'The Legend of Lasseter's Reef' is one of the most famous mysteries of the outback. Harold Bell Lasseter claimed to have found a rich reef of gold deposits in the Petermann Ranges in Central Australia, and immediately the rest of the country sat up and took notice.

In 1930 the government formed an organisation called 'CAGE' - the Central Australian Gold Exploration Company - with the sole purpose of determining the exact location of the reef, its size, and the estimated value of the gold that it possessed.

Lasseter joined a CAGE expedition to the reef in July 1930, setting out from Alice Springs. The expedition was fraught with problems, beginning with the cynicism of the leader of the party, Fred Blakeley, who thought Lasseter's claim no more than just 'a good story'. The party went off track a number of times, and their eventual location in the Ehrenberg Range, about 140 kilometers from Haasts Bluff, found no evidence of the reef.

Lasseter was adamant that they were looking in the wrong place, and that they needed to head about 200 kilometers further south into the Petermann Ranges. CAGE arranged for an aerial search from the Petermanns to the Ehrenbergs which ended in disaster - the plane crashed, and lives were lost. The expedition was abandoned, and Blakeley and his team returned to Alice Springs.

Lasseter, however, would not give up, and joined forces with a local dingo trapper and his team of camels to finish the expedition on his own. But all did not go well : the trapper left him after a major disagreement, and his camels escaped. With minimal supplies and lttle hope of reaching his destination, he began to deteriorate physically.

Local aborigines came to his aid, and nursed him back to a reasonable strength. Then Lasseter pushed on, reaching Winters Glen in an incredibly poor condition. He could travel no farther, and eventually died there, alone, no closer to unraveling the mystery of the reef.

In 1957 Lasseters remains were taken to Alice Springs, and buried in the local cemetery.

Lasseter kept a diary during his travels, and the last entry in the diary before his death has ensured that the search for the reef continues. He said in his last entry, a letter to his wife, that he had again found the reef, and that they should never give up hope of finding it.

Over the years many have lost their lives in their attempts to claim the gold. Still, the elusive reef remains undetected, and the search goes on.

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