Lieutenant J S Roe, with party and guide Aboriginal, Bob explored east as far as Russell Range (discovered and named by Eyre), seeking minerals and pastoral land. He also named many features of the district.
Other in the expedition party were Messrs. H. Gregory and J.B. Ridley of the Surveyors-General’s Department, Privates Lee and Buck of the 96th Regiment and a native guide named Bob.
On this journey, J.S Roe named Mount Madden, Mount Short, Bremer Range, with the highest peak in the range name Mount Gordon. He named the Fitzgerald Peaks, Mount Charles, Mount Eleanora and Mount Ridley. The expedition came within fifteen miles of Point Malcolm where Roe recorded his impressions, of the north then to the south the mighty ocean and the islands of the Recherche Archipelago. He names Mount Howick one of the granite hills common to the area and also Mount Ney, after one of his horses.
The party camped fifteen miles north of Cape Legrand and found country north of Esperance Bay, and towards Cape Riche to be suitable for settlement. It was to be the longest and most celebrated of Lieutenant Roe’s journeys with Mount Merivale, Lort River, Young River, Mount Desmond, Eyre Range, Phillips River, Culham Inlet, Mount Bland and Fitzgerald River all being named. Apart from Eyre’s journey from Adelaide to Albany in 1841 Lieutenant J. S. Roe and his expedition were the first white men to have explored this area.
