IN 1973, an Australian outback farmer by the name of John ‘Goog’ Denton came up with the idea to cut a track directly north through rough Aussie scrub and sand dunes from his cattle station in South Australia towards the Red Centre. With an idea like that it would be easy to assume Goog was a bit crazy, though I don’t actually think that was the case. He was probably just an ambitious guy who loved a good challenge, and from all accounts he faced that challenge with a huge smile and plenty of laughs.
The record states that Goog took on this task in search of better grazing land for his cattle, though I think it’s more likely he was just looking to have some fun and adventure. Years of blazing hot sun probably cooked his brain a little, but it’s probably best to overlook that as the normal kind of Aussie crazy. Without any help from the government or military, Goog and his family slowly pushed a track through the scrub and sand using whatever old machinery they could muster.
Now, almost 50 years later, the original
