The South Australian Government mounted its own rescue mission for Burke and Wills, The South Australian Burke Relief Expedition (SABRE).

The party left Adelaide on 14 August for Blanchewater, then Lake Perigundi. They established a Depôt at Lake Buchanan (Lake Coogicooginna).

On 18 October 1861 McKinlay left two men at the Depôt and took his second in command Hodgkinson, Middleton and an Aboriginal tracker called Bulangi to Lake Kadhi-berri. On 20 October at Polygonum Swamp, they found the remains of a white man believed to be Charley Gray. McKinlay found the remains of another partially empty grave and believed the entire VEE had been killed here so called the place Lake Massacre. He blazed a tree here before returning to the Lake Buchanan Depôt. McKinlay sent Hodgkinson and three others back to Adelaide to report on the discoveries.

When they returned on 2 December, McKinlay took two men and two aborigines to the Cooper to see if Howitt had arrived. They arrived at the Cooper on 6th December and found Burkes grave, Wills grave and Howitt's abandoned camp, so returned to Lake Perigundi.

On 17 December they left to explore the lakes region around Lake Moolionburinna. McKinlay named Lake Hodgkinson and on New Years Eve 1861 he named Lake Blanche and Lake Sir Richard after the Governor of South Australia and his wife.