Windich Hill - WA

Named by David Lindsay on the Elder Expedition of 1891 for Tommy Windich, their aboriginal guide.



The Elder Expedition - possibly the most ambitious Australian expedition of all time.

The Elder Scientific Exploration Expedition, led by David Lindsay, left the railway at Warrina, south of Oodnadatta, on 2 May 1891 on a 6,886 kilometre journey that was to last 12 months. The party was one of the strongest and best equipped expeditions ever sent into inland Australia and consisted of 14 men (three of them scientists) and 44 camels. Conditions for travel were favourable at first, with abundant feed and fresh water. However, in mid-July the expedition, following the Musgrave and Mann ranges westwards, crossed into Western Australia and experienced very difficult, drought affected country. Many of the surface waters considered permanent by earlier explorers like Giles, Gosse and Forrest, had dried up.
Lindsay reached Winburn Rocks on the 30th July, 1891 and noted trees near there marked by A. Forrest and W.W. Mills (William Mills carried out explorations in the area in 1883).

With the supply of fresh water at Forrest’s Rockhole being one of the few places capable of sustaining the expedition for an extended time, Lindsay moved his whole party there, establishing a ‘depot’. Over the next month Lindsay instigated a series of unsuccessful probes or ‘flying trips’ into the west and northwest, with little return. Plagued by doubts about the supply of water available to them, and lacking enough water for their camels to drink, and to fill their water casks, Lindsay finally decided to strike southwest to Giles' Queen Victoria Spring. After 25 days and 400 miles the Spring was reached on 23 September 1891, but was found dry, prompting the party to head to the only known water at the Fraser Range, some 125 miles further north west.

After one of the longest waterless forced-marches in the history of Australian exploration, safety was reached at the Fraser Range after 34 days, the camels having covered 868 miles on an allowance of only 36 litres of water per animal.