McPhersons Pillar was named by explorer Hon.
David Wynford Carnegie after Gilles McPherson, a adventurous prospector.
Carnegie camped near the pillar on 1 September 1896.
It’s a thirty kilometre stretch into McPherson’s Pillar, a small prominence of
rock named by David
Carnegie on 1st September, 1896.
Mulgan Rockhole is a further six km round trip to the south of the Pillar. Mulgan was also found and named by
Carnegie as he passed through the area on his way north. The track was in good condition and we made good time, particularly in the first 20 kilometres which crossed wide spinifex plains. The last ten kilometres was through
woodlands, so the track twisted and turned through the deep red soil and thick mulga. In 2005 I pushed my way through thick scrub to reach
Mulgan Rockhole but several fires in the intervening period had cleaned that problem up substantially.
No doubt this extreme change in temperature, combined with the dry atmosphere and the tremendous heat of the sun, has caused the hills to be weathered away in the remarkable shapes of which McPherson's Pillar is a good example. The pillar is formed of a huge square block of
red rock, planted on the top of a conical mound, perhaps fifty feet in height, whose slopes are covered with broken slabs and boulders. This remarkable landmark, which, from the North, is visible from twenty-four
miles distant, I named after Mr. McPherson, a
well-known and respected prospector, who, though leaving no record of his journey, crossed the Colony from West to East.
Due West of the Pillar, distant two and a half
miles, situated in a scrub-covered rocky
gorge, is a fair-sized
rockhole. Breaden and Godfrey managed to get about two gallons of filth from it; I have swallowed all kinds of water, but this was really too powerful. Had we been hard pressed it would undoubtedly have been used, but since we had not long left water, we discarded this mixture, after trying it on Czar, whose indignation was great. In the branches of the mulga round
the rock-hole I noticed what I have seen in several other
places, viz., stones wedged in the forks—dozens of stones of all sizes and shapes. I have no knowledge of their true significance. - David
Carnegie – Spinifex and Sand 1897