This lake afterwards played an important part in the history of South Australian settlement under the name of Lake Torrens.
Eyre's party on his westward trip consisted of an overseer, three men, and two natives.

Twenty days after leaving Port Lincoln, they arrived at Streaky Bay, not having crossed a single stream, rivulet, or chain of ponds the whole distance of nearly three hundred miles.

Three small springs only had been found, and the country was covered with the gloomy mallee and tea-tree scrub.

Westward of Streaky Bay the country was still found to be scrubby; so Eyre formed a camp, and taking only a black boy with him, he forced a stubborn way onward, until he was within nearly fifty miles of the western border of South Australia.

To all appearance the country was slightly more elevated than the level scrubby flats he had been traversing, but there was neither grass nor water, and an immediate return became necessary.