Alexander Spring - WA

Alexander Spring is a small semi-permanent rockpool providing a waterhole for finches and other desert wildlife.

It is situated in the upper reaches of a short, stony water course in the hills of the Sutherland Ranges. It is only a short distance east of Mount Allot and the Hunt Oil Road.

Camels don't often utilise this water due to the difficult terrain and as a result it and the smaller surrounding pools remain in excellent condition. There are several larger waterholes in the lower reaches of the adjacent creek that provide water as well.

The spring was named by Alexander Forrest who discovered it in 1874. He and his expedition were facing certain death from thirst when they stumbled upon this small spring. A plaque marking the spot was set by the Geraldton Historical Society in 1974 to celebrate the centenary of the forest expedition.

The track in, although not signposted is easily located running east off the Hunt Oil Road just north of Mount Allot. There is an area near the lower pools that has been utilised as a camping area. For track conditions, refer to the Hunt Oil Road.

Less than a kilometre to the north of Mt Allott, Alexander Spring lies nestled in the bed of a creek that rises from the plain into the Sutherland ranges and runs along the western flank of Mount Allot. Naturally this was our next port of call.

To call this water source a “spring” is a misnomer. The ‘spring’ is actually an ephemeral rockhole in the stony floor of the creek. Together with several other large depressions along the creek bed, they would collect and hold run-off after a decent downpour of rain. They are not fed by a subterranean source, nor permanent as Forrest presumed and marked them, an assertion that proved problematic for later expeditions to the area. The reality is that Forrest was indeed fortunate to find the rockhole full, the good fortune of which is quite adequately conveyed by David Carnegie in “Spinifex and Sand”, his 1897 tome of his explorations across WA.

"This journey was accomplished with horses, and Forrest, like Stuart in Central Australia, happened to strike a belt of country intersected by low ranges and hills in which he found water. On his left hand was the undulating hill-less desert crossed by Giles, on his right a wilderness of rolling sandhills. Not only was Forrest a surveyor but a bushman as well, and accompanied by good men and black-boys, who let not the slightest indications of the existence of water escape them. One has only to notice the numerous twists and turns in his route to understand that no pains were spared to find water, and thus from rock-hole to rock-hole he wound his way across."

"It seems certain that Forrest must have had an exceptional season, judging from the difficulties that have beset subsequent travellers, even though they had camels, over the same route. Mills, Hubbe, Carr-Boyd, Macpherson, and Frost have in late years traversed the same country, not following exactly in Forrest's footsteps, but visiting several waters yielding a plentiful supply when found by him, but which were dry when seen by them. Nevertheless if ever an overland route for stock is found from Central Australia to the Coolgardie fields, I feel confident it will closely approximate to Forrest's route of 1874 for a considerable distance."

David Carnegie – Spinifex and Sand