GOLD QUEST IN DESERT

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21356, 26 December 1934, Page 7

GOLD QUEST IN DESERT

SEARCH FOR LASSETER'S REEF GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE (FROM OUR OWW COKHESrONDENT.) SYDNEY, December 21. Thfe tragedy a few years ago of Lasseter, a prospector who died in the Australian desert after discovering, it is believed, a rich gold reef, has formed the subject of much speculation, at least two books, and numerous newspaper articles. In the intervening years several attempts have been made to locate the lost reef, and behind the announcement this week that another party has set out is a story that sounds like a fairy tale; but it has so convinced a group of hard-headed Sydney business men that they have subscribed £SOOO towards expenses of this new search for the lost reef. Last year S. R. Hummerston, a prospector, was knocking about somewhere 450 miles west from Oodnadatta, when he saw a dingo, fired at it and missed. He blamad his rifle, and to check it fired at a mark on a tree, and then walked over to the mark to find how far from true his rifle was. Tha mark, he said, was a mark left by Lasseter. Further on he came upon a second tree bearing the words "Dig in camp fire." Floods had swept away all signs of a camp in the meantime, but Hummerston camped there, and dug for two days until he found ashes. Under the ashes was a bottle containing several sealed letters, and a map.

Early this year, Hummerston was given enough money to return to the place. He said he found the reef, and took specimens of quartz from outcrops along three-quarters of a mile of its course. His camel broke awa</ from its hobbles, and fearing to be stranded like Lasseter himself, he chasfed his camel and returned to civilisation. The map is drawn in pencil on a scrap of yellowed notebook paper. The track of a 10-mile long gold reef is shown with bearings taken upon it from two mountains.

Help From Germany Hummerston early this year wrote to the "Sydney Morning Herald" saying that prospectors should not be allowed to go into the interior unless they proved that they were skilled and experienced men. This letter was read in Germany by Fritz Muller, who wrote to Hummerston enclosing a lump of gold, and another map. Muller's father, who had prospected in Central Australia in 1914, claimed also to have found a reef, and plotted it on a piece of parchment. His son wished Hummerston luck in finding it, and left the matter of his own reward entirely to Hummerston. Hummerston's story, his quartz samples, and his maps convinced a syndicate of brokers and business men, and they organised a prospecting party under Hummerston's leadership. The party will make contact with Federal Government mining officials at Alice Springs on December 27, and then will start off in two motor lorries into practically unknown territory in the direction of Lake Aroadeus. It was stated on behalf of the syndicate that the Western Australian Government had granted an option for three months over a territory comprising 100 square miles, with a further three months' priority of pegging rights.

Hummerston claims that a body which was identified as Lasseter's was not his. He says that he questioned natives about the marked tree, asking who was the white man who made the mark. The natives said that the man "fell down" about two days away from the tree. Hummerston persuaded them to take him to the spot and about 40 miles from the marked tree they showed him a skeleton. Two teeth/in the back of the jaw are filled with amalgam, and Hummerston thinks that these will be the means of identifying Lasseter's remains..