Fabled Fortune

Since its purported discovery more than 120 years ago, Lasseter’s Reef, a fabled gold-rich outback quartz vein, has eluded both fortune-hunters and researchers.

- Tim The Yowie Man

IN THE FIRST issue of Australian Geographic, in 1986, the magazine’s founder, adventurer and entrepreneur Dick Smith, wrote: “There are six books published on Lasseter’s Reef and a major documentary. I’ve thoroughly researched the lot and I still have a completely open mind.”

The fabled gold-rich quartz reef was said to have been found somewhere west of the MacDonnell Ranges, in Central Australia, by Harold Lasseter in 1897. Since then, it has become a thing of legend. During the past three decades alone, it has featured in at least 10 AG stories, been the subject of numerous books and films – including the 2012 documentary Lasseter’s Bones – and inspired countless adventurers to launch expeditions to Central Australia in search of the long-lost gold quarry.

To date, however, the reef, which Lasseter claimed was laden with gold and measured some “seven miles [11.3km] long, four to seven feet [1.2–2.1m] high, and 12 feet [3.7m] wide”, has remained elusive. Today, Dick confirms that while he “remains quite sceptical about its existence” he also “won’t completely rule it out”.

Not quite so optimistic about the chance of Lasseter’s mythical gold seam ever being found is Geoscience Australia, the national agency for research into the geology and geography of our country. “Other than the claims made by Lasseter and the various parties that subsequently looked for the reef, there is no independent evidence that Geoscience Australia is aware of a gold-bearing quartz reef in the areas to the west and south-west of Alice Springs towards and across the South Australia and Western Australia borders,” a spokesperson for the agency says.