Do Go On - 172 - Lasseter's Lost Gold Reef

Episode Date: February 6, 2019

What is the most infamous undiscovered gold deposit in Australia’s history? Lasseter's Lost Gold Reef! We talk about Lewis Hubert Lasseter and the disastrous expedition he inspired in search of an unfathomable amount of gold!Support the show and get rewards like bonus episodes: www.patreon.com/DoGoOnPod Submit a topic idea directly to the hat: dogoonpod.com/Submit-a-Topic Twitter: @DoGoOnPodInstagram: @DoGoOnPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/Email us: [e-mail] Book tickets to Matt's stand up shows: mattstewartcomedy.com/gigs  Check out our other podcasts: Book Cheat: https://play.acast.com/s/book-cheatPrime Mates: https://play.acast.com/s/prime-mates/Our awesome theme song by Evan Munro-Smith and logo by Peader ThomasREFERENCES AND FURTHER READING:https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/stories/lasseters-lost-reefhttp://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/lasseter-lewis-hubert-7039http://www.egold.net.au/biogs/EG00318b.htmhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24muO3xEWEEhttp://www.abc.net.au/site-archive/rural/content/2010/s2871000.htm  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Melbourne and Canada, we got exciting news for you. And we should also say this is 2026. Jess, what year is it? 2026. Thank God you're here. Right now, I'm in Melbourne doing my show with Serenji Amarna, 630 each night at the Cooper's Inn Hotel, having so much fun. We'd love to see you there.

Canada, we are visiting you in September this year. If you've somehow missed the news, we are heading up Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, and Toronto for shows. That's going to be so much fun. Tickets for all this stuff, I believe, are online. And I'm here too. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit planetbroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates.

And welcome to another episode of Dugo One. My name is Dave Warnocky, and I'm sitting here in a newly air-conditioned room with Matt Stewart and Jess Perkins. And you boys are bloody frosty and I can see your nips. I know they're poking through. Should have worn a vanity shirt. What does that? What does that mean? Just a coin I phrased, so to speak.

I meant to say Fraser Coins but tried to cover it up by making it look like I did it on purpose Great to be here, great to be here I'm too cold to think And hey, good one giving away That we sit during these reports Thanks for that I want people to believe that we just walked around

I levitate Yeah, I'm a floater Can't get rid of me I lie down, have a little nap Getting a little fetal position I call it the egg Yeah Getting the egg

Yeah, that's good. That's really, that's pre-feital position. Yeah, wow. Yeah. If you think about it. And I am now. Okay. Which came first, the fetal position or the pre-feital position.

Well, now I've said it out loud. I mean, you can hear that. That's a dumb question. That's okay. There's no dumb questions. I think there are. That was one. Actually, I'm sure I've probably said this.

But somebody when I was at school, I was writing something down and a girl from school said, Have you always been left-handed? Always? Really? That's a dumb question. Like as in you were pranking her? Yeah, like I converted last year. Wow. Have you always been left-handed?

Can I ask you a question? Yeah. What did you say? Have you always been left-handed? Yeah. Okay. Hey, imagine if there'd been some sort of twist there. Now, before we crack on with this week's lovely episode.

Crack on like an egg. The pre-chicken, as I like to call it. As we pre-chicken on with the show, we should tell you about some live shows. as we've got coming up, including one next month. Very exciting. We're coming to Adelaide for the first ever time on March 10. And we would love you to be there, Matt.

Oh, okay, yeah. Would you come? Yeah, sure. Oh, awesome. I'm actually going to be in Adelaide anyway for Bone Dry, which is at the Adelaide Fringe Festival for two weeks. Well, isn't that fortunate that we booked this gig at the same time? Otherwise, it would have been terrible.

Hey, Dave, can I come? Please. Oh, sweet. That's so good. It's a great new venue at the Australian Wine Center. It's going to be a real fun time. I can't wait to be there. Yes, so please come on, Dan.

It's going to be a beautiful afternoon show. First time in Adelaide. Don't make it our last time, Adelaide. Please, buy those tickets. Not to threaten you, but we won't come back. But come on. People told us not to go. So we're judging you.

Hang around for a glass of vino afterwards. Oh, we'll be hanging out. We'll be hanging out. We'd love to meet the great people of Adelaide with a glass of vino. I want a veno. I want a veno so bad. Last year in Adelaide, I was in my show. And after one of the shows, I was down the bar.

and someone came up to me and goes, you're not Matt Stewart from Do Go On Are You? And I said, yeah, I am. She's like, what are you doing in town? I'm like, oh, I'm doing my festival show upstairs at this pub. And she's like, really? What, you should have mentioned on the podcast? I'm like, I reckon I have at the start of every episode of the last month or something.

She's like, I always skipped that bit. So she probably won't find out about the luncheon. She won't know that we were ever in Adelaide and she could have seen us live. Wow. Well, that's really on her, isn't it? Yeah, totally. In a lot of ways. Well, she also won't know that we're doing four shows at the Melbourne Comedy Festival at the end of March and throughout April.

So we'd also love other people, including her if possible, to come along to those. Yeah, come along and they're very fun. They are fun. So we're recording four of those. We're probably only going to release two episodes, two reports. So the other two will be after dark specials, even though they're in the afternoon still. No, but I'll make it dark. Yeah, it'll be super dark.

I'm going to wear a skimpy outfit. Nice. I'm going to wear an emo outfit. I'm going to dress like a goth. Yeah, all right. I know they're not the same thing. I changed my mind. And I'm going to dress like a skimpy goth.

I'm going to be in the middle. Oh, yeah, sexy got sexy Halloween goth. Like a sexy Halloween goff. Yeah. Oh, I'm dressed up as a got got got got a goutheye's costume for Halloween. Oh, I'm so sexy. I got eyeliner, but also a maid's costume for some reason. Got an eyeliner on my genitals.

Just wanted to define my balls. Yeah, wow. It's on the one eye. It's permanently winking. Fine liner for that. I don't know what that means, really. The finest of lines. Anyway, life show has come to those.

Matt's also on tour around the country with Bowen Dry. Yeah, fantastic show. About to open in Perth on 12th. So it would be so good to see you there. And you can find out details about Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne at Matt Stewartcomedy.com slash gigs. And I'll say that you can use the discount code. Do go on.

it's at least worth a try. You're not sure if it's still valid. Yeah. But hey, give it a crack. Yeah. Why not? What's the worst thing that can happen? It doesn't work.

And then you just pay full price like an idiot. I've also, I don't think I've mentioned this on the podcast yet, but I've got some cool merch to be selling after the shows if anyone's interested of these enamel pins of my face. So good. I haven't seen those. I saw it on Facebook. I'd love to pick up there. Can I have one?

Yeah, can we get one? I'll buy one. Yeah, come on a show. Oh, no, I just want one. exclusively available after the show. You won't. Just give one to me now. Just come to the show.

I'll be there outside the venue. Do you have some with you here? No, only at the show. That seems odd. What are you going to do? Hmm, I guess I'm going to have to go to the show. Hmm. Not happy about it.

Maybe I'll just linger out the front at the end of his show. And then I don't have to sit through it. Oh, don't give people ideas. Jess. Oh, yeah. You walk out to a crowd of thousands. in the street, but you performed to four. Where were you all?

That's not going to happen, Matt. Of course I will be at your show because your shows are always excellent and everybody else should be there too. Oh, thanks, Bob. I'm just ragging on my friend. If you don't go, I will fucking, I will find you and I will hurt you. Are you talking to me now or them? I'm talking to them and you.

Because I'll be there, Matt. I don't want to die. Dave, you better be there. I want a pin. You better be there. You can come after the Adelaide show in Adelaide. Mm, busy. Dave and I want to go see, we want to see panders.

Oh, yeah. Nine pandas. Pandas after dark. Oh, cute. Speaking of sexy goths. Both double eyeliner. Yeah. And pandas.

Speaking of sexy goth, pandas. A bit of fun there. All right, we better roll into this week's episode, which is going to be a fantastic report from none other than, Matt Stewart himself. Rebort. Yes. Bob, do you want to explain

them what the show is for new listeners? Oh my God, I would love to you. Thank you so much. So what it is is I'm Jess. That's Matt. Dave's over there. The three of us have been doing this a while and we take turns on like a rotation

doing a writing up a report that's suggested by a listener and then we say it to the other two who don't really listen much and make some jokes. How is that? Yeah, I think that's... That's it, yeah.

I'll listen. Did you mention that the people not doing the report I don't know what the report's going to be about. That was implied. Yeah, that was, I mean, now you're kind of spoon-feeding. Yeah. You know? I don't want to patronise.

Everyone got that. Yeah. But, yeah, okay, if you want to just really. Mansplane. Yeah, a little bit, a little bit there. But, all right. I said mansplained, Michael's a real thing. A bit of a joke there.

So this week's question is, and so this was suggested by two different listeners, and it went up for a vote on Patreon. I put up all Australian topics because I saw someone a while back mentioned we hadn't done an Australian topic in a while and I look back and we haven't done one for a few months since the shark arm murder.

Really? Oh, that was a good one. Not to to turn my own horn, that was mine. But it's a cool story. That is a cool story. I put up a few topics including Don Bradman. Don Bradman? Which got zero votes or maybe one vote.

Oh, he on. I've put him up like five times. You really want him doing you? You really want to talk about the Paul Kelly song. Yeah. Well, the report would be the. Paul Kelly song lyrics. And a few others, including Grizzly Murder.

And also a man named Air, who discovered Lake Air. Oh, okay. A white man who discovered. Sound like a fascinating story. He also worked in Jamaica for a while. Anyway. The lowest point in Australia. None of those were voted for.

This is the one that was voted for. And I'll get on with this question. What is the most infamous undiscovered gold deposit in? Australia's history. Okay, the unwelcome stranger. Oh, hello. A bit of a joke there, because the largest one is called the welcome stranger. Oh, Dave.

Well, this... I'll be high-fiving myself for that. Thank you. This would make the welcome stranger look like a piece of shit. Wow. A little speck of shit on the shoe. The speck of shit. That's what they called.

Original title. The speck of shit. It's named after the man who, um, who has said, to have found it but never, you know. And his name was... Blacetetetis Reef. That's right. Jess, I think just pipped you at the post there, Dave.

For God's sake, let me have one. Dave, I'm giving you not one, but two middle fingers. No. That's a double. Two for a second. The Davey double. Cop it. One of those things, I guess, I don't know if you're in the same boat here,

but I've heard the phrase Lasseter's Reef. One of those things that rolls off the tongue and then you go, what's that? I've got absolutely nothing. I had no idea about it. I had no idea. I had anything to do with gold. Yeah, no idea. Yeah, I didn't either.

I would have assumed coral. Yes, but apparently it's got nothing to do with a very different meaning of the word reef. It was suggested by Jess from Melbourne. Thank you, yes. And also. Oh, that is rigged. No wonder she got it. And also Vinnie.

I wanted to learn more. Vinnie Policastro from New Jersey. New Jersey. And that is clearly Jess's cousin. Cousin Vinny. We've all got a cousin Vinny, mate. So let us begin. Oh, please.

Lewis Hubert Lasseter was born on the 27th of September in 1880. 1880, right. A good year. He was born in Bam Ganey in Victoria, which is the next town over from Meredith, the location of the great Meredith music festival that all three of us have been to. Bam Ganey. So have you seen signs for Bam Gany on your way to Merit?

No, it's just sort of beyond it. I've seen signs, but I don't think I've ever been through it. Cool. Because I wouldn't have been able to even tell you that was Victorian. No, definitely not. It's a tiny little town. Right in the heart of sort of gold rush area, not too far from Ballarat,

but obviously he was born after the gold rush, as Neil Young once called his album. his parents were an English couple William and Agnes Lasseter Agnes Agnes Knee Cruxshank Which is Agnes Cruchshank I'd love to check the

What you thought I was going to love Agnes? I love Agnes Krugshank so much Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse Agnes I would love to check the Australian birth records To see over the last 10 years

If there's been a single Agnes born Weird thing I don't mind Angus but Agnes is hard to say I don't like how the shape of my mouth makes I don't know why but I think of a dying plant Agnes Yeah I think of a tumour

Ang I think the NG is a much more satisfying Yeah than Agna Agang No good Sorry Agnes I'm sure you're nice but Angus Agnes crookshank Crookshank

Love it Anyway Agnes died when he was young Happy by that, Jess? Great, are you happy? Thank goodness. Don't worry, we don't have to hear about her anymore. Sorry, Agnes.

And his father remarried. Not heaps has known about the childhood of Lewis Lasseter. And we don't know his stepmom's name. Hopefully it was better. No. Disappointing. Imagine if it was another Agnes. Oh, God.

He's got a type. He's got a type. He's got a type. He'll have all got a type. It types of Agnes. I love dying plants. What can I say? English.

I don't know why we've done this. This is 1880. We had different accents back then. Hey, zip it. Hey, zip it. Zip it, fish face. I love Agnes. Is that a crime if it is?

Okay. Guff me, boys. So not a lot's known about his childhood, but the following, I've written out for a bunch of dot points that I got from the Australian Dictionary of Biography. That sounds like a great source, is it? That's a good source.

Yeah, nice. He claimed to have served four years in the Royal Navy being discharged in 1901, though there is doubt about this. He travelled to the United States of America, where he married Florence Elizabeth Scott at Clifton Springs in New York State. Love that. On the 29th of December, 9903, and converted to Mormonism. He returned to Australia around five years later, living on a farm, New South Wales, and working as a maintenance man and writing for a local newspaper. in 1913 he submitted a design for an arch bridge over Sydney Harbour this is called my attention obviously because probably the most famous man-made

landmark in Australia is the Sydney Harbour Bridge but it turns out a lot of people propose different versions of a Sydney Harbour bridge between 1815 and when construction finally began in 1923 so it's not necessarily that noteworthy but some say that he was the first to suggest that kind of that construction A similar design. I am a little bit obsessed with the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Yeah, right. I love it.

I don't know what. I go to Sydney fairly often. And every time I get the chance to drive over the bridge, I lose my shit. I love it. It's weird to be drive over a postcard sort of thing like that. It was like when we drove over the bridge in Bristol. I know that bridge from pictures so much. So it's so surreal to be driving over it.

Yeah, it's so exciting. Yeah, that was a beautiful bridge. It's a beautiful bridge. but yeah the Sydney Howber Bridge the same I reckon that would potentially make a really good episode Sydney Hower Ridge Yeah I feel like there's a big story in that somewhere I keep thinking that I want to get it as a tattoo

And then I think people would be like Oh you're from Sydney I'm like no I just really like the bridge Which seems kind of odd But I'd love it Do you love a lot of bridges? You're a bridge fan? No I just really love that bridge I love looking at it

I love driving on it I love catching the train across it I love Sydney Harbour Bridge If Sydney Hard Bridge is listening Is there a train that goes over that? Yeah, you get to train across. I didn't know that. Yeah, have you climbed it?

No, but I want to. Oh, I've done that yet. I really want to do it. Great view. Yeah, you say you love it and you haven't even climbed like Dave. Haven't even climbed it because I respect it. Oh, good. I also love my mum.

I don't climb all over her. I've climbed on your mum. We've all climbed. Nothing weird. Nothing weird. Just climbed like a tree. Yeah. She's very short, Dave.

Yeah, it was an easy climb. I'm even shorter. That's true. Anyway, sorry to derail, but I just wanted to put it out there that I love the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Can you believe that maybe we're going to later this year drive across the Golden Gate Bridge? Is that the red one? Yes, it is.

I don't know if I can't. The one from full house. Fuck, maybe I really like bridges. That's a beautiful bridge. It's a beautiful bridge. I love bridges. Hey, Gus, we'll cross that one when we come to it. Sorry, in 1915, he lodged a provisional specification for a pay-

disc plow. So I'm just trying to show that this guy is all over the shop. He's got range. Yeah, he does. Supposedly in the Navy, he travelled a bit, written for a local paper, working in maintenance, designed a bridge, putting in for patents for a disc plow, whatever the hell that is. Then when World War, the first World War kicked off, he moved to Melbourne and tried unsuccessfully to enlist.

But that didn't stop me. He tried again. What was he being rejected for? Health, I think he was just not up to scratch. As far as the war went on, they get more and more desperate there, right? Yeah, so he tried it again. And in early 1916 was enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force. There you go.

They took anyone by that time. But eight months later, he was discharged as medically unfit. So he sort of got in there for a little while, but then again, oh, hang on. No good to us, I guess. The following year, he re-enlisted in Adelaide. Keene, this time he lasted only three months before being discharged with an unspecified illness in November of 1917. In 1919, he was granted a patent for an improved method in the treatment of wheat for storage,

but he didn't pay the fee, so the patent lapsed. Oh. Would it have made him rich? I mean, an improved method of the treatment of wheat for storage, yeah, I think it would have made a rich. I mean, come on, Dave. I mean, there's no dumb questions, but again, another dumb question. That was next level, stupid. God, he would have been a billionaire.

Then on the 28th of January 1924, he married again. So he's double married now. Oh, has the wife been traveling with him the whole time? Or did she stay in the States? I think she stayed in the States. Which and Mormon people often do have more than one. Oh, right. I think, yeah, that might depend, but.

Yeah, it's not all of them, but I think that they... Only the hot ones. Honestly, like different continents, you know. Oh, yeah, you get different hemispheres. Yeah, that's fine. That's my northern hemisphere wife. Yeah. It's almost like a different, like, dimension.

Right. It's like having a holiday house. Yeah, it's a holiday wife. Yeah. Sure. This time was to a nurse named Louise Irene Lily White. Oh, Louise Lily White is cute. But Louise Irene.

Yeah, get rid of Irene. But you never use your middle name, do you? Then between 1925 and 1929, he worked in Canberra as a carpenter, had a feud with his local council for some reason over his house. He worked on a patent for a pre-cast concrete, managed a pottery in Sydney, worked on the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Hit the whole time being like, you know, I thought of this.

Yeah, well, and then he publicly claimed to be the original designer of the arch bridge for Sydney Harbour. So, yeah, I just reading through that list in quite quick succession, I was like, bloody hell. He did a lot. How do they build bridges? I believe that one was from one side and then the other side

and then they joined him in the middle. Right. Go to get that right. Progression of the photos. Yeah. Imagine that. You're a metre off. Oh, crap.

Even being like a few mill off is fucked. And then one side's like, one side's like, well, I'm not tearing my side. down. You start again. So it just has a chican in the middle. Yeah, it goes on. Anyhow, so Lasseter had lived an interesting life up until this point.

But it's what happens next that is the reason he's known most. That's right. What happens next is even more interesting than managing a pottery in Sydney. I don't think. Even more interesting than some sort of disc barn device. The wheat patent thing? Yeah. Wheat storage.

I don't think so. Even more interesting than wheat storage. Well, I mean, good luck. So apparently he went by a bunch of different nicknames My favourite being Possum That's a good nickname, I reckon Do you know any possums? Yeah, a girl I went to high school

To primary school with her mum called her possum Right, yeah, it feels like an infantile sort of thing No, she was 43 There's a politician from South Australia, I believe, Fraser Gorman And he had to come out publicly on the record last year Because the media, there was some issue over his academic transcripts. He was claiming he'd been to two universities, which he had, and then the media came across it, and they discovered that his middle name by law is possum. He had to come out and do a press

conference. We talked about this on the project, because it was such a bizarre moment. He had to come out and be like, so my parents, yes, they loved me when I was, you know, when I was just before I was born. But that changed. But when I was born, then there were some possums on the roof, and my parents loved the possum. So when I was born, they called me Fraser Possum Goldman. It was such a, he had to have a press conference about it. Why, leave him alone. It was so strange. Who cares?

So I do know a possum. People have weird middle names. It's fine. Don't worry about it. That's true. Mine's very silly. Yeah, it's so dumb. Don't say it.

All right, I won't. It's embarrassing. It's cash smell. So here, one of the sources I've used quite a bit is an article from the New South Wales State Library website. And here's a little description they have written down there. From back in the day, Lasseter is a little nuggety fellow, darkish complexion, flat chubby face with no nose bridge, ironic, because he was obsessed with the bridge. Maybe that's why.

He was partly bald and his scalp showed many deep scars. Which part was he bald? Forehead. He was a man of jumbled moods and never quite happy. Oh, yeah, kind of late. His special pastime was singing hymns, all set to the one tune. Hang on what? He loves singing Mormon hymns, apparently they're all set to the same tune.

What was the tune? See, the bomb is fire up, up. Yeah, that's where that song came back. Happy birthday to you, you. That's your version of a Mormon hymn? I don't know many Mormon hymns. Yeah, well, grow up. Read a book, Dave.

I read a bloody book. Read a hymn book, mate. Anyway, on the 14th of October 1929, Lasseter wrote to the federal member for Calgoorley, a man named A.E. Texas Green. Texas was his nickname. I'm like, oh, I wonder why this is. Looked it up.

It's because he went to America for a bit. Wow. All right, Texas. Here we go. Here we're glad to go. I lived in Oklahoma for three months. Oh, Texas. Yeah, Texas is back.

Oh, big man. It's over here. Oh, well, sheriff's back from Texas. Oh, oh. And in this letter, Lassett. to claim that decades earlier, he had discovered a vast gold-bearing reef in central Australia, saying it bared gold as thick as plums in a pudding. Whatever that means.

What, just like little specks throughout a pudding? Yeah, I don't think you've cooked it well enough or chopped up the plums. Are you putting full plums in a pudding? That's, yeah, well, that's what I do. Oh, Maddie. I just put plums in a bowl. Here's a plum pudding. Oh, dear.

So just to confirm, he's writing a letter saying, I've found this reef? He said decades earlier, I found this reef. I always thought a reef. I assumed it had something to do with coral reefs and stuff as well. But apparently a reef in this case is another term for like a vein of some mineral or ore. So it's just a long stretch of rich in a certain mineral oil or ore. Rich. Rich.

It's very rich. I guess that makes sense when you think about a coral reef. But apparently nothing to do with... I know, but just the word reef. Right. I have no idea. Maybe they have lots to do with each other. They spell it the same.

Maybe they live together. Maybe they'll love each other. Why don't they get married? When they get rid. Reef and reef sitting in a tree. It would lead to some awkward moments. Like when guests come, are you with the reef side or the reef side? Confusion.

God. Confusion and shoes. Reef or reef? I beg your pardon? That usher is having a terrible And then later at the reception they're serving beef or reef And it's just confusing everyone once again Yeah

Beef for the reef and a reef of the reef No worries coming right up He said a fortune was there to be made If the government would invest in some infrastructure Including an adequate water supply And he had this idea of making a big water pipeline from a dam that was going to be hundreds of miles long. He claimed to be a competent surveyor and prospector.

Like he seems to just say whatever he needs to be, he's good at it. Right. But it sounds like he must be pretty good at a range of things. Yeah, it seems like he's getting by. Certainly he seems to be very good at talking and communicating and getting people to believe what he's saying to some degree. He said he could do this for 2,000 pounds. he'd be able to survey the route for them.

He also sent a letter to the relevant Western Australian state minister and suggested that the state and federal governments could share the cost. The following month, he was interviewed by Herbert Gepp, the chairman of the Development and Migration Commission. Herbert. Herbert. Already amazing. Love it.

Gap. Yeah. How many P's? Double P. Fuck, yeah. Like Depp. Yeah. But GEP.

Yeah. Yeah, you're getting it. You're geppin it. Also in the meeting, the interview was geologist Dr. L.K. Ward. Back in those days, there was a lot of double initial surnames of things. DJ Wonachie here. DJ Warnock in the house. Sounds like Lassett was relatively convincing in these meetings.

Some sources say that they were just like, no. And others say, yeah, they were sort of on board, but they were still a bit skeptical of such a reef's existence. and both governments decided to pass on the offer. Potentially this was in part because the government was now in a lot of financial trouble due to the Great Depression. It's not a good time. No, here's a fun fact. Apparently Australian Prime Minister James Scullin was in office for only two days

before Wall Street crashed bringing on the Great Depression in Australia. How unlucky is that? That is correct. That's your great, great, great. My great, great uncle. Great, great uncle. Two days. And he crashed Wall Street.

He crashed Wall Street. He crashed Wall Street single-handedly. What a fool. Yeah, not bright. Apparently it became like a saying almost like you got the luck of Jim Scullin. Yeah. Because he just had the worst luck of any prime minister. Well, I mean, maybe there's people with worse luck like Holt who went missing at sea.

But still, pretty bad luck in terms of professionally. You're like, oh, right, finally got to the top. Oh, no. Yeah, like you'd still be so excited. You'd still be celebrating, you know? You're the PM, you're the top dog. And then it's like, okay. Oh, we got a phone call.

Yeah, this is not good. Nah, I can wait. Can't be that bad, can it? It's popping champagne. It's the Great Depression just started. The Great Depression, sir. Does that mean anything to you? A little bit of sensitivity, Jim.

I can call you Jim now because you're an insensitive prime minister. Anyway, that's my family. So that's where I come from. I got the luck of the Scullons over here. I come from great leadership, you know? That's why I had such good leadership skills in school. Right, that makes sense. Primary school I was school captain and blue team captain at the same time.

Wow. Share the love. No, I will lead. So he was rejected by the government, but did not give up easily as he then approached the Australian Workers' Union in the hope they would fund his survey. Maybe the government said, we can't do it just because we're in. strife, we couldn't be seen to be throwing money into this expedition, but maybe you should talk to this guy in the union, who used to be a Labor minister, I think, or at least a Labor member, I believe, who is now running the union. So he talked to the Australian Workers' Union,

well, he sent a letter through and had more luck this time. This may have had to do something again with the Great Depression because people were out of work and looking for opportunities to pull themselves out of it. So maybe that was in part why they took a gamble on this little bit. The story he told of how the gold reef was discovered was showing contradictions, though. Some say that he, so in the first letter to the government, he said it was about 17 years earlier that he discovered it. But in his letter to the union, to John Bailey, the leader of the union, boss of the union,

he said that he found the gold in 1897 when he was just 17. So it's a lot longer. A lot longer, yeah. Another, yeah, 13, 14 years earlier. Right, yeah, that's a big time. Which is a bit weird. Apparently, so this is basically an abridged version of what he told Bailey from the website eGold.net.com. After an unsuccessful excursion to a failed Ruby rush in the East McDonald Rangers in Central Australia.

So he was working on a job, got bored of that, and then went over because he heard there was a, there was Ruby's. to be found. Got there, turned out to be much less valuable red rock. Some sort of red rock, but yeah, it was not worth anything. So it goes on to say,

instead of retracing his steps through Queensland, he decided to travel through desert country to carnivon on the Western Australian coast. On route, he stumbled accidentally upon a reef of gold some 16 kilometers long, 16 kilometers long worth of gold. Western Australia?

In Northern Territory on his way to Western Australia. And he waited at least 13 years to tell anyone or get any of it? That's not exactly right, but something like that. So not long after the find, this is still from Egold, not long after the find, his horses died, he became lost and was on the ground, basically his story. This is all his story to the Union. He was all but dead when an Afghan camelier. came along, picked him up and took him to a surveyor named Harding.

Apparently, despite being close to death, he kept a bag filled with samples of gold from when he discovered the gold and showed them to Harding, who was super excited by the gold and was like, we've got to go back there, we've got to go check it out. This is also part of the story's telling you. Yeah, sure, sure. Take me to the reef, right? but Lasseter said he was so scarred from his near-death experience he never wanted to go back. But eventually he relented and they went back together, rediscovered the gold with Harding.

But soon after, Harding died, leaving Lasseter as the only living person who has seen the reef. How convenient. So this is the story he told Bailey. Seemingly with many holes, but still a bloody good story. Part of it was that he basically, the story basically means that he ended up walking from Queensland to Western Ocean. Australia. A lot of that on foot. Which is thousands and thousands of kilometres often through the desert. Yeah, like kind of like, I don't think anyone would have done it before then.

Especially solo. Yeah. With a dead horse. Yeah. At times he had a horse, I think, and at times he was on a camel, but it's all very far-fetched sounding. And if it was true, there was someone in that meeting with the union boss Bailey who knew a bit about the stuff.

He did the sums. An estimated value of the gold would have been. mean 66 million pounds in 1929 money. Whoa. Which I imagine translates to trillions. Yeah, a but ton. Not hundreds of millions. Hundreds of trillions.

Billions. Billions. Trillions of trillions of trillions. Hundreds of quillcrons. Google.org. Wow. That's a lot. So he found it, but let decades pass for whatever reason.

Some say that he tried to find it a few times during them, but he couldn't. then the Great Depression hits and he starts pitching around this idea I mean bad timing that's terrible timing nobody yeah we all want the gold but we just don't have the resources to go get it right now

maybe tell us five years ago yeah but is it weird that he's asking now is he going well now there's people who are desperate maybe desperate enough to take a pun on this story or maybe yeah who knows but if they take well

what would be his thinking like well you need money because of the Great Depression, I know where we can find a lot of gold. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Maybe, oh, you want money. Oh, I know where there's like unlimited money.

Would that be interesting to you? Is that what you want or? Is that something you might, because I could take you there. If you want. If you want. Up to you. Try it up to you.

While pitching an expedition to Bailey, he told the union boss that he was a qualified ships captain and that he had worked for years on coastal. boats. But as I said before, there is doubt about this. Feels like a bit of a weird lie anyway, because... Are they going inland? Yeah.

Yeah, like why bring that up? Don't worry about it. If we have to cross the ocean, I'm your man. Now, into the desert. According to the Australian Dictionary of Biography... Which is a great source. Let's call the ADB. But it sounds weird.

To me, it sounded like someone made up a source. It's got the Australian, the dictionary and the biography. Yeah. That's very possible. Would you not call it maybe the biography? dictionary or something? Yeah. That was probably taken by another equally great source.

So according to the ADB, and follow-up interviews with men interested by the expedition, including a man called Fred Blakely, also Errol Koot and Dobbler. Oh, come on, that is. That is a great name. That is top quality. Coot. All the names are great in this. Apparently, the story varied in detail.

and aroused suspicion. Nevertheless, the lure of gold in a time of economic depression led to the formation of a search expedition for the reef. I suppose people are, you're pretty desperate. So you're like, no, he sounds like he's bullshitting, but maybe he's not, I've got nothing to lose. Because if he's not bullshitting, and if you can go find some gold, then you're, like, you're more than a, you're set up forever.

Like, you're good. So, it's like, well, I can't get a job in the city anyway. I may as well go with this crackpot. And there also, the money that's going to fund it is sort of coming from the union. So it's sort of coming from the workers are paying for it anyway. Right. So it's kind of like you're just investing your time rather than your life. Yeah, I think everyone on there is getting paid to go.

Oh, fuck yeah. Oh. So it's more, as soon as, it's mainly getting the man, John Bailey to okay it. And once he does, he puts together this Motley crew to go in. Which is always good. There should be a movie made of this with like American comedian actors, like Adam Sandler and stuff, I think. Yes.

Doing Australian accents, though, preferably, because I love it when Americans do Australian accents. I do too. It's real fun. I think it sounds a little something. I like this. Okay, go right. Here, Kobe.

What's going on a hoar here over hire? Something like that. It's pretty good. Now, I don't reckon all that. that here, I'm not. Okay, now you're just talking like you talk. I changed a little bit. How? I added a high pitch.

Yes. You're right. I hear it now. Thank you. A team was put together led by Fred Blakely, a man with a bit of bush experience, but no experience whatsoever leading an expedition. Bit of bush experience. Join the club, mate. Yeah, right. Yeah.

Along with a prospector named George Sutherland, an engineer and driver named Philip Taylor, another driver Fred Colson, an airplane pilot called Errol Koot, who we heard about before. Coot's flying the plane. G'day, ladies and gentlemen, this is your Air Captain Errol Coot speaking. Captain Coot.

I wish pilots said, gette. That'd be sick. On Qantas, I should say. Yeah, I like it when they try to be a little bit funny, bit cheeky, make a bit of a joke and you're just like, shush, I can't, I can barely hear what you're saying anyway because all I hear is

we'll be cruising at about, yeah, they always have that little pause and the vocal fry. And so we'll be pulling in about 15 minutes. You're going to be circling around

and landing a few minutes of his schedule at three minutes past 10, taxiing and trust you, We've enjoyed the flights. I look forward to seeing you next time you choose to fly. Cross check, you prepare the Kevin Flannock. If you're visiting Melbourne, we hope you enjoy your stay.

And if Melbourne is your home, we'll welcome home. And making up the crew is Captain Blakston Houston. Nice double barrel name. Blakeston? Who was listed as explorer but was also the Governor General's aide. So there's an interesting combo there. Lasseter rounded out the group as guide. So how many are we talking?

Seven, I think. Nice. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. And if they have a pilot on board, are they flying at all? Yes. Cool. Lassad was paid five pounds a week for his role. Before they set off, Bailey became nervous that all the knowledge of the race location was in Lasseter's head.

We've got to get it out. Where's the ice pick? Crack this egg open. No Lasseter wasn't keen to give up the location. He agreed to write the coordinates in Invisible Ink on some paper. Yes. All right, guys. I'll make a deal.

You hear the word invisible ink, the phrase you're like, oh, crap. We don't know. We are going to die. This guy's a load. Oh, crap. Tell me what I will do. I'll send a carrier pigeon.

If I die, find the pigeon. You'll know the one. The pigeon will find you. The pigeon will find you. Sorry, he agreed to put the... Well, this is... And this was agreed too with Bailey. Bailey wasn't coming along.

He was the union boss who was funding it, but he was staying in civilisation. There is also that key part in the Mormon religion parodied both on South Park and in the Book of Mormon, where Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism, read some golden plates and someone dictates what he's reading at and translating but they're not allowed to see the plates

and then yeah he's got to do it twice and the second time he has to use different plates that it has a different meaning to the first one so we can't even repeat it right so I can see this invisible ink thing making sense to this guy yeah so so he said he put it on in

paper an invisible ink and then that paper was to be held securely in a bank vault in case he died for whatever reason. When did Invisible Ink come in? And if it's in a bank vault, why does it have to be invisible? I don't know. There's a lot of paranoia.

I guess with big fortunes like this, people are like, I've got the key to this God. I don't want to tell you where it is and you find it without me, I guess is what he's saying. According to the New South, and you can understand why they'd be like, what happens if you die out there? Yeah.

You're the only one who knows where it is. So apparently wrote down the exact coordinates of where it was. What, you just remembered him, nerd. Imagine remembering coordinates. Hey, 66 million pound fortune at that time, I'd remember a few numbers. How many? One. What number?

One. Ah. My coordinates are... One. Got the pen and paper out. According to the New South Wales State Library, the Thornycroft Motor Company heard about the expedition, and then manager donated a vehicle for use during the expedition.

It was a mini cooper and everybody piled in and that was nice. Yeah, that was seven? I reckon you could. It was green. Oh. Ask me anything. British raising green? No.

Like an olive. It was quite ugly. Like Mr. Bean's car. Yeah, they kind of tried to, they were trying new colors and they tried that one and they went, oh, that's gross. That's why you just gave it to an expedition. Yeah, yeah, just give it to an expedition. We'll look good, but we don't know to look at the yuck color.

Right. Yuck. Not like a nice olive. Oh. Like a really yuck olive. Like a poo brown olive. Pooh olive. Polive.

Right. Not a Calamatta. No. No, no, no. The king of olives. Mm. Oh, I love a Calamata. Calamatta.

I also thought of here I am at. Calamatta. Marges Lisa at Camp Granada. There's a Simpsons one. No, it wasn't a mini. It was a huge. six-wheel truck that was not particularly suitable to the terrain they were going to be heading into.

Apparently, when locals saw it, they were like, you should be using camels. That truck does not make sense here at all. It's not going to last. They also got a light plane and it was renamed Golden Quest for the journey. I like that. Yes, finally, a name I can get on board with. Are they So this is

Now they've got the most well equipped Well equipped expedition of its kind Ever till that point On a mining expedition And still locals are looking at it saying Nah I should get camels Because it's super well equipped

But it's not necessarily well equipped For this particular job It's all a bit haphazard I mean they only one guy Knows where they're heading Right Six of the seven Don't even know whether

They know they're going into the But they know that if he dies They can call up the bank Get them to whip out the invisible ink kit. Yeah. Develop the code. And the code just says, fuck off.

Die, you dogs. Yeah. If I'm dead, who cares? Oh, shit. Oh, you fucking got us. Why did you make this invisible? We're a little slap in the face. A part of the job of the six-wheel truck

was to carry the fuel of the plane. The fuel of the truck. Oh, no. Exactly. But no one knew what kind of fuel efficiency the truck had until it arrived in Alice Springs by train. So it was just on the back of the train. When I got there, they drove it around and realized it was a massive gas guzzler. So they had to hastily organize.

They were doing burnouts to be fair. They had to hastily organize another vehicle to carry the fuel for the truck, which was carrying the fuel for the plane. Oh, my God. And what's carrying the fuel for the smaller car at the back? Just another small, a mini-miner, olive green mini-miner. I was right. I got a bunch.

So there was an Australian, he might have been a co-host on the Australian version of that car show, Top Gear. Oh, yeah. Warren should really have written his name down. But anyway, he wrote a book about it. And a bunch of these quirky facts about it I got through him. It tells a bloody good story.

This was via Jess, who suggested, one of the, suggested the topic, recommended his book. And there's a few interviews with him online. as well. They're worth listening to, which I'll put into the show notes. As well as the truck problems, they also had a wireless radio for communication, which seemed like a great idea, but the technology wasn't totally pocket size back then. They needed about half the expedition team just to lift it, three to four of them. Just to lift it. Just to lift it, yeah. So all day, their job is to carry that. I think it's on the truck, but if they want to use it. Oh, I was going to

say, guys, you can't put it on the truck. That's full of fuel for the plane. Don't be stupid, Alright, we're going to need to get a motorbike for the radio. I was going to carry the fuel for the motorbike. By this point, they all have a vehicle each. We don't have to talk to each other, just a convoy. It's like mad Max roaring across the desert.

They've got so many trucks. Warren Brown is the name of that author. That was close. If you were looking... What did you say? Buffett. Oh, Warren Buffett. Yeah, it's Warren Buffett.

I'm pretty sure. And then, because no one was particularly, knew how to use a wireless radio. So Lasseter was in charge of operating the wireless. So did he tell everyone he could even though he probably could? Yeah, he sort of blags. Yeah, I can do that. Yeah, wireless radio.

Yeah, no, I invented the radio, so I can do it. They got into the trip when they realized that he hadn't brought one of the key parts of the radio that meant that you could use it to, you could listen, but you couldn't, you couldn't communicate back. You didn't get the mouthpiece? Oh, my God. That's pretty important when you're the ones out in the middle of nowhere. So you can hear people going.

Everything, we'll just assume everything's okay out there. Yeah. Hey, we haven't heard from you. You've probably gone great. Great, all right. Let us know if you're not. And good, good night. If everything's good, say nothing.

Just double check and say nothing at all. All right. All right. Nighty night. No news is a great news. When they were in Alice Springs ready to set off, so they're all starting the expedite. from Alice Springs.

For people who don't know Alice Springs, it's a bigish town slash city in the Northern Territory, but it's very remote. It's like in the middle of Australia. Yeah, it's right towards the very heart. Yeah. But apparently back in these times, it's nearly 100 years ago,

it was describe Warren. He described as sort of like a real wild west town. People were carrying guns on their hips. Wow. And it was like not a particularly well built up. town or anything like that and there was a place where people you still hear that about the northern territory sometimes people it's a place people go there when they're running from something yeah um but anyway it was like that times a thousand back then but they're they're wandering around

there and lassett is pointing out local landmarks that he remembered from when he was there decades earlier um you point into like a pub that was like established like the year before yes established 1919 he's like yeah remember that pub from a year youth. That's exactly what he was doing. He was pointing out things that weren't, went around when he said he was there last. Pointing at a baby.

Remember that one? Went to school with him. Yeah, well. That changed a bit. Jim, good to see. You're looking good. So it was just going around. He just sounds like he's a guy who maybe believes what he's saying,

but he just sounds like he is very loose with the truth. So is he literally just pointing at things and going, remember that? Oh, the old. Yeah, the old tree sapling. Yeah, remember that? Yeah, remember in that when it was an even smaller sapling? Remember that? It was just a seed when I was the last.

Yeah, so they weren't there when he was there last, and people noticed. And he looked like he clearly didn't know what he was talking about. Yet, for whatever reason, the expedition went ahead. You know, we were talking about your mate, Dave, Errol Cout. the pilot. I love him. Apparently he wasn't actually a qualified pilot.

Good. He was just confident. He'd flown before, but he had some sort of lapsed. But he'd flown as a passenger. Yeah. We've all, yeah. I've flown. It's like saying we've flown.

I've flown. I've flown to like heaps of country. Yeah. He flew in the emergency thing. You know, he said he'd help in an emergency. Yeah, that's right. In an emergency, I'd throw the door out of the exit road. Yeah, I've done the short course.

Yeah, no worries. Read the pamphlet. I've not. it at the flight attendant, going, yep, mm-hmm, yep. They say, Jessica, when was the last time you were in the exit road? I got a couple months ago, and they go, are you willing and able to assist in an emergency? And I go, sure. Always put me in the middle seat.

Fuck, kill me, you know? So you're, like, you're yelling, kill me. And you just said you'll help people. I'll help others, but kill me. I'm going down with the plane, guys. I'm a hero. I'd love to hear, obviously there are lots of survivors. story's on planes.

I'd love to hear about what people in the exit road actually did. Did they help out? Or was it just like, sorry, everyone for themselves. Yeah. kicking kids out the way to get down the slide. Or it's like people go, yes, my term to surf. Yeah, like, or did people take it really seriously and possibly risk their lives, you know? I'd love to hear a story.

I imagine, yeah, I'd imagine that feels like something you've made an oath. I imagine people would normally stick to it. It would be pretty full on to go, fuck it. Yeah, but obviously that situation is pretty full. Yeah, I don't think you'd know how you'd react until you're in that situation. And then you might surprise yourself. That's your reaction to them? Are you willing and able?

I don't know how I'd react. Yeah, look, I'm going to say yes, but I don't know for sure. And I just want to say, because a lot of people listen to podcasts while flying, flying is one of the safest ways to travel. Oh, yeah, good call. Sorry, but you're fine. Anyway, so Coot took off. in the Golden Quest and immediately stacked it. What do you mean stacked a plane?

Crashed it real bad. Oh my God. He was very badly injured. Oh, not like first flight. Yeah, apparently. Coo. My favorite guy. Yeah.

I read different things. Maybe they lost the plane, but I also read somewhere that a replacement named Golden Quest 2 was found. No, don't. Don't let him go again. And do not name the plane after the one that just crashed on its first flight. The Titanic 2. I think everyone survived.

Everyone was fine, but it was, yeah. But he was badly in? He stacked it. Do you reckon he, does he continue on? I don't think so. Oh, Ariel Koo. Yeah, I think he goes back to town and I believe. I might be wrong.

It feels like such a big story. It's kind of got an iconic name, but there aren't many super in-depth sources that were easily found online. But it looks like there's heaps of books. Lots of, there's movies and documentaries. There's songs. But just not. A lot of, not like most reports I do, there's a wealth of info online.

But yeah, for this one, I was scrapping together from a handful of. Isn't that just so typical of our generation? We aren't willing to go to book or film. Well, how can't, I could. Hey, Siri, you know? We just want, we just want the answers. I want to click on a hyperlink and it to take me to the book. Yeah, give me all the answers, Siri.

Yeah, your dog. On July 21st, 1930, also read on July 30th. So even the day they left is different. Somewhere in that week. Yeah, but also maybe they left at different times. Maybe the plane left at a different time from the truck or something. See, I think the idea was, you know, the plane would be able to cite stuff from above and they'd be able to communicate between the two and help each other.

But that sort of fell apart when the plane fell apart. And when they didn't have the right radio equipment. Oh, dear. So they head off from Alice Springs, heading west for a place called El Bilba or Elbilla. The big six-wheel truck made it less than a couple of hundred meters before it got badly bogged. So still within the side of the town. So people are still clapping as they leave.

Apparently, the Alice Springs, apparently the people of Alice Springs weren't even that excited about it. They're like, people come here looking for gold all the time. No one ever finds that people always hit trouble. It's just another. Yeah, basically, good on you guys. That truck is so big. and stupid it's not going to work and they're watching it not even get out of

a side before it gets bogged. Blassett is leaning out the window being like, yeah, eat out dust. This time will be different. You'll regret the day you'd enjoy my ex. Hang on, sorry. Let's have a dear. Put it in drive. Oh, it is.

Oh, no. Reverse? Oh, you can't. Oh, no. You got a four-wheel drive mode? Yeah, can you guys, the guys that are just told to go fuck themselves, can you get out and ditch? So they, they're watching as their.

It'd take quite a while to dig it out and keep going. And also, I mean, the truck is essential because it has the fuel for the plane that made no longer exist. And the radio that doesn't really work. I know. There's the backup car that fuels the big truck. Oh, God. Oh, no.

So obviously, already there, I think especially Blakely's gun, the camels was the idea. We should be doing it the way that people have done. There's a guy who rents out camels, just watching all this happen, and he's like changing the sign. I'm putting up his prices. Adding zeros. He's like, oh, we go, boys. Lasser has been described at different times of the trip as peculiar,

uncooperative, suspicious and sulky. Oh, I love sulky as an adjective. It's a real great mix. Oh, he's so sulky. He's so peculiar and sulky. Dreamberg. What was the other one? Suspicious. Suspicious and uncooperative.

Oh my God, my dream man. Is he single? I'm heading out. Where are you going? Oh, I love that. Yeah, go out. I don't even care anyway because I'm a weirdo. But I'm not helping you open that door. Okay, bye, honey. Oh, God, the dream.

One day I'll be so lucky. Not long into the journey, the leader Blakely, and also most of the team found Lasseter to be much less familiar with the outback than he initially let on. What's that? That's a tree. Ah, cool. I knew that. Yeah, yeah, I've seen it before.

To others in the expedition, it seemed like any of his purported knowledge could have been found in a book. Basically, he seemed like a guy who had no first-hand experience of the era at all. He had read a book. Yeah, apparently a big reader. Something that Matt is not prepared to do, apparently. He would tell the others that he recognized trees That weren't old enough to have been there He doesn't know what a tree is

He's pointing at like a small push Warren Brown used the example He's like yeah I slept in a hammock between these two trees here And they're like they could not have been here 30 years ago And he's like Salking now I guess that's when it was sulking When people called him on these bullshit

Yeah, it sounds like it's just kind of making stuff up as it was going along. Oh, we go, yeah, this way, I guess now. Oh, dear. But what's his plan? If the goal doesn't exist and he's not insane and believes it does exist, what is he hoping will happen? They might accidentally find something and he'd be like, there it is, that's it.

Yeah. How do you back out of this? You get halfway there and then you've got to come all the way back. It's, yeah, your guess is as good as mine, Dave. according to the New South Wales State Library again, his descriptions of the reef were vague at best and he seemed to possess almost no navigational abilities. Do you think he just wanted friends?

It does feel a bit like that. A bit lonely. Just start a club or something. Don't you don't have to take people out into the middle of the desert? That's murdery. Just like join a cricket team, you know? Right. That's a good way to make friends if you're a weirdo.

But I mean, if cricketers are all weirdos. They're so weird. It doesn't really make sense, though, that it was because he was lonely, because on the trip, he kept mainly to himself, he kept him separate from the group, including sleeping away from the others. And he was often found singing his Mormon hymns and writing in his journal. Dear Diary. Happy birthday. That was up the bummer. Happy birth.

I can't do it. That classic Mormon birthday hymn. See the bomb is like Happy birthday high up All of this led to growing worries in the group That they're on a wild goose chase And it sounds like Lasseter did little to reassure them It also sounds like Blakely potentially even thought

Even kind of knew this from the start But there was some pressure on him To potentially at least have a crack first And make sure that it's bullshit Rather than quitting at the start when he's like this guy doesn't know what he's talking about and then he'd leave himself open to Lassidy going I would have taken you to it but you called you called it off not me right so he sort of he was like if he went back then he might have been in trouble for bailing

even though he was like this guy sounds like he does not know what he's talking about at all one day this is a weird sort of thing that happened one day when they were camped out a line of camels came through uh being led to by a German man as well as a couple of indigenous men. And the German was named Paul Johns. He was keen to join up with the group, him and his camels. He was a bushman and a dingo trapper as well as he was from a German missionary not too far away. Right, but someone who actually knows how to live on the land.

He sounds like a good resource. Yeah, I reckon I'd team out with this guy. Yeah. But he's also, it sounds like he's also a bit of a loose unit. But he also, he's sort of like a, he knows what he's doing on the land sort of anyway. Living and working on the land. Is that? Shal la la la.

And also, another thing Warren Brown said was that one thing that everyone knew how to do, if you lived on the land back then, especially. Sorry, if you lived and worked on the land. If you were living in and working on the land. What did you do back then? Everyone would know how to make damper. It was like one of the most basic skills. Flower and water, cook it.

It's sort of like a bush bread. It's like a scorn almost. My mum knows how to make damper. Yeah. And she, sure, was a country kid, but like an hour out of the city, you know? Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, he should know. If you've lived on the land, you should know how to make dampa.

And if you've walked from Queensland to Western Australia. Yeah, you'd probably know how to make damper. Basically, walking from Queensland or Western Australia is like walking from California to New York. It's so far. It'd be something like that, right, Dave. Yeah, I mean, for a reference. Australia is very big.

It's a similar width to the US, I think. Yeah, if you went, I don't know if he's gone coast to coast, but yeah, so. I think that's basically the idea he was almost coast to coast. Or the plan was, yeah. So far. Or his story was that he went through. Yes, right. So anyway, they're saying, you should be able to, yeah, there's a butt kind.

And then, yeah, he had no idea how to make it. So people are like, like, what is the way? What is this is just another thing? It must have been like, I mean, I'm not even surprised anymore. No. But imagine if that is a big red flag. You can't make damper. And then they all break down.

They'll start crying. The penny drops. All right, fine. I've never seen that tree before. I'm a fraud. I don't even know what gold is. I tried to sell a red rock as a ruby. I'm a fuck with.

I'm a fuck with. like most of the story it seems every every version of reads a little bit different because also you know the diversion of the story are from different sources immediately different people in the group a few of them wrote their versions of the story and then other people have tried to piece together from that so there's all these different kind of version one of the things that I read happened next was that they reached Mount Marjorie and when they got there Lasser all of a sudden was like, actually you guys were 150 miles too far north of where we should be. Apparently that was the last shore.

Blakely's like, you don't know what you're talking about. Stop fucking with us. That's it. Another version of it, this is what Warren Brown said. He said that they reached this great big natural landmark. It's a huge sort of basin, kind of almost like a mini grand canyon. Right. It's like anyone would know it.

If you'd been anywhere around here, you'd know this spot. And he clearly had never seen it before. And apparently... Everyone's going, oh, wow. And he's like, wow! I mean, uh, yawn. Oh. Been here, done that.

Yeah. Oh, this whole thing? Huh, you guys are cute. Hmm. Anyway, whatever. I'm cool. And maybe he was even saying, let's go down into that. And they're like, if we take our trucks and stuff down there, we die.

It just won't happen. So apparently that, so something like that, some big event happened that was the last straw for whatever reason. And they go, mate, you are full of shit. They finally sort of called him out on it and said, you can just go, we'll leave you. We won't take you back and tell the cops and everything that you've wasted all this money. You can just go, find your gold, whatever. We're going back to Alice Springs. So they all left apart from Lasseter and the German.

Oh, so the German has joined them and he's stuck with it. The German Johns was a good thing. I guess the Germans kind of like, well, I know how to survive out here anyway, right? So I'll be fine even if this idiot doesn't always do it. And it also sounds like through all of it, everyone basically thinks it's bullshit, but there's always part of everyone who's like, maybe. Yeah, you don't want to be the one who calls bullshit. And then it pays off and everybody's me.

mega rich. Everyone's throwing diamond rings. Mega, mega rich and you're like, my fuck. Stuck in the Great Depression. I think that's how people get caught in like playing the lottery every week. I've got to play the same numbers every week. I can't bail this week.

This week would be the week I get my numbers. Exactly. I'm going to pay another 15 bucks to pay every week, 15 bucks. I'm part of a syndicate at work and I have that exact mindset. Yeah. It's hard to trap. This is a trap now. It's been nearly two years now.

You imagine it's never going to be the same, but you put that five bucks in some sort of. of investment or a term deposit or something. Or like buy myself a pie or something really nice. Yeah, just enjoy it at the time. That's trying to get at the fact that like if you just put $5 aside and left it there, you'd have some money and you're like, or I could get a pie. I'd probably be a happier guy.

But you go. By now, I would have had over 100 extra pies in my lifetime. You like Homer when he had shares in the power plant? Well, everyone had shares and he got a close. from his stockbroker and he's like, $15, he's like, ooh, any pictures he could buy a nice hammer? So he cashes out and everyone else doesn't until like soon after and they're all millionaires. Lenny gets gold teeth, I think. No, he gets his face permanently put into a smile.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, Dave, that was the cutest thing ever. Or I could get a pie. Yeah, that's also what Matt was getting at. Yeah, invest. Yeah, invest. invest in pies. Yeah.

Yeah, that's something, you know, that'll always appreciate and value. Yeah, exactly. In your tongue. It always goes up, not down. My weight, though. So this is, I think, around or a bit less than two months since they set off, he was left with just the German Paul Johns.

Are the indigenous fellas still with them? Not sure. I don't think so. I think it's just a two. I'm pretty sure it's just a tour. Do they have a couple of camels at least? Yeah, they do have the camels still. So they're in some decent shape,

assuming that there is this gold thing that they're looking for. This is from the New South State Library page again, about Johns and Lasseter, though. Their relationship quickly grew turbulent. Lassiter was determined to push on at all costs, and having overtired their camels, decided to leave them with Johns for a few days, while he continued his search.

He went off alone on foot again. Left behind the desert expert. The desert expert and the camels, which they had tired out. They tired out. Camels. I mean, aren't you tired? Yeah, if the camels are knackered, then... You need to rest too.

Yeah, it's time for everyone to rest. Have a snooze. That is good. Have a little snooze. I imagine they don't tire that easily in the desert being their home. Who knows? And they're known to not tire. Right, yeah.

They're like the energize of camels. And they got humps on them. Yeah. And they sing that song, My hump, my hump, my hump. I've got a hump on my back. Check it out, my hump. I'm a camel.

That's a big hit. Love that song. Lasseter returned a couple of days later. With him, he had a bag of samples. He said, yes, I found the fable. Nah, okay. If you can show a goal that you didn't have, before, I would be

But how do we know he didn't have it before? Yeah, he's just been carrying a bag of gold ball. He sounds like a fucking, it sounds like something he would do. If I know Lasseter, I don't think I'd do. Yeah. You know his type. I know, he's type. So he's got this bag of gold right and John's like, awesome.

Let me check it out. And Lasseter said, no way. What? He's like, I don't, I don't want you to see it. That's the whole point. What's the point of the point? Berger samples. I don't understand.

It's like he never thinks anything through. He's like, oh, I'll prove to him. I'll just show him this bag. And he'd be like, oh, I assume that's full of gold. No more questions. Let's keep on with the search. Anyway, that led to a fistfight between the men. John pulled a gun.

Okay. They continued to wrestle. Somehow Lasseter took control of the gun, pointed at Johns. He's like, stand down. Holy shit Then they took a breath Calm down And went

All right fine Let's go our separate ways John's goes I'm out of here I'm heading back To Taylor Springs Apparently then Lasseter wrote a letter

To the cops And he gave it And John said Deliver this to the cops please And And then they parted ways And there was another letter saying send help, this is where he is,

send supplies for Lassiter. John's headed off. He opened the letter, read it, and the letter said, arrest this man, he pulled a gun on me. Like he wasn't going to read it. And he's basically saying,

take yourself off to the police, mate. Imagine if he's like, he's a letter. Anyway, see later, to-to-lo. Hang on. So John's read it and he's like, all right, well, I'm not going to be going to the cops. And he took a big detour. He went back past his mission.

So he's also the meaning that the letter saying, hey, send supplies back out. That's also not going out. But on the way it was Lasseter like, thanks so much, May. Just hand this into the costs. Anyway, great to disagree. Appreciate everything you've done. Don't read the letter. Hey, I know we've had ups and downs, but I'll always treasure you.

And if you're ever in town, hit me up. Yeah. Don't read the letter. Goodbye. Thank you. And always remember what I say. Don't read that letter. But hand it over to the police officer and then stick around for a bit.

Yeah, just see what happens. They might have questions for you. That is a... They might have trouble reading my handwriting or something. That is such a bold move. What a dear kid. The person who's going to save you, you also set him up. I'm hoping they won't discover it.

Arrest this man. You little dimmed. Bedover. Real fun. Yeah, as well. It's just like how much you've gone through all this weird stuff. Just let it go. You're going your separate ways.

You also pointed a gun at him. Yeah. It's all a bit weird. I mean, like, you're not there to testify against him. He's not going to go to jail. No. So now he's all alone. I mean, according to him, he's got a lot of experience out there.

Seemingly, though, he doesn't. and it's probably bad news that he's stuck out there by himself. He wasn't heard from for quite a while or at all. Oh my God. Or ever again? Or ever again. Oh, okay, understood. Not that surprised, to be honest.

There was no huge rush, apparently, to go search. They were like, eh, you're going to wait. But then a local man a few months later named Bob Buck. Yes. Bobby Buck. He took out a search party. to find him and in March of 1931 the following year they found his body and his journal. In it, Lasseter made multiple final entries.

Like this is my last entry. All right, all right. I know I said that was the last one, but this is the last one. It reminds me of who was the guy that died out in the wilderness? Yeah, and it was like, today was a really bad day, but I don't want to talk about it. Yeah, you sort of assume that. And I mean, this is, this is, we should be able to track down this journal. But I assume it's something like, I can't go on.

You won't be hearing from me again. Farewell, cruel world. And then the next page, hey, I know I said, this is a bit embarrassing. Anyway, I'm still kicking. Turns out I'm still alive. But this time I've got to say, I can't go on. And I mean at this time. Honestly, I think today's the last day.

Yeah. And I don't want you to think I died yesterday if I died today. Yeah. So today, death day. All right. Okay. Time of death now. Bye, bye, bye, bye.

Bye, bye, bye. All right, bye, bye. Yep. Okay, love you, bye. Bye, bye, bye, bye, next page. Okay. You would not read about it. The next page is P, P, P, P, P, P, P, S.

This is getting ridiculous. I admit it. Really? But I just will not die. Yeah, I've got a real kick of energy, you know. They've been running laps. The end. Or so I thought.

Post-Script. His last diary entries also suggest. His last last last. He's very final. Well, Ed, so they're in the group of his last. He suggests that local Aboriginal communities helped him find water and shelter, which helped him, I'm guessing, prolong his life a little bit. He also made an entry claiming that he was able to at last.

Refind the Reef, which I don't know if that's separate from the one that he told John's that he found. Yeah, so he's re-found the reef and then died not on the reef? Yeah. So when they found he was not on the reef anymore. No, yeah, he's gone, then he's gone back to his where he's... And I wandered for 36 hours in an unknown direction, so don't even try. Honestly, yeah. Don't even try to look for it.

If you were dying and you found the reef, I feel like you'd just go, all right, my bones will be here at least. But I guess if he did find it, he still was like, I'll go back because that's where my supplies are going to be coming to. That would be maybe the logic of it. And I definitely know how to get back there now. Okay. Bye, bye, boy, boy, bye, boy, but, but. He also, so it was estimated that he lasted about 16 weeks after John's left. Whoa.

Before dying of starvation at Shores Creek and the Piederman Rangers. It's pretty good effort. Yeah, I'm surprised who lasted that long. And that basically brings us to the end of the report, but there's quite an interesting sort of, what do you call the end bit, like an addendum? Yeah, sure. Footnote.

And that is, I mean, this could be a whole other thing. But there are theories around this diary that it may have been a fake. What? The diary that was found with all these entries in it, right? Apparently Blakely saw the diary, when it was brought back to town. He's like, I've never seen that book before. He was writing in a journal a lot, but it wasn't that.

It was a totally different, this beautifully bound book. It had looked nothing like this little red book that you've brought back. He's like, I don't think that's his diary. Okay. One theory is, and this sounds like a relatively strong one, is that Bob Buck faked the diary so that he could prove that Lasseter died so that he could access the paper with the gold's coordinates in invisible ink. The only way you could get that was to prove that he was dead.

So he goes, here's his diary, here's him saying, I'm dying. But did he also have bones? They also found a body, but it was so badly decomposed. It could have been anyone. It could have been anyone, but the... The diary on the, near the bones. The diary proved it, supposedly. Oh, that's so interesting.

Yeah. So, did they access the code? There was a big fight. Initially the bank saying, no, that's not enough evidence. We need death certificate. We need real proof. Eventually, the document with the Invisible Inc was taken out, looked at. And it turns out that Lesser had just written a bunch of gibberish numbers.

Didn't mean anything on it. Oh, my God. There weren't any actual coordinates to follow. No. Which you could argue while he was just bluffing because he didn't want to give it away. No, I think he's just an idiot. Wow. But this also leads to the fake diary also leads to the possibility that Lasseter didn't actually die then at all.

He's still alive now. Oh my goodness. They're on gold. There are many theories that he left and went back to America and the Mormon church hid him from screwdil. Why were they hiding? I don't know. Others say that. Nobody really looked for it.

him. Yeah, no one. It was people. So you wouldn't have to, he spent his whole life in America hiding. He's in a bunker, in a tiny bunker. No one's looking for you. No one cares, mate. No, we're glad you're gone.

So he's, other people like, had, there were people cited him in other places as well. So there's thoughts that he, you know, we went back to Sydney and Canberra and, you know, he's sort of spotted all over the place. And then apparently, apparently one day, And this is according to Warren Brown. Bob Buck, this swashbuckling character, bumped into Blakely at a pub. And Blakely's like, it's not, it wasn't him, was it?

That's not his real darry, is it? And apparently, so the story goes, Bob Buck was like, come man, don't fuck this up for me. Apparently. And then he said it in way more poetic language than that. Nah, it's probably similar. And then apparently, Bob Buck said to him, he goes, was it his, Bob Buck was asked, was that his body?

Yeah. And Bob Buck's like, to be honest, I couldn't even be sure if it was a black man or a white man. Whoa. So it's his bones by that point, basically. Okay, so if he's gone out with this fake diary, do you reckon he, is he just looking for anybody? He's just hoping to find a body and then he'd be like, whoa, that's him. Got him. But like, what are the chances?

Yeah, I mean, it all sounds weird to me And it's like how much of it all feels like it's It's like levels of fiction on top of whatever actually happened Like it's hard to grip onto anything It all feels like shifting sand in your hands It all feels very false, right? That is insane But it's just all of it is so weird

And it's funny like you said Dave I'd heard the term Lasseter's Reef I assumed it was a surf break somewhere Yeah, I had no idea They're like point cook, Lassiter's Reef. Point Cook. Yeah. An inland Melbourne suburb.

A known surf point. Oh no, that is, no, you're right. No, that is a reservation. Sorry, Dave. You know, just like a, like a, like just the name of a local place. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I just always assumed. So, no gold was ever found.

Still to this day, but. That's wild! So is Lasseter's Reef then, is it like the term is used for like a wild goose chase kind of thing? Well, people, they're still. people today who believe it's real. And a documentary was made like five years ago, searching for it. And did they find it?

No, it's never been found. But it's still something that people today believe is out there. He also had a son. He left his son, Lasseter, for this expedition when his son was five. And his son grew up believing his dad. He believes the diary is real. There was an interview with him with ABC about five years ago talking about... He's alive now.

Well, he was alive five years ago. Jeez, must be pretty old. Okay, right. Yeah, right. So he could still be around, but he was like, he blamed Blakely, and he reckoned Blakely made up a lot of bullshit around it. So he thinks what Lasseter said was true. He believes his dad, but I guess you would.

That there was a gold reef out there. Yeah, people are still haven't found. He still believed there was part of the diary. that said that he, because he refound it, he put down the coordinates, he said, I'm burying it on a piece of paper in this certain spot. Supposedly that piece of paper was dug up, but it was just four and a piece of pieces by the time it was found. It feels like everyone's a little bit full of shit in this story, doesn't it?

Especially me. I made this up. That's in that. It's a wild tale. That is so great. It's a wild tale. I'd love to see it. turned into a big movie.

It really builds. Yeah. Yeah, it's like, why didn't, what was that, what's that dude's name who made the Australia movie? Baz Lueman. It was about some people on a farm. Surely this is a movie that's called Australia. Well, he's famous for making quality films.

Hmm. Nah. Oh, hang on. Whoa. Shots fired. Cup it, Baz. Yeah, take that. Baz. Bazah.

I do enjoy Strictly Balderin, but the others. No, thank you. Even Romeo and Juliet? No, thank you. But I thought that was well regarded, but not really. What about Moulin Rouge? Not really? Yeah, I'm just not really a big fan, myself.

And thank you. So that is the end of the report. Thanks so much for listening to it. No, thank you. That was a classic tale. Thanks so much to Jess and my cousin Vinnie for suggesting it. You're welcome. You're welcome on behalf of both myself, Jess from Melbourne,

and my cousin Vinnie from New Jersey. New Jersey. Love you, Caz. That was a great report, Matthew. Thank you so much. Yeah, I found it very fascinating, but also, yeah, just, it was one of, I mean, I was a classic me writing it right up to when we started recording, but I could have, it's the kind of one, I kept finding great facts as we went along.

Yeah. And I did spend the last few days on it. It's funny when you go deep into that. I'll be dreaming about it tonight for sure. Me too. You know, when you go out, you get right into something. like that and it's just like you start thinking like it. Yeah.

That was so interesting. And can I say something that's not interesting at all? But a little fact check here. The possum I referred to was actually the politician's name is Patrick Gorman, not Fraser Gorman, which is Fraser A. Gorman, the singer-songwriter. I thought that was a weird coincidence. Whose music I do enjoy, but Patrick Possum Gorman, that is a real story, a politician from Perth.

I probably said out of late as well. So I got half the facts ride as often is the way with me. memory. But yes, just in case, I don't think that there's big, any big Perth political buffs out there. But if you have tweeted, delete it. And apologize. It's embarrassing for all of us.

Delayed it and apologize. Tweet it, delete it. That sounds fun. Tweet and delete it. Tweet and delete. That brings us to the fantastic segment of the show. The Patreon sponsored fact, quote or question. It is fantastic.

Dave, do you have a quick description of how this works? Well, basically, we have a Patreon, which we started a couple of years ago now, for people that listen to the show every week that want to keep it rolling with a little bit of a donation every single month. And in exchange for that, you get bonus stuff every single month, including two bonus episodes that no one else hears. And other stuff like pre-sells to shows that we're doing before anyone else hears about it, shoutouts on an episode,

and also at a certain level, you get to suggest a fact, a quote, or a question for Matt to read out. That's right. And you also get to give yourself a title. This week's fact quote or question, funnily enough, is from another Vinnie, Vincenzo, Giovanni, Bonadonna. Oh, beautiful. Wow.

I've got neighbours that I met at Christmas time, and they have the tiny little Italian greyhound. They're like the tiniest little dogs ever. And they said they named him Vincenzo because he's an Italian greyhound. And I said, do you call him Vinny? And they said, nah, chenzo. How cute is that? Chenzzo.

Chenzo. He's given himself the title. I mean, he's opted not to go with Chenzo. He's gone with that guy. And if already taken, then I'll be that other guy. Oh, nice. That guy was not. Are you sure?

I thought it was taken. Oh, that guy's taken. Sorry, that other guy. I've just checked. Vincenzo, fantastic title. And he's given us a quote. Oh, I love a quote. And this is it.

And as I normally warn everyone, this is the first time I'm reading these things. You could just read them ahead of time. I think there's some sort of fun. There's a bit of charm and I thought. Well, I want to discover it with everyone else. That's beautiful. Please. Here we go.

If it is in your power to do something good, then do it. That's a great quote. That's a nice attributed to anyone or possibly. Yes, there's a little paragraph here explaining. The reason I chose this quote, which is a personal, oh, I thought I was going to say personal favourite, but he said, which is a personal quote of mine. It's quoted himself, which I love, is because when I first joined the Patreon, I was going to suggest Bill Finger as a topic, but I was too late because a day later, I noticed Batman was

the topic for the week. If Bob Kane had done the right thing, then who knows what different things could have happened for Bill Finger and his family. and it shouldn't have taken so long for him to get his recognition. FinCenzo. And then that inspired a beautiful quote. That's so good. I reckon that's our most, well, we've had a wedding proposal.

But I think that may be even more sincere than that. That was lovely. That's so nice. Thanks, Fincheno. If it is in your power to do something good, then do it. I would have added dickhead, but this is not my place. And it probably doesn't feel quite on brand. No, that's not on brand.

Certainly not for Vincenzo. No. If it is in your power to do something good, then do it. Thank you so much, Finchanzo. And that to the level that Dave was talking about there is the Sydney Shineberg. The deluxe package on Patreon. That's right. So thank you so much for that, Vincenzo.

Did the Shines vote on this topic as well? Yes, that's right. So it's an exclusive hat that only people in that tier get to vote for one of the three of our topics. And there's not heaps of people in there. So the votes are always close. Every vote definitely counts in this. You can actually sway it with your vote. I'm pretty sure this one, 7, 6 or 6, 5.

It was very close. Very close. I put up six topics and I think there were, at one point they were level and I think it ended up being like 7 to 6 to 6 to 5 with the top four topics. Very, very close. And then Dodd-Bradman on zero. Don Bradman, maybe on one. I'll get Don up eventually.

Get him up. The Babe Ruth of Australian cricket. Come on. If you don't find the history of Babe Ruth boring, then what about a more obscure guy that you don't know of? Babe Ruth was left-handed. Is that true? Well, Don Bradman taught himself cricket in the backyard,

hitting a golf ball with a stick. A stump. Damn it. That's why I got to do a report. Why do you know that? You don't know anything about sport. That's how he apparently, that's just one of those fable things how he got his good eye.

He said just hit a tiny ball. with a skinny stick against the wall. So then it was a bit easier to hit a big ball with a wide stick. Yeah. That makes sense. I mean, I imagine generations since have tried it not being the greatest player, batsman of the century. There's also the, I think it was maybe the first Melbourne Cup winner,

I think it was Archer, and the story goes that they walked it down from Queensland. For the race that it won the road. By that time, it was like 3,000 meters. Piece of peers. Another of my relatives rode in the Melbourne Cup. Really? One of the really early ones,

John Nicholas Perkins or something. No kidding. The horse is called flat catcher. Flat catcher. Flat catcher. What does that mean? It's a big portrait of it in my parents' house. Catching flat?

Yeah, catching flat. I don't want to catch that. Why is that? How is that difficult to understand? Well? Catch a flat. Catch a flat. Oh, now that you've said it again.

That was that third time that it sunk in. Another thing. that we do as well at the end of every episode is we thank some of our patrons as well. So I reckon it's about that time now. It is, definitely is. And we normally do a bit of a game, Bopper. What are we doing for these people's names? So Lasset is Reef.

Yeah. Let's give them a surname something. A surname something and it's some sort of riches, hidden riches or hidden something? It could be anything, but it's riches. Yeah. It's a hidden rich somewhere. It's knowledge. All right, great.

Because knowledge is the ultimate. Power. Fight me on it, Dave. I can't. Correct. Dave, do you want to kick us off? Yes, I would like to thank a long-term supporter and interactor of the show, first of all, from East Sussex in Great Britain.

I would like to thank James Roy the Third. James Roy. The Roy boy. Roy boy. Actually, I think it might just be James Roy, but then when Patreon spat it out his address, which I can reveal starts with the number three, is now just attached to E on his surname, so it looks like James Roy the third.

It's just James Roy. I think it's just James Roy, Roy boy. Thank you so much for your support over the years. The Roy's Roy's Riches. Oh, Roy's riches. Oh, that's good. And where are they hidden in the Australian Outback? Yeah.

We're going to discover they're all of the Australian Outback. And also I was, because James Roy is such a great guy, I'm predicting that he will have a son, who will have a son, and they'll all be James Roy's. So there will be three James Roy's if there's not already James. And thank you. I hope you spend those riches wisely. Riches. Did you want to have a go?

No, no. I'm just noticing a common trend of me putting myself out there, being vulnerable, having a go, having a bit of fun and you just shitting all over it. I just wasn't the top, the broad umbrella topic was riches. Yeah, but I like alliteration. All right, Roy's rubies. You happy? No. Shit.

Roy's riches of rubies. That's so good. Sorry, Bob. Roy's riches is great. I think it should be Roy's Ruby riches. Oh, right. It sounds hot. Sounds hot.

Am I saying that right? I'm not sure if you are. Depends on how you mean it. But yes, thank you, James Roy. Thank you, the Roy boy. I would like to thank also. from New South Wales from Q. We've got a Q in Victoria.

Lovely this one in New South Wales as well. We've got Michael Kenden. Kendon. Sounds like Kendol. It's what I thought. Yeah, so maybe pristine Barbies. Oh, yes, because they'd be worth really a lot of money, but you would not want to bury them in the desert.

Original series. Like I said, they're not in the desert. They're in a storage facility. Yeah. Hidden in the desert. Below ground, at Cuba Pedy. Temperature. Control.

Yes. Departage controlled. Kenden's, Ken doll, Ken and Barbie dolls. Oh, yeah, you're going to be rich. That sounds good. They'll make a movie about Barbie. Margot Robbie's going to play Barbie. Yeah, so that's an international thing.

Barbies. Barbies. Yep. They're not Australian. I don't understand. Maybe I don't know if I can know. They are not Australian. Because I know in America they have Lisa in the Lionheart and Malibu Stacey.

Yeah, that's true. They do have that in America. That's right, which is, of course, a parody of Barbie. Can I thank some people too? Yes, please. I would like to thank from Hammondville in New South Wales also. I mean, speaking of riches, am I right? Yeah.

Sounds like a gated community. Yeah, it's a community named after Richard Hammond. Speaking of Top Gear. Yeah. I'd like to thank Will Thurston. Another great long-term supporter. as all of these people are. True.

I, when I hear Hammond, I think, organs. Oh, okay. Does that help you, Dave? Like body organs, human organs. Yeah, I think. Is he trafficking organs? Oh, Will Thurston's Hammond.

There is a lot of money in that. Yeah, a lot of money in organs. I think. Not that I know, I've looked into it. What? So maybe it's Will's organ warehouse. Oh, come on down. I've got livers, kidneys,

I just don't know where I've left my storage facility so come on the search with me and get a new laugh yeah yeah it's and it's temperature control temper control temper control I just yelled I don't have that Will Thurston thank you Will thank you for your service to the healthcare system

potentially you know if we find if we ever find those organs Yeah, we'll look up our blood type and find out what we need. Where did you get those organs? I'm O positive if you need anything, Will. I'm O positive, you should shut up. Wow. I'm not sure what I am.

I once thought about, I don't know, I don't know, text on my mum, and she said, I don't know. I'm like, if she doesn't know and I don't know, I don't think anyone on earth does. Yeah, there's no way anybody would ever be able to tell. I can't. I think I'm one of the normal ones. Yeah. What side of positive? Is that normal?

Yeah, very normal. It's like a universal donor. Can someone do some of that information now that you've made it public? Yeah, they can give blood to me if I need a blood transfusion? Could they somehow, like, sort of build your DNA genome? Based on my most common blood type? Or could they get a credit card in your name? Oh, knowing my blood type, yes.

Hi, I'm Jess Perkins. Are you? Can you prove it? My blood type is positive. Any further questions? No, right this way, is Perkins. Please. please access this bank vault with a secret letter written an invisible ink on it. It just says, keep doing you.

That would be something I would put in a vault because I'll never have money. Thank you to Will. I'd also like to thank from California. California. I went Hotel California. Oh, really? Yeah. But you're doing it wrong.

Welcome to the Hotel, California. I'd like to thank Carly Hall. Callie Hall. Carly Hall. Hall. Hall. Carly's Hall of horse meat. Wow, Carly.

Hall is in like a passageway or is in a big load? Like the Great Hall. Yeah, like the local town hall. Oh, wow. Carly's Town Hall of horse meat. I see, I really hope Carly is vegetarian. Is that so? Jess hopes that all Alice is a vegetarian.

Stop pushing your beliefs on them, Jess. Jess. Disappointing. I just meant because. You've given her meat, and she might not like that. Horse meat. It's a particular one as well. Yeah, it is a particular one.

Yeah, it's a particular kind of meat. It comes from horses. Horse. So thank you to Carly and enjoy that whole of horse meat. Yeah, but stop horsing around. Yuck. If I could thank a couple of our fantastic supporters as well, please. Please.

Please, please. Could I thank from Cremorne in your self. well. We've also got a Cremorne. Yeah, I mean, there's so many names. Why did we just name them all the same thing? There's a Richmond there too. Yeah, there's Richmond everywhere. Yeah. What's with Richmond?

Who's Richmond? From Cremorne, I'd love to thank Craig Scrobeck. Craig Scrobeck. He's bringing Scrobeck. And also, I think what he's got is a bottomless pit of love. Craig's bottomless pit of love. Take a dip in Craig's bottomless pit of love.

Wow, is it in the desert? Yeah. And me saying Roy's riches got your abuse. Okay. Bottomless pit of love. That is never ending. That commodity is invaluable. Invaliable and inexhaustible.

If you find Craig's bottomless pit of love, Good luck, though, because that is hard to find. Does it exist? Craig, you tell us. Yeah, hard to say. I believe him. Takes work. Take work to get to that bottle with a bit of love.

It's about communication, commitment, patience, empathy. Sulkiness. And sulk. Sulk to your heart's content. Have a little sulk. Thank you so much, Mr. Craig, Scrowback. And I'd also love to thank from Eastern Kemp. South Africa or South Africa.

I mean, Eastern Cape, that's obviously next to the Lassiter's roof and Point Cook. I'd love to thank John Luke McGlagan. Oh, I like that. John Luke McGlagan. John Luke, yeah, John Luke McGlagan. Yeah, so it's a Scottish last name, sort of a French-sounding first name, and then he's in South Africa. This. He's a man of the world.

Yeah. I love that. I like that a lot. I think he has found, stumbled across, hasn't been able to re-find it since, but if we join him, he will find his big pit of... It's another pit. It's another pit. This one's got a bottom. It's full, in fact, of golden bottom prints.

So people... What's that mean? It means people have made plaster cast of their butts. and they've been filled with liquid gold until they harden and then we've got hard golden butts. I've already got a hard golden butt. And then they throw... Help me!

They throw them in. And this was an ancient thing. It was a ceremony that used to happen. The king and the queen would both goldenize their butts on their wedding night. And they would chuck them in the pit of butts. Chuck them in the pit of butts. And then, yeah. The pitter butts.

The civilization eventually fell down when they went for one night. When the king dropped trow, he was found to have three cheeks. And that started the end of that civilization. And it was buried. It's buried somewhere under a jungle. A jungle fell on top of it. So it is deep. But John Luke McLaughan has found it.

And he reckons he can find our way. back there. And we're with you all the way, John Luke. 100%. I cannot wait for Indiana Jones and the temple of the golden butt. Yeah. That sounds like it's going to be great. Yeah, it is. Can I make a cast of my butt? Yeah. Thank you. I've been doing squats. I mean, my whole life is built up to this moment. I try to look at my butt and I can't see it. Oh, you've got to double mirror that. What?

You got to set up a double mirror. What do you mean you can't see it? A single mirror should do the job. Like a dog trying to like try to taste out. He's not in a double mirror, surely. No, a single mirror should really good. I'm looking right now. I can't see it.

You need to get a mirror. I mean, you're sitting on your body. Why can't I just get a cast? I'm looking right at mine. Yeah, all right, mate. I'm looking at the front of mine. Anyhow, front butt. Thank you to all the Patreon supporters.

You make a world of difference in the lives of us three people. and we hope that you enjoy all the engagement that we also give you in the Patreon-only Facebook group. Yes. It's not just us chatting in there. You guys have started chatting a lot with each other. We love that. So good.

Love jumping in there and getting distracted from other work. It's real nice. It's a real, it's genuinely such a nice community. It's so nice. And can't wait to be, it sounds like a bunch of people in there are going to be seeing us at upcoming live shows, which is going to be really nice to meet people.

And there's a thread in there. Well, there was a thread in there. a month or so ago, I think it still gets added to a little bit, about where people hope we come to in America. And as we said, I think in last week's of the week before's episode, we're really keen to start making some plans. And if anyone has any expertise in the field of American podcast touring, please get in touch. Are you some sort of diplomat that can wield some sort of power or give us diplomatic

immunity, for example? Or, as some people say, diplomatic immunity. That's what we're looking for. That's what Jean-Luc would say. Yes. Or Jean-Luck, as I probably should have had a cracker just in case. Just in case. Jean-Luck.

We should also say, before we wrap up, that Dave and I do mini-Dougon's spin-off podcast, Dave does one about classic novels. He reads them, so you don't have to, and he brings a couple of guests in, and he tells them in a very funny way. It's a very similar sort of set up to do-go on. Yeah, a bit of a report happening, and people chiming in. So recent episodes include stuff on Frankenstein, 20,000 leagues under the sea.

I've also done Hamlet. So, you know, Othello, Christmas carol with you guys. Yeah, so, but plenty of books. And I do a podcast called Primates, and we're all on each other's pods. You should check them both out. Primates is all about primates of popular culture.

Very silly idea, but it's just a whole lot of fun. We talk about movies and TV shows and comics. I love it. Someone recently reviewed your podcast, Matt, and it said, that this is way funnier than this idea deserves to be. Yeah, that is a brilliant, brilliant summation. It's a lot of fun.

If you haven't given it a go, I highly recommend it. I think people go, I don't care about promits of public countries. You don't need to enjoy it. It's just the weird hook that you do just to have funny guests on and talk about a thing. So definitely check it out. A lot of people from around the planet broadcasting network have been on. I've got a goal to get everyone who's got a podcast in this network

to be a guest on my show at some point. Please check it out. Let us know what you think. Yeah, if you want to get in touch, do go on. You can get us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, do go on pod. Gmail is do go on pod at gmail.com. Our Patreon is patreon.com slash do go on pod. There's a little theme running here.

Most things are just do go on pod. And our website, do go on pod.com has links to most of those things. And I probably should you just said that. But also in the show notes, you can look at them there as well. Yeah, just clicky, clicky on your phone. Do it. If you have a suggestion for a topic, please get onto our website. Click the suggestion.

topic button. Yeah, just a reminder, you don't have to be a Patreon supporter to suggest a topic. Anyone can do that at any time. That's right. So it's like a 24-hour hotline, baby. If you got a great idea for a topic, please put that in. And give us a great spiel. I'm pretty sure, because I put all the spiels in the poll.

And I'm pretty sure there's no coincidence that the Lasseter's Reef spiel is probably also the most enticing. So if you do put in a good spiel, that definitely does help. sell it, baby, and give us some good references. Yes, please. But that does bring us to the end of another episode. Thank you so much for joining us this week. We hope you will join us again next week, but until then, I will say thank you and goodbye.

Later. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit planetbroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates. I mean, if you want, it's up to you. Don't forget to sign up to our tour mailing list so we know where in the world you are, and we can come and tell you when we're coming there. Wherever we go, we always hear six months later, oh, you should come to Manchester.

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