At the time nobody knew what the centre of the western part of
the continent was like. Waterholes were few and far between and
had to be found by watching the behaviour of wildlife. The group
survived two particularly severe Aboriginal attacks. It is now
thought they may have camped on sacred ground to provoke such
attacks. They suffered shortages of water and food and even
scurvy. Before he had even reached his 21st birthday, Forrest
was appointed leader of an expedition to search for traces of
Ludwig Leichhardt who had disappeared 21 years earlier.| One
year later, he led an expedition from Perth to Adelaide across
the Great Australian Bight. Forrest had nothing good to say
about the waterless country they travelled through and the
expedition had few practical results. Only a small amount of
arable land was found. Then in March, 1874 he successfully led
an expedition from Champion Bay across the Carnarvon Range and
the Gibson Desert to the Overland Telegraph line. At one stage,
1500 kilometres from the near