The Gary Junction Road is an outback unsealed road in Australia built by

Len Beadell Leonard Beadell OAM BEM FIEMS (21 April 1923 – 12 May 1995) was a surveyor, road builder, bushman, artist and author, responsible for constructing over of roads and opening up isolated desert areas – some – of central Australia f ...

in the 1960s as part of a network of roads for the Weapons Research Establishment at

Woomera, South Australia Woomera, unofficially Woomera village, refers to the domestic area of RAAF Base Woomera. Woomera village has always been a Defence-owned and operated facility. The village is located on the traditional lands of the Kokatha people in the Far ...

. In its original form, the Gary Junction Road ran from Liebig bore in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

to Callawa Station in

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. On present day maps, it is depicted as running from the

Tanami Road __NOTOC__ The Tanami Road, also known as the Tanami Track, Tanami Highway, and the McGuire Track, is a road in Australia that runs between the Stuart Highway in the Northern Territory and the Great Northern Highway in Western Australia. It is a ...

( Narwietooma turnoff) to Gary Junction, just east of the

Canning Stock Route The Canning Stock Route is a track that runs from Halls Creek in the Kimberley region of Western Australia to Wiluna in the mid-west region. With a total distance of around 1,850 km (1,150 mi) it is the longest historic stock route ...

, a distance of 852 kilometres. The road was named after Beadell's only son Gary. File:Gary Junction Road 0216 map.svg, Map of the original Gary Junction Road 1350 km in length.

History

Beadell and his

Gunbarrel Road Construction Party The Gunbarrel Road Construction Party (GRCP) was the name bestowed upon a team of road builders by Len Beadell in 1955, after which the well known outback track Gunbarrel Highway was named. Over a period of eight years, Beadell and the GRCP buil ...

(GRCP) commenced work immediately after completing the

Sandy Blight Junction Road The Sandy Blight Junction Road is a remote outback track in Australia joining the Great Central Road, Western Australia and Gary Junction Road, Northern Territory. It was built under the direction of legendary surveyor Len Beadell as part of a ...

in August 1960. Starting from Sandy Blight Junction, the first stage was built towards an existing bore track near

Mount Liebig Mount Liebig is a mountain with an elevation of in the southern part of the Northern Territory of Australia. It is one of the highest peaks of the MacDonnell Ranges and was named by the explorer Ernest Giles after the German chemist Justus v ...

180 km to the east (67 km west of

Papunya Papunya (Pintupi-Luritja: ''Warumpi'') is a small Indigenous Australian community roughly northwest of Alice Springs (Mparntwe) in the Northern Territory, Australia. It is known as an important centre for Contemporary Indigenous Australian art, ...

). Liebig bore was reached on 16 September. The party then returned to Sandy Blight Junction to continue the western section, with the ultimate goal being Callawa Station near the north-west coast of Western Australia. Construction west of the junction began on 5 October, and the border between the Northern Territory and Western Australia was reached on 12 October. Beadell took star sights and placed a signpost displaying the latitude and longitude to mark the border. The road progressed westward and reached the present site of Jupiter Well on 7 November. The location was about 330 km from Sandy Blight Junction. On 8 November the grader broke down with a major transmission failure. Further road making was interrupted, and a lengthy towing operation of 800 km back to Giles began, using the bulldozer to tow the grader, with the water trailer attached behind it. The average speed of the bulldozer train was 3 km per hour, with an estimate of about a month for the journey. Every two hours while the bulldozer was travelling, a halt for greasing the track rollers was required. Towing had barely begun when the cook's ration truck with all of its supplies caught fire and was burnt out on 12 November. Beadell was forced to make an emergency trip to

Alice Springs Alice Springs ( aer, Mparntwe) is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd (''née'' Al ...

to obtain replacement food, a return trip of around 3000 km. Meanwhile, the towing operation continued, and the team was reunited 10 km west of Sandy Blight Junction. The slow moving convoy reached Giles on 26 November 1960. Completion of the Gary Junction Road was delayed by more than two years, and recommenced in 1963 after the GRCP had built the south to north

Gary Highway The Gary Highway is a remote unsealed track in central Western Australia running through the Gibson Desert and the Great Sandy Desert. It was built by Len Beadell's Gunbarrel Road Construction Party in April and May 1963 and named after Bead ...

. Construction began on 18 May 1963 from Gary Junction east towards Jupiter Well to link up with the earlier stage. The road progressed to within a few kilometres of the well, but a large sand dune blocked the way. By using the Land Rover as an anchor, a four-wheel drive truck attached to a long winch cable was able to get up the dune, and the remaining vehicles were successively winched, including lastly the grader. A bulldozer was not part of the road making operation at this time. Jupiter Well was reached on 25 May 1963.

Callawa track

Beadell and the GRCP returned to Gary Junction, and on 4 July started work on a road from there 45 km north-west to intercept the Canning Stock Route at Well 35 (Minjoo). After crossing the stock route, they continued through the

Great Sandy Desert The Great Sandy Desert is an interim Australian bioregion,IBRA Version 6.1
data

battling sand dunes and the salt

Percival Lakes The Percival Lakes form a string of "S" shaped ephemeral salt lakes in the north of Western Australia. They lie at the southern region of the Great Sandy Desert and east of Karlamilyi National Park. They stretch in an east-west direction for ...

to join an existing track at Callawa Station. The connection was made 21 July, and although Beadell preferred the name Gary Junction Road, the track became known as the Callawa track to the west of Well 35. The total distance constructed from Mount Liebig to Callawa was 1350 kilometres.

Supplementary details

A new road between Gary Junction and Well 33 was built by Mike Jenkins and is shown on maps as the Jenkins Track. It is 70 km from Gary Junction to Kunawaritji or Well 33 via the track. A road, part of which is called the Telfer Road, now connects Kunawaritji to

Port Hedland A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

on the west coast, via Lake Auld and

Marble Bar Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorphosed ...

, thus completing a direct link from the west to

. The position at which the grader's transmission failed was to become known as Jupiter Well (). The well was dug by a survey crew from the National Mapping Council in August 1961, and was named after the planet Jupiter when a member of the survey party noticed a reflection of the planet in the still waters of the well at night. The Callawa Track had a short functional life, as it was replaced soon after by the Wapet Road (or Kidson Track), and has now become overgrown. Recent maps no longer depict the track. In August 2004, Connie Sue Beadell and mother Anne led a party of eight vehicles along the original Callawa track. Apart from the extensive preparation required beforehand, a fuel drop was necessary at the halfway point. Connie said "The tyres were another issue entirely. The party had a total of 70+ punctures for the whole trip, bearing in mind that 5 of the 8 vehicles that started did not finish the entire distance." The Wapet Road joins the

Great Northern Highway Great Northern Highway is an Australian highway that links Western Australia's capital city Perth with its northernmost port, Wyndham. With a length of almost , it is the longest highway in Australia, with the majority included as part of the ...

near

Eighty Mile Beach Eighty Mile Beach, also spelled Eighty-mile Beach or 80-mile Beach, lies along the north-west coast of Western Australia about half-way between the towns of Broome, Western Australia, Broome and Port Hedland, Western Australia, Port Hedland. I ...

. The burnt out ration truck was relocated from its original position () to

Kiwirrkurra Kiwirrkurra, gazetted as Kiwirrkurra Community, is a small community in Western Australia in the Gibson Desert, east of Port Hedland, Western Australia, Port Hedland and west of Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Alice Springs. It had a popul ...

in June 2004 and partially restored. File:Beadell border marker 9961.jpg, The original border post and plaque on the border of the Northern Territory and Western Australia File:Gary Junction Road - Mt.Tietkens.jpg, Mount Tietkens on the north side of Gary Junction Road File:Gary Junction (WA) 9736.jpg, Gary Junction at the northern end of the Gary Highway looking south. The Jenkins track is to the right

References

External links

The digging of Jupiter Well
{{Road infrastructure in Western Australia Tracks in remote areas of Western Australia Roads in the Northern Territory Roads built by Len Beadell

History

Callawa track

Supplementary details

See also

References

External links