The
Gary Junction Road was built by Len Beadell as part of a network of roads for the Weapons Research Establishment at
Woomera, South Australia. In its original form, the
Gary Junction Road ran from Liebig
bore in theNorthern Territory to Callawa Station inWestern Australia. On present day maps, it stretches 852 kilometres from the Tanami Road to
Gary Junction, just east of the
Canning Stock Route. Len named the road after his only son, Gary.
The Gunbarrel Road Construction Party commenced work on the GJR immediately after completing the Sandy Blight
Junction Track in August, 1960. The party suffered numerous setbacks along the way, all leading to delays in completion of the works.
On 8 November the
grader broke down with a major transmission failure. Further road making came to an
abrupt halt, 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. This operation was scarcely under way when the
cook's ration truck with all of its food supply caught fire and was burnt out. It was 12 November and Len was forced to make an emergency dash to
Alice Springs to obtain replacement food, a return trip of around 3000 km. Delays meant that the road was not completed until late in 1963.
Len marked astrofixes along his roads with aluminium plates on which latitude, longitude and other information was stamped. While many have been souvenired by less scrupulous travelers
over the years, the Beadell family have replaced many with replicas. There are a few plaques fixed to poles and trees by Len, all of which we would pass in coming days, the first situated between
Papunya and
Mount LiebigIt doesn’t take long for the impressive ramparts of
Mount Liebig to appear on the horizon, blue in the distance. At 1524 metres in height,
Mount Liebig is one of the highest peaks of the MacDonnell Ranges. It was named by the explorer Ernest Giles after the German chemist Justus von Liebig1803-1873.