The Explorers of Australia and their Life-workFavenc, Ernest
History
The Explorers of Australia and their Life-work
Favenc, Ernest
Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Explorers
At Hall's Creek Carnegie heard of the misfortune that had befallen Wells,
in the loss of two of his party, and he at once volunteered his
assistance; but as search-parties had already started out, his aid was
not required. He therefore rested for a short time before again trying
conclusions with the desert on the return journey. Sturt's Creek was by
this time occupied and stocked, and the party followed it down until they
arrived at its termination in Gregory's Salt Sea. From this point
Carnegie kept a southerly course to Lake Macdonald near the South
Australian border, passing on his way a striking range which he named the
Stansmore Range, after his unfortunate companion. Lake Macdonald was long
thought to be a continuation of Lake Amadeus, until the exploration of
Tietkins in 1889 proved its isolation. From Lake Macdonald, Carnegie, who
had now three horses in his equipment, kept a more south-westerly course
towards the Rawlinson Range, the endless sand-dunes still crossing his
track in dreary succession. So persistently did they rise across his path
that, on one day, eighty-six of them were crossed by the caravan during a
progress of eight hours. From the Rawlinson Range they kept on the same
south-west course until they struck their outward track at Alexander
Spring. A fall of rain fortunately replenished the spring shortly after
the arrival of the party. They reached Lake Darlot on the 15th of July,
and their desert pilgrimage was ended.
Not only did Carnegie get safely across the dreaded desert, but he
returned overland to his starting-point by a different route. He wrote a
book, Spinifex and Sand, which contains a most interesting account of
this journey, as well as a graphic and picturesque description of the
physical features of the Great Sandy Desert.
Carnegie died before he had made more than this one contribution to
Australian geography. Like the ill-fated Horrocks, he had the explorer's
ardent spirit. His restless and adventurous soul ever leading him onward
to the frontiers of settlement and the outskirts of civilised life, he
fell beneath a shower of poisoned arrows at Lokojo in Nigeria, on the
west coast of Africa, on the 27th of November, 1900.
20.4. HANN AND BROCKMAN IN THE NORTH-WEST.
[Illustration. Frank Hann. Explorer of the North-West, and discoverer of
a stock route between South Australia and Western Australia. Photo:
Mathewson, Brisbane.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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