BEADELL TOURS 2025 - GUNBARREL HIGHWAY

Hello folks,

To continue with our 2025 tour report, we move onto the iconic Gunbarrel Highway. This was a shorter 11 day tour, starting at Carnegie Station and finishing at Yulara (very expensive and very dusty......). Again, we got lucky with the weather but the Gibson Desert was also very dry with trees dry and stressed, even very old Eucalypts and Desert Oaks. Rockholes were dry and very few flowering plants were in flower except for a few hardy Thryptomene and the like as we got closer to the centre. Lizards & birds were few and far between but we still saw a few camels & the odd kangaroo.

Grrrrr.........annoying graffiti on Len Beadell's Everard Junction drum. One of our customers painted it over with black paint (starting the job top right) and it looked much better - July 2025

Mt Beadell - July 2025

The overall condition of the Gunbarrel was also better than usual, although there were still stretches of light to moderate corrugations & rocky washouts. Detours (often unnecessary) were often worse than the original road. Geraldton bore still produced good water, as did a temporarily-repaired Tarli bore (thanks go to the gents below). Camp Beadell has had no water for some years and the bore south of Len's 100 mile Bloodwood plaque is also still broken. The lack of maintenance of these life-saving bores is, in our opinion, a great pity to say the least. Over the years we have enjoyed many a camp at Camp Beadell complete with showers and clothes washing, not to mention topping up jerries, but alas, no more.

Tarli bore - thank you gents!! - July 2025

We had a few special permits granted this year and while I won't name them I would like to give those involved our great thanks. We enjoyed beaut dinners provided at cost by Carnegie Station and also Warakurna Roadhouse. Our visit to Giles Weather Station continued to be of great interest although I noted that the outdoor observations enclosure is now mostly just for tourists (except for a couple of newer gadgets). Despite the disgusting graffiti efforts of "Slug" & his mates at Everard Jn, the Beadell plaques were all left looking good.

Dry Desert Oak country on the Old Gunbarrel close to the Rawlinson Range - July 2025

Just to finish off, Mick and I had an eventful time getting home after our post-tour visit to Alice Springs. Our Land Rover fuel pump stopped working in Port Augusta; Mick got an old spare working while we waited for a new one to arrive from MR Automotives in QLD. Then, despite being so close to home, we had to spend the night in Manilla (NSW) because of flooding and road closures due to ice and snow in New England. We did get home the following morning (having done our bit to pull out a few stranded motorists from flooded crossings) and immediately went out to help our fellow RFS volunteers to clear the roads of an enormous amount of tree debris. It was all happening!

Again, we would like to thank everyone who had a hand in our tours this year, from participants to permit approvers and especially the grader driver for the Anne Beadell Highway!

Travel safely everyone,

Best wishes from Connie Sue Beadell.