<p>Harold Bell Lasseter had always claimed he had found an immense reef of gold hundreds of miles west of Alice Springs. In 1930, with Australia in the grip of Depression, a privately funded expedition led by Fred Blakeley, accompanied Lasseter in an attempt to relocate the reef. Blakeley left Lasseter at Ililba, and Lasseter continued his trek towards the Olgas with a dingo shooter and their camels. Lasseter continued to be introspective and brood, prompting Lasseter to go off alone with two camels.</p><p>In March 1931 an expedition led by bushman Bob Buck found Lasseter&#39;s body at Winter&#39;s Glen, and his diary at Hull&#39;s Creek, wherein it describes how after his camels bolted, he was alone in the desert, encountering a group of nomadic Aboriginals who offered him food and shelter. Blind, exhausted and dying, Lasseter made one last attempt to walk from Hull&#39;s Creek to Uluru.</p><p>The diary was purchased by Ion Idriess from Lasseter&#39;s widow in 1931, and from it he wrote the best-seller <em>Lasseter&#39;s Last Ride</em>. Here is the transcription of the diary with its original mud-maps and drawings.</p>