Desert Walker

Contemporary Australian explorer. One of the quintessential characters of Australia’s inland. Australian adventurer. Outback legend. That’s how the press describe Denis Bartell. Self-employed from an early age, his varied careers took him all over Australia, working on the land as windmill expert, irrigation and farm machinery salesman, agricultural and poultry farmer, hovercraft manufacturer, jade miner, gold prospector, shark fisherman, tourism operator, author and historian. He has traversed the Australian continent on foot, in 4WD drive vehicles and a solar car, boated down mighty rivers, canoed the flood waters of the Cooper Creek, and ridden camels, walked or navigated almost every square kilometre of the Simpson Desert. Aged 53, Denis took a five-and-a-half month solo walk across Australia north to south passing through the centre of the Simpson Desert. In one section he covered 450 kilometres cross country ie. no roads, no tracks, just a compass to guide him. The greatest distance between towns, a beer or an icecream was a massive 1450 kilometres, a journey of true isolation.
Already a recipient of the Australian Government’s Order of Australia Medal, in 1994 he was again honoured, this time with the Australian Geographic Adventurer of the Year Gold Medallion.