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Sixty-nine kilometres north of Everard Junction, an obscure track heads east from the Gary Highway*.  If you follow that obscure track to its end, approximately 30 kilometres away, you will come to a low, round pillar of conglomerate rock atop a spinifex covered, rocky knoll.  That low pillar of conglomerate is McPherson’s Pillar

The Pillar was named after a prospector, Gilles McPherson, by the explorer David Carnegie in 1896.  McPherson had essentially followed the tracks of an earlier explorer, Ernest Giles, across Western Australia and east to the Central Australian Telegraph Line.  Carnegie had cut the tracks of McPherson and his camels during his own explorations, and followed them for about 20 kilometres.

The Pillar, the top of which is only about 20 metres above the track, is the highest point for hundreds of square kilometres.  It affords panoramic, 360 degree views of the surrounding countryside, including the Alfred and Marie Range further to the east, and Nipper Pinnacle to the north east.  It is well worth the short scramble to the top of the Pillar just to enjoy the absolute emptiness that unfolds in .front of you.  It also drives home, in no uncertain manner, the bravery, skill, toughness and determination of those early explorers and prospectors, and the harshness of the terrain they were battling through.

The track is not difficult to find, (it’s clearly marked on the Hema maps), and is quite easy to follow.  The track is sandy, with a few stony and rocky patches, and is slightly overgrown in a few places.

About 12 kilometres from the start of the track there is a very interesting blaze on a ghost gum.  That blaze gives every indication of being a fairly recent removal of bark by local aboriginals to make a “coolamon”.

Exactly 1 kilometre before the end of the track there is a small sign attached to a tree.  The sign gives the direction and distance to the Pillar and to another nearby feature: Mulgan Rockhole.

Mulgan Rockhole is located at the end of a 2.3 kilometre track.  There are a few rocky sections to negotiate, particularly at the very end, but nothing too difficult.  About 30 metres off the track from the apex of the turning circle at its end, you will see a small, low sign on a star picket.  The Rockhole itself is just behind the sign, and is about a metre across.  It was full of reasonably good water, about a metre deep, at the time of our visit, with hordes of native bees and wasps competing for a drink.  The Rockhole was visited by David Carnegie on 1st September, 1896, but regrettably, he found it to be “filthy and smelling”.  Not even his camels would drink the foul smelling water

For such a short detour, McPhersons Pillar and Mulgan Rockhole are well worth a visit.
And you never know, nearby Lake Cohen could well make a great campsite, complete with a fantastic water view.