The Dead Heart

This book is a classic narrative of modern exploration; a story of adventure, enterprise and patient scientific exploration, illustrated by photographs taken on the expedition. The Simpson is a sand-ridge desert extending 200 miles (322 km) west to east, the ridges running parallel from north to south at roughly quarter-mile (0.4 km) intervals, some reaching as high as 100 feet (30 m). Madigan planned a ground crossing in the winter of 1939. A party of nine, including a biologist, a botanist, a photographer and a radio operator, with nineteen camels, made the exhausting crossing from Andado station in the Northern Territory to Birdsville in twenty-five days. It verified Madigan's previous conclusions that the area was a wasteland. This last classic Australian exploration adventure pioneered the use of mobile radio communication; national broadcasts were made through the Australian Broadcasting Commission from desert camps. The scientific results were published and also a popular accound, Crossing the Dead Heart (Melbourne, 1946). He saw the 'Dead Heart' as a land of everlasting sand-ridges and salt-encrusted clay-pans; while his conclusions seemed correct then, within twenty years the area was criss-crossed by petroleum explorers. - Australian Dictionary of Biography

Everyone has a story to tell, myself included, and though I will never claim mine is any more spectacular or important than the next, I will say that if I had a book from someone else who had dealt with the kinds of issues I was, it would have literally changed my life. It is with that in mind that I present my raw, honest, and most intimate thoughts I somehow worked through after just surviving an uphill battle with cancer, only to get married, and subsequently divorced... All before I could legally drink. But writing in a journal, I think, saved my life. I was able to talk about all of the sad, depressing, angry, mean, and just plain odd things that went through my mind at such a confusing point in my life. Every page bleeds emotion, and every mark screams with honesty. By no means does The Dead-Heart Diaries read like a typical book/memoir/autobiography, or whatever you want to classify it as; it reads like words poured straight from the heart into a pen, and I can only classify it as Honesty.

The body of a man with a crushed skull is found in outback Australia. Discovered hidden nearby is a letter containing cryptic clues to the location of a massive gold find in the unchartered Dead Heart of Australia. Greedy rumours fly, when a wife arrives to collect her dead husbands belongings. Not only is the not-entirely-bereaved widow out for a take, but also local authorities find themselves overrun by those willing to kill for a chance to find the gold. Speaking of killing, who bashed in the victims skull? Obese Sergeant Gillings is on the case with the help of his officers and trackers. The roguish Bob and his lover, Chaenee, are on the hunt as well. Australian Aborigines in the Dead Heart are on a rampage because strangers enter their forbidden territory. These gold-hungry adventurers have to fight each other, wild natives, and the unforgiving terrain itself on the perilous path to striking it rich.

A true story of one of the epic adventures of desert exploration. In 1939 Dr. Cecil Madigan led his party of nine men and nineteen camels into the trackless and waterless Simpson Desert on an exciting mission never before attempted. This is a great Australian story of enterprise, scientific investigation, determination and human courage.

Waking the Dead—newly revised and updated for these trying times—reveals the secret of finding a full life, identifying the fierce battle over our hearts, and embracing all that God has in store. Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” That’s the offer of Christianity, from God himself. Jesus touched people, and they changed: the blind had sight, the lame walked, the deaf heard, the dead were raised. To be touched by God, in other words, is to be restored, to be made into all God means us to be. That is what Christianity promises to do—make us whole, set us free, bring us fully alive.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.