This delightfully entertaining, as well as cleverly-titled book, is about as peppered with well-known names as the sites Reg Sprigg surveyed were littered with finds. From Mawson, Marie Curie, Playford, Bonython, through to uranium, radium, black gold and copper – with a pastiche of local areas now synonymous with SA's boom: the Mount Lofty and Flinders ranges, Moomba, Simpson Desert, Arkaroola, up to what the world now recognises as exploratory excellence in globally- renowed companies like SANTOS. Yet, for all of this never indiscriminate name-dropping, the intriguing story of the '40-mile-an-hour geologist' the Rock Star Reg Sprigg remains, as it ought, front and foremost.

Whether overland, on sea, below sea, or, in the air, one is left with the opinion that the man who was Reg Sprigg, gave one hell of a lot more to mineral exploration, discovery, geology and palaeontology, than those petty-minded bureaucrats, scornful academia, and corporate cowboys ever returned in kind.

Reg Sprigg was a man of true grit, willing to endure the most arduous of conditions and extremes of non-belief to accomplish his goals. Responsible for the founding of SANTOS, and discoverer of the great Cooper Basin oil and gas fields, as well as being alomost single-handedly responsible for the locating of Australia's first two uranium mines, by the afe of thirty Reg Sprigg had these on his CV along with discoveries of some of the world's oldest fossils. By fifty, the resolute Mr. Sprigg had been the first to cross the Simpson by vehicle, and, had crossed the Australian continent by east, west, south, and north. Add to this the founding of the Arkaroola Wildlife Sanctuary, and you can see why Reg Sprigg deservedly earned legend status. Still active in geology up until his later years despite minor strokes, and, having developed a strong sense of conservation, Reg Sprigg died in Scotland in an odd quirk of fate . . . one which you'd need to read this page-turning account of an extrordinary life to find out. Rock Star is certainly a book all South Australians, and indeed, Australians, should own. I got the distinct impression, from Kristin Weidenbach's crisp, concise narrative style – that if Reg Sprigg had been able to go fossick on the moon, he wouldn't have hesitated a second . . .East Street Publications RRP$32.95