Relief Expeditions 1861-2.
Several Relief Expeditions were mounted during 1861-2 and these found traces of the Burke and Wills Expedition.

Alfred Howitt found the bodies of Burke and Wills and discovered the sole survivor, John King. He dug up their note-books and maps at the Dig Tree and returned them to Melbourne. He marked and mapped Wills' grave, Burke's grave and the Dig Tree, as well as identifying several of Burke's camps between Menindee and the Cooper.
Dig Tree

John McKinlay also visited the graves of Burke and Wills and added his blaze to that of Howitts at Burke's grave. He also discovered a body he believed to be that of Charley Gray at Lake Massacre.

Frederick Walker discovered traces of the Expedition at the Flinders River and located the most northerly camp, Camp 119. He blazed a tree here and mapped the site.
Camp 119

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Retracing the Expedition since 1862.
There have been a number of attempts to retrace the explorers' tracks since the expedition crossed the country in 1860-1.

On 19th December 1892, George Ernest Morrison ('Chinese Morrison') left Normanton and roughly followed Burke & Wills' track to the Cooper and then onto Melbourne arriving on the 21st April 1893. His story of the walk, which he described as 'no feat of endurance - only a pleasant excursion' was published in The [Melbourne] Age.

In February 1915, the outback adventurer George Birtles and his bulldog 'Wowser' left Sydney and spent six months crossing Australia in a Ford motor-car. Birtles had already crossed the country several times by motor-car and bicycle, but on this occasion he was accompanied by a cameraman and Birtles made a film of his six month trip. The film titled 'Across Australia - On the Tracks of Burke and Wills', was released by The Co-Operative Film Exchange Ltd of Melbourne and opened at Melbourne’s Hoyt’s Olympia Theatre on Christmas Day 1915. In 1909 Mr R T Graham, manager of Magowra Station, reported finding blazed trees on his property. The trees were 22 miles south-west from Normanton on the east bank of the Little Bynoe River. A special meeting of the council of the Royal Geographical Society of Australia (Queensland Branch), was held on Thursday 23rd September 1909 and they elected to verify and photograph the trees and establish the position of the camp. A party consisting of RGSA (Qld) Secretary, Dr James Park Thomas, Vice-President George Phillips and Surveyor-General, Mr A A Spowers, took the train from Brisbane to Gladstone, the SS Maranoa to Townsville and then the SS Kuranda to Cairns. They traveled overland to Normanton by coach and rail and then horse-buggy to Magowra. The site on the eastern bank of the Little Bynoe River was surveyed, photographed and mapped. Burke's Camp 119 and Frederick Walker's camp of January 1862 was relocated. Camp 119

Queensland grazier, Alfred Towner of 'Russleigh' Station near Longreach spent considerable time retracing the expedition from the 1940s to his death in 1963. Although his diary and notes have never been published, he marked the track by erecting a number of signs and memorial markers. Towner blazed a tree in the bed of Coopers Creek at the place he believed Wills had died and subsequently Mike Steel, Joe Mack and Eric Loffler placed a memorial cairn at the site. Towner also erected a sign at Lake Massacre close to where he believed Charley Gray had died.

In 1979 Tom Bergin and Paddy McHugh took camels from Coopers Creek to the Gulf of Carpentaria to establish if travel during the summer months had proved detrimental to Burke's progress. ABC TV made a documentary and Bergin produced two books about the expedition.

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Recent discoveries.
In 1983 Roger Collier and the Lake Massacre Expedition identified a tree near Towner's sign which they believed marked Gray's Grave. David Corke disputes this site and believes Gray was buried further to the west near Amagoorannie. The site is heritage listed on the Register of the National Estate. In 2006 it was proposed to remove heritage listing and Roger Collier succesfully petitioned the DEH (SA) to keep the site protected.

In 1982 Graeme Wheeler identified a blazed tree on Bulloo Downs Station which he believes marked Burke's Camp LII.

• "Rendezvous at Camp 52 with Burke and Wills", Graham Wheeler, Geo: Australia’s Geographical Magazine.
  1987, Volume 9, Number 2, June-August.

During the 1980s David Corke and students and teachers from Preshil School identified a number of blazes marking Burke's camps from the Cooper to the Diamantina. Corke also replotted the site of Wills' death and an additional memorial cairn was erected by Joe Mack at the revised location.

• Beyond the Cooper: Burke and Wills, some missing links. Gabriel White & Martin Meyer.
  1992, Preshil Camping Club, Kew. ISBN 0646109472.

In 1995 Chris Tangey discovered artifacts which could have been deposited by Wills on the return from the Gulf at Camp 32R.

• "Searching for Burke and Wills", Daphne Sider & Chris Tangey, The Melbourne Age.
  9th December 1995, Travel Supplement, p. 9.

In 2000 David Hillan surveyed the area to the north of Camp 119 and identified the most northerly point Burke reached. In addition, Hillan erected a marker at Burke's most northerly camp (Camp 120) and relocated Frederick Walker's camp of January 1862.

• "Burke and Wills: The Gulf Team", Anthony Hoy & David Hillan, The Bulletin.
  Volume 118, No. 6210, 8th February 2000. pp. 50-53.

In 2001 Richard Cork rediscovered the sandstone cave where Burke, Wills, Gray and King sheltered from wet season storms on their return from the Gulf of Carpentaria.

• "The Search for the Sandstone Cave", Richard Cork, Gary Fischer & Wayne Walker.
  The Inaugural Burke & Wills Outback Conference : Cloncurry 2003 : a collation of presentations.
  2005, Dave Phoenix, Cairns. pp. 21-38. ISBN 0646447025.

Currently several members of 'The Burke and Wills Historical Society' are actively pursuing field studies relating to the track of the expedition.

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