The objective was to explore the area east of the Hampton Plains but an unseasonal drought caused a great shortage of water and feed for the horses, and they were forced to abandon their plans and return to York.

In 1869, Windich was a member of John Forrest's first expedition, which searched without success for clues to the fate of the long-lost explorer Ludwig Leichhardt in the desert west of the site of the present-day town of Leonora.

This expedition discovered about 1,200 square kilometres (460 sq mi) of pastoral land, half of which was of fine quality, but also found water to be extremely scarce.

This expedition explored the watershed of the Murchison River, discovering much new pastoral land, then headed east through the uncharted centre of Western Australia, to the overland telegraph line from Darwin to Adelaide.

Early in 1876, Windich was working as a guide with the party constructing the overland telegraph line from Perth to Adelaide, when he caught a chill that became a serious illness.