Hell's Airport And Lasseter's Lost Legacy
Biography & Memoir Australian Aviation History Outback Treasure Hunt Australian Local History Exploration & Adventure 1930s-40s Australiana Pioneering Bush Pilots Lost Gold Legends
Errol Hampton Coote’s 1981 paperback “Hell’s Airport & Lasseter’s Lost Legacy” is the vintage aviation-adventure double-bill Australian collectors hunt for: half high-drama biography of a pioneering outback pilot, half real-life treasure map to Harold Bell Lasseter’s legendary—and still undiscovered—Central Australian gold reef. In 142 brisk, illustrated pages Coote recounts his own 1930s–40s exploits flying the “hell’s airport” airstrips of the Red Centre, then dovetails into the stranger-than-fiction saga of Lasseter, the prospector who swore he found a quartz mountain “littered with gold” before dying alone in the desert. The result is a page-turning hybrid of bush aviation history and outback mystery that you simply can’t find in modern reprints.
What makes this copy especially appealing is its genuine vintage pedigree: a 1981 first-issue softcover from Investigator Press, complete with the original fold-out map that modern POD versions omit. The book is inscribed (a previous owner’s neat ink note, not author-signed), giving it personal-collector character without premium signed pricing. Illustrations—period photographs of Coote’s battered Dragon Rapide, abandoned Lasseter campsites, and 1930s Alice Springs—are all present and sharp, letting readers see the aircraft, terrain and faces behind the legend. Foxing on the outer edges is light and typical for 40-year-old Australian paperstock; the binding remains tight and every page turns cleanly, so the copy is ready to read, display or archive.
For devotees of Australian aviation, Lasseter chasers, local-history buffs or anyone building a hard-to-find collection of outback non-fiction, this illustrated 1981 edition delivers both a gripping true story and a tangible piece of publishing history—no e-book or facsimile can match the map, photos and vintage feel tucked between these covers.
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