Shortly after the expedition crossed the border-line between South Australia and West Australia, Mr. Leech, one of the responsible officers, was despatched on a fruitless trip northward to search for traces of the ill-fated Gibson, who had perished with Giles some seventeen years previously. The expedition then proceeded via Fort Mueller to Mount Squires, where water was obtainable. Thence a south-west course was taken to Queen Victoria's Spring. In latitude 29 degrees, 270 miles south of Mount Squires, the eastern end of a patch of good pastoral country was observed. On reaching the springs they were found to be dry, and all the intended exploration which was to be effected from this base had to be abandoned, the party having to push on to Fraser's Range; and this hasty trip through the desert comprised the only useful work done. Lindsay reported that, when half-way to the Range, they passed some good country consisting of rich red soil, producing good stock bushes but all exceedingly dry. A belt of country deserving the attention of prospectors was also noted. Having rested some time at the Range, they set out to examine, if possible, the western side of the desert they had just traversed, but lack of water compelled them to take an extreme westerly course to the Murchison by way of Mount Monger, passing through a country covered with miserable thicket on a sandy soil with granite outcrops. On the 1st of January, 1892, they reached their destination, when the majority of the members left the party, and the leader was recalled to Adelaide.
At the termination of the original expedition, or rather before its conclusion was absolutely determined on, L.A. Wells made a flying trip into the district lying between Giles's track of 1876 and Forrest's route of 1874. Starting from his depot at Welbundinum, he completed the examination of what was practically the whole of the still unexplored portion in about six weeks, between the 23rd of February and the 4th of April. During this expedition he travelled 834 miles, discovered some fine ranges and hills, a large extent of pastoral country, some apparently auriferous land, but no water of a permanent kind. The results were indeed very promising, more valuable than those of the original Elder Expedition, and Wells, whose hopes had risen with the success, was intensely disappointed to find on his return that the expedition had been disbanded. Both Lindsay and Wells were natives of South Australia, Lindsay having been born at Goolwa, and Wells at Yallum station in the south-east, which was owned by his father and uncle. Wells joined the Survey Department of South Australia when but eighteen, and at twenty-three was appointed assistant-surveyor to the North Territory Border expedition. On the settlement of the border question he returned to Adelaide, and is now engaged on the Victoria River.
20.3. WELLS AND CARNEGIE IN THE NORTHERN DESERT.
L.A. Wells. Photo: Duryea, Adelaide.
By this time the gold rush to the southern portion of Western Australia had set in strong, and the country that had so long repelled the pastoral pioneer by its aridity was now overrun with prospectors, their camps supplied with water by condensers at the salt lakes and pools. At first the loss of life was very great; for it was not likely that a district that could be safely traversed only by the hardiest and most experienced bushmen would freely yield its secrets to untried men. Of the many deaths that occurred from thirst, no complete record will ever be available. Some unrecognisable and mummified remains may some day be found amid the untrodden waste; but few have yet been tempted to break in upon the solitude of the dead men of the desert.
As the southern goldfields spread and became thickly-populated, the food supply was an important question, and men's eyes naturally turned to the well-stocked northern stations, from which many cattle were being sent south by steamer. Though the distance overland was not prohibitive, the belt of desert country that intervened, upon which Warburton to his sorrow was the first to venture, forbade the passage of stock. This belt of Sahara extended, roughly speaking, from the eastern border of the colony to the head waters of the western coastal rivers. North and south it lay between the parallels of 19 degrees and 31 degrees south. As yet no daring attempt had been made to traverse its barren confines from south to north. But, to the born explorer, difficulty and danger give an added zest to geographical research; and in the year 1896 two separate expeditions sought to cross this dreadful zone. Both left civilization within a few days of each other. The first to start was known as the Calvert Expedition, from its originator. It was under L.A. Wells, the South Australian surveyor who had been the energetic second of the former Elder Expedition. The other was equipped and led by the Honourable David Carnegie.
Wells formed a depot at a spot well provided with camel feed and water, at some distance to the south-west of Forrest's Lake Augusta, which he found, at that time, dry. Here he left the main part of his caravan to await his return whilst he made a flying trip to the north. He was away from the 10th of August to the 8th of September, during which he found at his furthest point, a distance of two hundred miles, a good native well, which he named Midway Well. On the 14th of September the whole party made a start, and reached Midway Well on the 29th, all well. At Separation Well, another good well a little farther to the north, the party separated, C.F. Wells, a cousin of the leader, and G.L. Jones, intending to travel for about eighty miles in a north-west direction to examine the country, and then to return on a north-east course and rejoin the caravan at Joanna Springs, which had relieved Warburton in his extremity. About thirty miles south of Joanna Springs, where the leader expected the two men to cut his tracks, Wells found his camels suffering terribly from the extreme heat and their labours among the constantly-recurring sand-ridges, whilst the scanty native wells they found were insufficient to give their camels water. When at last they reached the latitude of Joanna Springs they had been obliged to abandon three camels and all their equipment except the actual necessaries.
It was also evident that the longitude of the springs given by Warburton was wrong, for all the country around was a sandy desert without the slightest indication of well or spring. To linger in such a spot was to court destruction, and they had to push on to the Fitzroy as fast as their worn-out camels could take them. The reader will remember that Warburton had failed to find A.C. Gregory's most southerly point on Sturt's Creek when looking for it, and it was afterwards proved that Joanna Springs had been charted by him about ten miles to the westward of its true position. On the 7th of November, in the darkness of morning they at last reached the Fitzroy, with the camels just at their last gasp.