The Empress Traditional Cache
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Empress Spring is to be found in the Great Victoria Desert. Named by David Carnegie in honour of Queen Victoria in 1897 it is a fascinating source of water in a barren landscape.
David Carnegie undertook a journey by camel of almost a thousand miles of unexplored desert, His journey had three purposes: to look for gold; to search an area lying between paths of previous explorers; and to search for a stock route between the WA goldfields and the north of SA
When he arrived at Empress Springs, his water tanks contained only one gallon of water. His team of camels and 5 men had rationed themselves to a total of 5 gallons a day so it was clear that they would die if water were not found. Using a method common with all early explorers they coerced a local aboriginal man to show them where to find water. It is certain that they would never have found the spring otherwise.
The spring is underground, with entry through a hole in the roof of a cave. Carnegie used a rope to descend but today there is a steel rope ladder. Inside the cave you can see notched mulga trunks which were used in previous times. A number of passages radiate from the cave and, by going on elbows and knees through a narrow tunnel, water can be reached. The ceiling of the cave and tunnel are black with soot from the flaming torches used over centuries by the aboriginals. We also saw some bats in here.
The robust PVC cache is located at ground level some distance from the cave entrance. Three stones cover the cache. When Carnegie arrived he found three mounds of stones lined up pointing to the last waterhole he had visited. The cache contains swaps of writing equipment to recognise the mapping and writing done by Carnegie.
We came down the David Carnegie Track, 200km of tough 4WD road from the Gunbarrel Hwy. It was this route the locals took to join in the celebrations regularly held at the Mungilli Claypan located the intersection of the two roads. No roads then of course.
However a much easier way in is to drive up from the Great Central Rd, only about 40km. This section of track was graded and we saw a motor bike progressing, albeit very slowly, in the direction of the spring. The Great Central itself is a magnificent all weather road now and we saw a 2WD when enjoying a shower and a burger at Tjukayirla. We make no promises about the state of the road once it crosses into the NT – in 2008 it was terrible.
What happened to Carnegie? Prior to this trip he had owned some gold mines which he sold to finance his exploration. He returned to Scotland and wrote a book called “Spinifex and Sand” detailing his journey. He lobbied for membership of the Royal Society, at that stage headed by Edmund Halley and Isaac Newton and was eventually admitted. He then gained a post in Africa but one day when pursuing a local who had no doubt transgressed some white man’s law, he was shot and died. He was aged 29
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