On the 11th of October they arrived at Laidley's Ponds.

This was the place from which Sturt intended to leave the Darling for the interior, and where he expected to find, from the account given him by the natives, a fair-sized creek heading from a low range, visible at a distance to the north-west.

But he found the stream to be a mere surface channel, distributing the flood water of the Darling into some shallow lakes about seven or eight miles distant.
Sturt despatched Poole and Stuart to this range to see if they could obtain a glimpse of the country beyond to the north-west.
They returned with the rather startling intelligence that, from the top of a peak of the range, Poole had seen a large lake studded with islands.
Although in his published journal, written some time after his return, Sturt makes light of Poole's fancied lake, which of course was the effect of a mirage, at that time his ardent fancy, and the extreme likelihood of the existence of a lake in that locality, made him believe that he was on the eve of an important discovery.

In a letter to Mr.Morphett of Adelaide, he wrote:-- "Poole has just returned from the range.

I have not time to write over again.