Mulgan Rockhole - WA

Mulgan Rockhole was visited by Hon. David Wynford Carnegie in 1896. A lot of the trees here have rocks placed in the forks of branches. The reason is a mystery.

It’s a thirty kilometre stretch from the Gary Highway into McPherson’s Pillar, a small prominence of rock named by David Carnegie on 1st September, 1896. Mulgan Rockhole is another six km round trip to the southwest of the Pillar. Mulgan was named by Carnegie as he passed through the area on his way to the north. The track is in good condition, particularly the first 20 kilometres which crossed wide spinifex plains. The last ten kilometres are through woodlands, and the the track twists and turns through the deep red soil and thick mulga. In 2006 on the track in to Mulgan Rockhole several fires had been through the area.

"No doubt this extreme change in temperature, combined with the dry atmosphere and the tremendous heat of the sun, has caused the hills to be weathered away in the remarkable shapes of which McPherson's Pillar is a good example. The pillar is formed of a huge square block of red rock, planted on the top of a conical mound, perhaps fifty feet in height, whose slopes are covered with broken slabs and boulders. This remarkable landmark, which, from the North, is visible from twenty-four miles distant, I named after Mr. McPherson, a well-known and respected prospector, who, though leaving no record of his journey, crossed the Colony from West to East."

"Due West of the Pillar, distant two and a half miles, situated in a scrub-covered rocky gorge, is a fair-sized rockhole. Breaden and Godfrey managed to get about two gallons of filth from it; I have swallowed all kinds of water, but this was really too powerful. Had we been hard pressed it would undoubtedly have been used, but since we had not long left water, we discarded this mixture, after trying it on Czar, whose indignation was great. In the branches of the mulga round the rock-hole I noticed what I have seen in several other places, viz., stones wedged in the forks — dozens of stones of all sizes and shapes. I have no knowledge of their true significance." - David Carnegie – Spinifex and Sand 1897

The rockhole is not to be relied on as a source of water by modern travellers.