Lasseter, at Thomas Reservoir.18/09/1930.

Not a pass in the accepted geographical sense, that is a saddle point between two higher areas, Paine's Pass is the usually dry watercourse draining the catchment to Thomas Reservoir, located in the Cleland Hills, and is only shown on Lasseter's map at page 53 of his Diary. Lasseter and Johns arrived at the waterhole on the 17th September 1930, expecting to top up the camels and water bags before pushing on to Ayers Rock. Both men had been mislead by the maps of earlier explorers and their dangerous enthusiasm for marking water sources in central Australia as permanent. The reputably reliable Thomas Reservoir was bone dry. They retreated north east to Putardi Spring.

Little is known of Paine, John Bailey briefly lists him among the Company Directors as, "Horace Paine of the meat abattoirs", therefore Paine and Fred Blakeley would have known each other, as Blakeley was working at the abattoirs when Bailey contacted him to verify Lasseter's story. Coote also mentions Paine as a Director and  significantly does not mention that Paine was not an original shareholder in the Company, perhaps like Malcolm S. Stanley and Leslie G. Bridge he was elected to the Board at a later stage to salvage something from the debacle that was the First C.A.G.E. Expedition.

LASSETERIA

© R.Ross. 1999-2006