Did you know, Lasseters Online is named after Harold Bell Lasseter and his life long search for "Lasseters Reef", a reef of gold he had discovered in his early travels? You may be familiar with the game "Lasseters Gold" and may even have helped him in his search to find the gold reef if you've played the Lasseters Gold bonus game.

This is the story of Harold Lasseter to give you an insight into both the history of Australia and Lasseters Online.

Harold was born in 1880, 92 years after the founding of Australia. During this time, Australia was in the grip of a Gold Rush, as the alluvial gold fields of Australia were being discovered and their riches shared with all who were willing to strike out and stake their claim.

By the turn of the century however, Australia's gold fever was slowing, so Harold, now 20, sought his riches by prospecting for rubies in the Macdonnell Ranges in the Northern Territory of Australia.

Whilst searching for rubies, Harold stumbled across a reef of gold the likes of which he had never seen! He took a small sample of the gold and decided to return to civilisation to stake his claim. Unfortunately, he lost his way during the return journey and nearly died from dehydration. He was saved by a lucky encounter with an Afghan camel driver.

The camel driver returned Harold to civilisation, where he was gradually nursed back to health. Eventually, luck was with him and he set out in search of his lost reef of gold accompanied only by a surveyor who he had met whilst he was regaining his health.

Due to the fact that Harold had lost his bearings returning from the first journey, finding the reef again was not an easy task. Fortunately they found the reef once more, however this time, the surveyor was able to take their bearings to ensure they would have no further trouble returning with a full expedition.

Again, they set off back to civilisation. It appeared however, that fate was playing a cruel joke on Harold Lasseter. On their return, they discovered that both of their watches were inaccurate. Their journey had been in vain! This meant their measurements were unreliable and by this time, Harold was unable to finance another expedition.

Many years would pass whilst Harold looked to make his riches elsewhere. 20 years later, Harold decided it was time to once more make the journey to find his reef. It was now 1929, and he was 49.

Backed by funding received from people who shared his dream, a great expedition set off. Unfortunately, Harold's run of bad luck was to continue! The expedition had been travelling through Australia's harsh outback for many months and tempers were short. Problems were to arise in the party and the expedition started to fall apart. Injuries, mechanical difficulties and bad tempers had doomed it to failure. They decided to return to civilisation, and let the reef wait for another day.

However, 'later' wasn't an option Harold understood. He would find his reef, or he would die trying. So he set out by himself, with only two camels to carry his supplies as he continued the search for his reef.

Although Lasseters diary, later recovered, indicates he found his "Eldorado", he never returned from his lone journey.

Click to visit Lasseters Online