Mick and I, in May 2019 on our first Beadell tour for the year, visited Queen Victoria Spring.
We found that extensive bush fires last summer had burnt out millions of acres of bush land to the south east of Laverton, WA, including around the Spring.
Queen Victoria Spring was named by Ernest Giles in September 1875 after enduring 17 days without water on his first successful east-west crossing. He found it full of lifesaving water but the Elder Expedition in 1891 was not so
fortunate. The party arrived expecting to find a spring but instead found it dry. They dug to water but it was hard work having also just endured 21 days without water for themselves and their Camels.
These 2 Grass Trees have stood either side of the track south of the Spring for many years and we were sad but not surprised to find one of the old Sentinels lying on the ground after the recent fires. We hope it will re-shoot from what remains in the sand but time will tell. Elsewhere other hardy Grass Trees are also standing proud, a sign of life in amongst the blackened scrub except for the newest of regrowth waiting for rain, signalling the beginning of yet another cycle of nature.
by Connie Sue Beadell
May 2019.