Submitted: Friday, Feb 15, 2008 at 00:00

This is a report of a short trip from Perth to Lake Darlot and back via Shire of Murchison.

My reasons were good to go to the lake. When Explorer David Carnegie passed by with his two companions in 1895 his party had inscribed their initials and date upon some sandstone near the lake.

I allocated a weekend, along with Monday and Tuesday, for the task of getting to the lake and finding the inscription. As it turned out I did not find the inscription and had some spare time in the bush but here is the story.

Leaving Perth on 15 February 2008 after knocking off work early, I headed out with my brother along Great Eastern Highway. Near Carrabin we headed north in the dark past Westonia along the Warrachuppin Road. It was here I saw my first Mallee Fowl, which was resting in the middle of the road and it disappeared before I could get a decent photo.

Soon we arrived at Korda Southern Cross Road and headed east where we found a spot off the road were we camped.

The next morning, Saturday, we headed up past Bullfinch along the Evanston Road and back roads including the Mount Ida Road until Leonora.

Leonora, we got a paper, food and fuel and headed north east along the Nambi Road until Nambi, then north west I guess, until Melrose Station where we spoke to the Pastoral Lease Holder about our destination, who was much forthcoming with information to help us get there.

There are only two sources of information which provide clues to the whereabouts of the inscription. In Carnegies diary from 12/2/1895 there is a clue in the last two sentences. “The lake that blocked our further passage E we named Lake Misery & on the W banks steep sheer rock of sandstone we cut our initials”

There is also a map that I hand copied from an original photocopy of Carnegies diary in the Battye Library (pictured above).


These sandstone banks were the key to finding the inscription and it is easy to extrapolate the old map to new maps.

We stopped to have a look at Lake Darlot Cemetery before continuing.

Getting as close as 3 kms to the “sheer rocks” via tracks and fencelines we eventually had to travel off-track. We reached the lake to find only sandhills to the shore. We travelled parallel to the shore before eventually finding the “sheer rocks”. Carnegie had a habit of overstating the size of features he described and these cliffs were no exception.

We drove down the dune to a cleared flat section where we camped.

We looked briefly for the inscription in the vicinity and did not find it, but then settled down to watch the lightning storms as we had about a 180 degree view of the area and the most storms we counted at once was six.

In the morning we conducted two very thorough surveys of the rock faces and the top of the faces for any signs of the initials. The wall of sandstone was about 800 metres long. There were many areas which could have easily been inscribed.

We found what looked like a petrified tree trunk embedded into the face. This was not the only fossilised plant matter in the area. It is quite abundant really.

Despite two completely thorough searches (by two people working alongside) the inscription was not found. It may have been etched into a section of face which has since crumbled away, as many sections had. I suspect this one, may have gone to nature, but if anyone else wants to have a look- you’ll never find if you don’t look!!!

After lunch we left the Lake, as shown in the You-Tube video below (31 secs), and took off again and decided to go to Leinster to re-fuel.





At Leinster we decided more or less that as we had two more days to get to Perth we shall go back by way of Sandstone and Meeka. Our main objective was a failure, so we could play tourist now. That day we camped 8kms north of Sandstone off the main road about 200 metres where a drill rig was once positioned.

We arrived at Meeka on lunchtime the next day. Here I once again replaced my number plates as the rear one was missing. It took 15 minutes from first enquiry to having my new plates secured on the vehicle. In Perth it would have taken hours.

Fuelled up again we headed west where we stopped at Muggabullin Swamp.

Our goal was undefined but somewhat to the south west. We headed along Belele Mount Hale Road, Mileura Moutn Hale Road, and Mileura Nookawarra Road to Nookawarra. From there we went down the Beringarra Pindar Road then Meeberrie Wooleen Road until we reached the Murchison River.

The river was flowing and the marker was at 1.4 metres. We decided not to cross as we thought it was too dangerous. So we went further south to cut the river west of Twin Peaks. Here the river was only at 1.0 meters but was considerably wider than the crossing further north.

We camped 200 metres from the river right in the flood zone. In the morning noted that the river was now at 1.1 metres, 10 cm higher than last night.

There was no question of heading further south away from the river to Pindar then Mullewa. Through a dust storm we got to Mingenew then Three Springs, Coorow, Bindoon and back to Perth.

It was disappointing not to find the inscription but it was still a great 4 day trip.

Tags: 4WD, Camping, Places/Destinations
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