Len opted to stay in the Army at the end of the Second World War. He was promoted to Acting/Sergeant in May 1946. The 3 Aust Field Survey Company AIF was tasked to provide survey support to a new scientific exploration in the
Darwin-
Katherine region of the Northern Territory. Len volunteered to delay his discharge from the Army for twelve months to be able to participate in the task. When that assignment was completed in November, he was asked once more to waive his discharge, as another project was in the making. The British and Australian governments had decided to build a rocket testing range in outback South Australia. He volunteered to be part of an Army survey team for that project, being transferred to the 5 Aust Field Survey Company, a 4 Military District Detachment, in February 1947. The initial survey reconnaissance for the project was conducted by the Director of Military Survey and Officer Commanding 5 Aust Field Survey Company AIF in 1946. The survey detachment of ten men, under the command of Major Lindsay Lockwood who had conducted a detailed survey reconnaissance in 1946, moved in March 1947 to 'The Pines' area in what became known as the Woomera area. There they started an Army program of topographic mapping which continued until 1953, when responsibility for such surveys was transferred to the Department of the Interior. Len was promoted to Temporary/Warrant Officer Class 2 in February 1948, and elected to discharge in December 1948. In November 1949, he was asked to rejoin the project and began further surveying as an employee of the Long Range Weapons Establishment in August 1950. A site for the secret testing of a British
atomic bomb was selected by Beadell in 1952. A road from Mabel Creek to the test site
Emu Field was built by him in March 1953, his first road. which was assembled by him. He said he tried whenever possible to make the road as straight as a gunbarrel. The road was built with initial reconnaissance and survey by Len (not the case in 1958 when the survey reconnaissance from Warburton to Carnegie was led by the Supervising Surveyor (Geodetic) Australian Division of National Mapping, Mr HA (Bill) Johnson MBE LS FIS Aust), usually alone, pushing through raw scrub in a
Land Rover. by road south of
Alice Springs. It then pushed west to the
Rawlinson Ranges, skirting south of the
Gibson Desert, via the mission at
Warburton, to connect to an existing road at Carnegie Station. The total distance was about . Len's stories of the building of this road are told in the first of his numerous books
Too Long in the Bush, a reading of which will give some insight into the incredible feat that building this road was. Len suffered near starvation, many mechanical breakdowns, countless punctures and other mishaps, all in searing desert heat, but seemingly took it all in his stride with good humour.
Later roads Beadell's sense of humour was well known, and he referred to many of his roads as "highways". Following the Gunbarrel Highway, Len built further roads by the same method, naming most of them after his family. The
Connie Sue Highway for his daughter, the
Gary Highway and
Gary Junction Road for his son, the
Anne Beadell Highway for his wife and
Jackie Junction for his youngest daughter.
Bush dentist During a break from construction of the Gunbarrel Highway in June 1957, Beadell convinced a visiting dental surgeon at Woomera, Dr Bruce Dunstan, to give him a crash course on tooth extraction. Beadell had prior experience of the trouble that teeth could cause himself and his crew when days or weeks away from city facilities. This instruction and further assistance from an Alice Springs dentist, Ray Meldrum, equipped him with dental supplies and local anaesthetics sufficient for bush work. Beadell carried out his first extraction in March 1958 on Cyril Koch, a cook, during construction of the Gunbarrel Highway. By the time road building was completed in 1963, Len had pulled 29 teeth, joking that he had 29 notches on his forceps. ==Legacy==