Mount Unapproachable is an isolated

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited Summit (topography), summit area, and ...

in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

located in the locality of Petermann on the northern side of

Lake Neale Lake Neale (together with Lake Amadeus, Pitjantjatjara dialect, Pitjantjatjara: ''Pantu'' ("salt lakes")) is a salt lake in the southwest corner of the Northern Territory of Australia. It is on the north-western side of Lake Amadeus. The two lake ...

in the territory's southwest. It is about above sea level. The area is remote: the nearest towns are

Kaltukatjara Kaltukatjara , also known as Docker River, is a remote Indigenous Australian community in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is southwest of Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Alice Springs, west of the Stuart Highway, near the Western Aust ...

some away, Kintore some away and

Yulara Yulara is a town in the southern region of the Northern Territory, Australia. It lies as an unincorporated enclave within MacDonnell Region. At the , Yulara had a permanent population of 1,099, in an area of . It is by road from World Heritage ...

away. The mountain is mostly made of

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

. Unapproachable was named by the explorer

Ernest Giles William Ernest Powell Giles (20 July 1835 – 13 November 1897), best known as Ernest Giles, was an Australian explorer who led five major expeditions to parts of South Australia and Western Australia. Early life Ernest Giles was born in Bris ...

in 1872, whilst on an expedition across central Australia. He had just sighted and named

Lake Amadeus Lake Amadeus (together with Lake Neale, Pitjantjatjara: ''Pantu'' ("salt lakes")) is a large salt lake in the southwest corner of Northern Territory of Australia, about north of Uluru. The smaller Lake Neale is adjacent to the northwest. It ...

, and could see the mountain rising to the west. He hoped to find water at the mountain, but was unable to approach it, as his path was blocked by the lake. Giles in fact over-estimated the size of Lake Amadeus and missed the bridge of land between Amadeus and Lake Neale. In 1889, Giles' second-in-command,

William Tietkens William Harry Tietkens (30 August 1844 – 19 April 1933), known as "Harry Tietkens", explorer and naturalist, was born in England and emigrated to Australia in 1859. Tietkens was second in command to Ernest Giles on expeditions to Central Au ...

, returned on his own expedition to survey the area. In his journal, Tietkens wrote that he first travelled to the

Bloods Range Bloods Range (or Blood's Range) is a mountain range in central Australia, stretching roughly east to west across the border between the Northern Territory and Western Australia. It consists of several sets of hills, separated by valleys; the two ma ...

, to the south of Lakes Amadeus and Neale. He named the highest peaks

Mount Harris Mount Harris, also named Boundary Peak 156, is a mountain in Alaska and British Columbia, located on the Canada–United States border in the Takhinsha Mountains. In 1923 ''Boundary Peak 156'' was named Mount Harris in honour of D. R. Harris, a su ...

(for surveyor C. H. Harris) and Mount Carruthers. From the top of Mount Harris, he could see

Kata Tjuṯa Kata Tjuṯa / The Olgas (Pitjantjatjara: , lit. 'many heads'; ) is a group of large, domed rock formations or bornhardts located about southwest of Alice Springs, in the southern part of the Northern Territory, central Australia. Uluṟu / Aye ...

, the Petermann Ranges and the

Tomkinson Ranges The Tomkinson Ranges is a mountain range in the northwest corner of South Australia. The range consists of sandstone hills, surrounded by spinifex grasslands. The range was named after politician Samuel Tomkinson (1816–1900) by the explorer W ...

. Tietkens then travelled eastward for three days, and reached Lake Amadeus. At the western end of the lake and on the north shore, he described a sandstone range, which he named Long's Range after his brother-in-law. He climbed a nearby set of hills, and identified Mount Unapproachable as the westernmost peak of the Long's Range. He reported that his team reached Unapproachable around the middle of June and then spent several days travelling around the western edge of Lake Amadeus. He corrected Giles' earlier mistake and successfully mapped the lake's western shore. Another team of surveyors visited the area in 1926, led by Donald Mackay and

Herbert Basedow Herbert Basedow (27 October 1881 – 4 June 1933) was an Australian anthropologist, geologist, politician, explorer and medical practitioner. Basedow was born in Kent Town, South Australia. His early education was in Adelaide, South Australia ...

. On 1 July, they climbed a hill that, after comparing his own observations with those of Giles and Tietkens, Basedow identified as both Mount Unapproachable and Mount Harris. Basedow concluded that this hill was the Mount Unapproachable that Giles had described, and that Tietkens had mistakenly renamed it Mount Harris. On modern maps, however, Mount Harris and Mount Carruthers are indeed the names given to two peaks in the Bloods Range.

References

{{reflist, 2, refs= {{cite journal, author=Knibbs, G. H., title=Official Year Book of the Commonwealth of Australia, volume=3, year=1910, publisher=Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics (

Australian Bureau of Statistics The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is the independent statutory agency of the Australian Government responsible for statistical collection and analysis and for giving evidence-based advice to federal, state and territory governments ...

), location=Melbourne, page=68, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5Uy20CDWknwC&pg=PA68 {{cite journal, title=Geographical Notes, journal=

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

, date=3 October 1889, volume=40, issue=1040, doi=10.1038/040551a0, page=551, doi-access=free {{cite news, title=Mr. Tietkens's Explorations, url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article90872440, newspaper=The South Australian Chronicle, date=9 November 1889, author=Geographical Society of Australasia, location=Adelaide, page=5 {{cite news, title=Man Who Climbed Mt. Unapproachable, url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59387450, newspaper=The Mail, location=Adelaide, date=22 April 1933, page=2 {{citation, location=Adelaide, author1=Basedow, Herbert, author2=Mackay, Donald , title=The Mackay Exploring Expedition, Central Australia, 1926: Mt Unapproachable or Mt Harris?, journal=The Geographical Journal, volume=73, issue=3, date=March 1929, pages=258–265, publisher=

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

, jstor=1784720, doi=10.2307/1784720 {{cite news, title=A noted explorer: interview with Mr. W. H. Tietkens, newspaper=The Advertiser, date=2 August 1912, location=Adelaide, page=9, url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5318369 {{citation, author=Tietkens, Williams H., title=Journal of the Central Australian Exploring Expedition, publisher=C. E. Bristow, Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, year=1891, page=50, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8wZBAAAAMAAJ {{cite book, author=Appleton, D. , title=Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events, volume=15, publisher=Carl Sandburg Collections, year=1891, page=359, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dEYoAAAAMAAJ {{cite book, title=Scottish Geographical Magazine, year=1897, publisher=Royal Scottish Geographical Society, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aY1IAAAAYAAJ, page=416, volume=13 {{cite book, title=The Discovery and Exploration of Australia, year=1970, publisher=Thomas Nelson, author1=Feeken, Erwin H. J., author2=Feeken, Gerda E. E., editor=Spata, O. H. K. , page=191, isbn=9780170018128 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tzs8AAAAMAAJ Unapproachable

See also

References