Sullivan's Diary has been a necessary creation by the Author of Lasseteria, mainly to put people and events in their time and place and to check bona fides and credibility. Coote was the instigator of the diary by claiming he and Taylor were in Broken Hill and Marree on 21/7/30 when the common history has it, the expedition left Alice Springs on that day.

The subsequent chase (in the historical sense) unearthed about two weeks of critical dates, a driver of the Thornycroft, the day the expedition left Alice Springs and Blakeley's complete unreliability as a chronicler of events, surprisingly Coote turned out to be fairly accurate with his times dates and places.

The diary begins on the 12th of October 1929, the day the Scullin Labor Party wins the Federal election, two days later, almost as if sensing the climate is right, Lasseter writes to Texas Green with that "somewhat out of the ordinary suggestion" that would become known as Lasseter's Reef.

Sullivan's Diary records the fortunes of Lasseter and both C.A.G.E. expeditions until Bob Buck signs off the second expedition in Sydney on 10/12/31, and also keeps a close eye on the Sydney Crowd, N.S.W. and national politics, aviation, Idriess and Terry and anything of interest relating to gold and exploration in Central Australia from 12/10/29 to 10/12/31.

Sullivan's Diary.

© R.Ross. 1999-2006

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LASSETERIA