Alexander ForrestPrint Page

The cairn commemorates the Western Australian explorer Sir Alexander Forrest who reached the Overland Telegraph Line near this point in 1879.  

In 1879, Alexander led his own expedition of eight men from De Grey River to the telegraph line into the area now known as the Kimberley. The expedition left on 25 February 1879 and reached Beagle Bay on 10 April 1879. The coast was then skirted to the Fitzroy River which was followed for 390 kilometres ; but Forrest's progress was then stopped by mountains which appeared to be impassable. He eventually worked round the southern end of the range and discovered some valuable country. Good water was found until the Victoria River was reached on 18 August 1879.  

Great difficulties were met with before reaching the telegraph line 13 days later.  Forrest and another member of expedition volunteered to go and find supplies and after many days they came upon the telegraph line, which they followed forty miles to Daly Waters. Men were sent out with supplies and waters to bring in the sick men and they cared for them until they were able to continue the expedition.  Without an outpost at Daly Waters the expedition would have perished, for it was in the `dry season` and few people knew that this could last for eight or nine months.

The two Aboriginal assistants were quite helpless for the last 480 kilometres of the journey, and one of them never recovered from its effects, dying a few months later. From there they made their way to Palmerston, then the capital of the Northern Territory, and they arrived on 7 October 1879.  The expedition ranks among the most valuable pieces of Australian exploration as large tracts of good pasturage were discovered. Forrest published his Journal of Expedition from De Grey to Port Darwin in Perth in 1880.

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