During September and October, Charles went up to a platinum prospect in the Great Sandy Desert. This was
on the south-eastern boundary of the Rudall River National Park. The scene above is of some Toyota Landcruisers
out in the spinifex country between some dunes.
His father, Irwin Poynton, was a field assistant for his geologist father-in-law, G.Spencer Compton, during
an expedition into the area in 1954. Spencer Compton was the expedition leader, and was looking for
prospective oil country. What he found, he believed, was much more prospective for gold and minerals.
The landscape was particularly difficult for vehicles, as it comprised seemingly endless sand-dunes
five to ten metres high. It is also quite waterless and very hot, so horses were never practical in
the area either. The 1954 expedition had a hard time getting through the dunes, and took months to
cover a few hundred kilometres to the east of Balfour Downs station.
As expedition leader in unmapped territory, Spencer Compton went around naming features left, right and
centre. He named them after himself, his friends and his relatives. So a creek was called Poynton Creek.
And when reading a report on the area, there was mention of the Poynton Formation and a map showed the Poynton
Domain. Not every geologist gets to work on a formation with the same name as himself!
More scenes in the Great Sandy Desert ..
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