Wells was selected to lead the Calvert Exploring Expedition of seven men and twenty camels, which left Lake Way, near present-day Wiluna, on 16 July 1896, and headed northeast into uncharted country.

nephew of David Lindsay) would make a 'flying trip' to the west, and then rendezvous with the main party at Warburton's Joanna Spring, some 300 km further north.

Low on water and unable to locate Joanna Spring, innocently mismapped by Warburton, they made a desperate dash for the Fitzroy River.

Their sun dried bodies were finally found on 27 May 1897, 26 km south west of Joanna Spring, after five search expeditions by Larry Wells.

Returning to the Surveyor General's Office, Wells spent three years till September 1908 on a trigonometrical survey in the north west of the N.T.