Len Beadell: a mid-1900s Australian pioneer.
Leonard Beadell OAM, BEM, FIEMS. (21 April 1923 – 12 May 1995) was a surveyor, road builder, bushman, artist and author, responsible for constructing over 6,000 km (3,700 mi) of roads and opening up isolated desert areas – some 2.5 million square kilometres (970 thousand square miles) – of central Australia from 1947 to 1963. Born in West Pennant Hills, New South Wales, Beadell is sometimes called “the last true Australian explorer”.