Carnegie expedition
The Carnegie Expedition , led by David Carnegie (1871-1900), began in 1896 and led through previously unknown areas of the Gibson Desert and Great Sand Desert in central Western Australia .
Expedition course
The expedition started with Carnegie with other people, including Joseph Breaden with his servant Warri, an Aboriginal , Godfrey Massie and Charles Stansmore. The expedition had eight pack camels , one riding camel and provisions for five months.
The expedition started in Coolgardie in Western Australia on July 9, 1896 and led them about 1200 kilometers until they reached their destination in Halls Creek on December 4, 1896 . In the first stage, they covered 451 kilometers to Mount Worsnop. Then the expedition ran out of drinking water and they kidnapped Aborigines, gave them salt or salty meat to eat and thus forced them to show them thirsty ways to their billabongs . From Mount Worsnop on the expedition went through the Gibson Desert and on September 16, after 595 kilometers, it reached the Great Sand Desert. Their way led them through hilly Spinifex - and over flat sandstone areas . On November 16, the camels ate poisonous plants, and three of them died. Standsmore was also killed when a shot went off from a rifle.
When the expedition arrived at Halls Creek in December, they learned that the Calvert Expedition was missing two men. Since this expedition had moved about 160 kilometers west of the route of the Carnegie expedition, Carnegie offered help with the search for missing persons and also formulated a rescue plan. But the decision about it was postponed by the departments responsible for the rescue and the disappointed expedition members had to persevere on site. After three weeks, Calvert withdrew his offer, assuming that the missing could not have been recovered alive after that time. The Carnegie expedition had to wait another 15 weeks before starting their return journey.
On their return trip, they had only three horses to replace the three lost camels. These made progress difficult because the horses have a correspondingly large amount of water and they had to look for springs. The return journey of the four expedition members began on March 22, 1897, and after a distance of 4,828 kilometers they reached their starting point in Coolgardie again in August 1897.
Evaluation of the expedition
The expedition participants hoped for gold discoveries and the discovery of a route for the cattle drive from Coolgardie into the Kimberleys , from which the expedition participants hoped for high income. In this sense, however, the expedition result was disappointing. Carnegie was included in the ranks of the great explorers of Australia, but was then forgotten. However, when an accurate map of the route that Carnegie had laid out was found in 2004 and it was auctioned for A $ 135,000 , his accomplishment came to light again with the Australian public.
literature
- Carnegie, David W. (1898). Spinifex and Sand. London: C. Arthur Pearson, reprinted in 1989 by Hesperian Press, Victoria Park, Western Australia. ISBN 0-85905-139-0
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Patricia Morison: Carnegie, David Wynford (1871-1900) . In: Australian Dictionary of Biography, 1979
- ↑ David W. Carnegie: Spinifex and Sand . In: Gutenberg, undated
- ↑ David Wynford Carnegie . In: Monument Australia, undated, accessed April 4, 2020
- ^ The explorer time forgot . In: Sydney Morning Herald, April 21, 2004