop from top of Mt Allott - Forrest 1874 |
**Please note that vehicles with camper trailers & heavy vehicles will have to join the trip at Well 5 on the Canning Stock Route
Distances
For more details on 4WD tyre construction and suitability please click on the following link
Tyre Information
Click the link for detailed comparisons of current model vehicles
Vehicle Specifications
Click the link for more information on UHFs, Epirbs & Emergency Codes
Vehicle and Emergency Communication
Click the link for our experience with Shock Absorbers
Shock Absorbers
(Require Adobe Reader)
BEADELL TOURS
37 Montebello Drive
SALISBURY
South Australia, 5108
Phone : (08) 8250 2718
Mobile : 0408841447
Email : Beadell Tours
ABN : 40 947 959 130