Poison Rocks, historically known as Poison Rock, is a rock formation in

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. It is located at , 100 km south-east of

Mount Magnet Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, C ...

in the

Shire of Sandstone The Shire of Sandstone is a local government area in the eastern Mid West region of Western Australia, about northeast of the state capital, Perth. The Shire covers an area of , and its seat of government is the town of Sandstone. History Go ...

. The explorer Robert Austin named the place after camping there during his expedition of 1854. While he was there, nine of his horses died from eating poisonous plants, and he was forced to leave behind two more who were near death. In 1869,

John Forrest Sir John Forrest (22 August 1847 – 2 SeptemberSome sources give the date as 3 September 1918 1918) was an Australian explorer and politician. He was the first premier of Western Australia (1890–1901) and a long-serving cabinet minister i ...

led an expedition in search of the long lost explorer

Ludwig Leichhardt Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Leichhardt (), known as Ludwig Leichhardt, (23 October 1813 – c. 1848) was a German explorer and naturalist, most famous for his exploration of northern and central Australia.Ken Eastwood,'Cold case: Leichhardt's dis ...

. His party met a group of

Aboriginal Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to: *Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology * Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area *One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...

s who offered to take them to a place where the skeletons of many horses could be seen. Forrest travelled with the group for a week, until it became clear that he was being led to Poison Rocks. He then resumed his earlier course.

References

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Project Gutenberg
edition)

References

See also