Empress Spring was named by Explorer David Wynford Carnegie as “a humble tribute to the world-wide rejoicings over the long reign of our Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria.” David Carnegie was shown this water hole by local aborigines on his exploratory travels in 1896. Carnegie and his companions arrived at the spring, guided by a captive aboriginal on 10 October 1896 after many days without finding water. Here they stayed until the morning of 16 October 1896.

Empress Spring is a large underground cavern in a flat area of rock. It has a chain ladder that allows you to descend about 10 metres to the cave floor. The cave roof was blackened and is almost tar like in places by aboriginal fires lit over thousands of years. Off to the east corner of the main cave is a very small tunnel that goes even deeper and leads down to two very small caverns. One needs to be small to wriggle down on all fours down a tunnel another 15 metres to a sandy base, where you dig down to water. Don't forget a torch because it is very dark and there are snakes.

Empress Spring is accessible from either the Gunbarrel Highway to the north or the Great Central Road to the south. J. Rowlands and his wife rediscovered Empress Spring in the late 1960’s. The aboriginal name for the spring, as told by the captive aboriginal is “Murcoolia Ayah Teenyah.”

Look closely on the rocks a few metres from the cave entrance, a faint “PM”, initials of dogger Peter Muir, can be found chiselled into the rock surface.

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Closest Weather Station

Temperature	Feels Like	Rel. Humidity	Dew Point	Pressure	Rainfall	Wind Direction	Wind Speed	Gusts
30.6°C	-°C	-%	-°C	-hPa	Tracemm	CALM	0km/h 0knots	-km/h -knots

Closest Climatic Station

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Mean Max. °C	38.3	36.8	33.8	29.8	25.2	21.1	21.1	23.6	28.6	32.5	35.4	37.2
Mean Min. °C	23.3	22.8	20.0	16.1	10.9	7.0	5.7	7.3	11.8	16.2	19.3	22.1
Mean Rain mm	28.8	53.1	32.7	22.1	16.7	15.0	12.5	7.6	3.5	4.8	11.0	23.8