Poison Rocks, historically known as Poison Rock, is a rock formation in

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. It is located at , 100 km south-east of

Mount Magnet Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, ...

in the Shire of Sandstone. The explorer Robert Austin named the place after camping there during his expedition of 1854. While he was there, nine of his horses died from eating poisonous plants, and he was forced to leave behind two more who were near death.The

Trove Trove is an Australian online library database owned by the National Library of Australia in which it holds partnerships with source providers National and State Libraries Australia, an aggregator and service which includes full text documen ...

and NLA entries have note/description identifying the event "then north to Poison Rock where the party lost several horses to poisonous plants". Also available online http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-231432143 In 1869,

John Forrest Sir John Forrest (22 August 1847 – 2 SeptemberSome sources give the date as 3 September 1918 1918) was an Australian explorer and politician. He was the first premier of Western Australia (1890–1901) and a long-serving cabinet minister in ...

led an expedition in search of the long lost explorer

Ludwig Leichhardt Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Leichhardt (; 23 October 1813 – ), known as Ludwig Leichhardt, was a German explorer and naturalist, most famous for his exploration of northern and central Australia.Ken Eastwood,'Cold case: Leichhardt's disappearanc ...

. His party met a group of

Aboriginal people There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

who offered to take them to a place where the skeletons of many horses could be seen. Forrest travelled with the group for a week, until it became clear that he was being led to Poison Rocks. He then resumed his earlier course.

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