Chambers Pillar was formed from sandstone deposited and worn down over 350 million years. It was an important landmark guiding the region’s earliest pioneers on their way from Adelaide to Alice Springs. John MacDouall Stuart first recorded the pillar in 1860 and named it after James Chambers, one of his South Australian sponsors.
The local Aboriginal people believe that the pillar is the Gecko ancestor Itirkawara. Banished for taking a wife from the wrong skin group, he retreated into the desert. When they stopped to rest they turned into prominent rocky formations – Itirkawara into the pillar, and the woman into Castle Rock, 500m to the north-east.
Located 160 kilometres South of Alice Springs, in the Simpson Desert. 50 Metres in height.