Contents
* 1 Beginning
* 2 Exploration Committee
* 3 Camels
* 4 Members of the Exploration Committee
* 5 Departure
* 6 Cooper Creek
* 7 The Gulf of Carpentaria
* 8 Return to Cooper Creek
* 9 The Dig Tree
* 10 Burke, Wills and King alone at Cooper Creek
* 11 Death
* 12 Cause of Death
* 13 Cooper Creek summary
* 14 Deaths on the Victorian Exploring Expedition
* 15 Afterwards
* 16 See also
* 17 References
* 18 Further reading
* 19 External links

In 1860-61 Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills led an expedition of 19 men with the intention of crossing Australia from Melbourne in the south to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north, a distance of around 3,250 kilometres (≈2,000 miles). At that time most of the inland of Australia had not been explored by non-indigenous people and was completely unknown to the European settlers.

The south-north leg was successfully completed (except they were stopped by swampland 5 kilometres (3 miles) from the northern coastline) but owing to poor leadership and bad luck, both of the expedition's leaders died on the return journey. Altogether, seven men lost their lives, and only one man, John King, travelled the entire expedition and returned alive to Melbourne.

Beginning
Gold was discovered in Victoria in 1851 and the subsequent gold rush led to a huge influx of migrants. The colony became fantastically wealthy and Melbourne grew rapidly to become Australia's largest city and the second largest city of the British Empire. The boom lasted forty years and ushered in the era known as "marvellous Melbourne". The influx of educated gold seekers from England, Ireland and Germany led to rapid growth of schools, churches, learned societies, libraries and art galleries. The University of Melbourne was founded in 1855 and the State Library of Victoria in 1856. The Philosophical Institute of Victoria was founded in 1854 and became the Royal Society of Victoria after receiving a Royal Charter in 1859.
[edit] Exploration Committee

Exploration Committee
In 1857 the Philosophical Institute formed an Exploration Committee with the aim of investigating the practicability of fitting out an exploring expedition.[1] While interest in inland exploration was strong in the neighbouring colonies of New South Wales and South Australia, in Victoria enthusiasm was limited. Even the anonymous donation of £1,000 to the Fund Raising Committee of the Royal Society failed to generate much interest and it was 1860 before sufficient money was raised and the expedition was assembled.[2]

The Exploration Committee called for offers of interest for a leader for the Victorian Exploring Expedition. Only two members of the Committee, Ferdinand von Mueller and Wilhelm Blandowski, had any experience in exploration but due to factionalism both were consistently outvoted. Several people were considered for the post of leader and the Society held a range of meetings in early 1860.[3] Burke was selected by committee ballot as the leader, and Wills was recommended as surveyor, navigator and third-in-command.[4] Burke had no experience in exploration and it is strange that he was chosen to lead the expedition. Burke was an Irish-born ex-officer with the Austrian army, and later became police superintendent with virtually no skills in bushcraft. Wills was more adept than Burke at living in the wilderness, but it was Burke's leadership that was especially detrimental to the mission.

Rather than take cattle to be slaughtered during the trip the Committee decided to experiment with dried meat instead. The extra weight required three extra wagons and was to slow the expedition down significantly.[4]

Camels
Camels had been used successfully in desert exploration in other parts of the world, but by 1859 only seven camels had been imported into Australia.
Further information: Australian feral camel

The Victorian Government appointed George James Landells to purchase 24 camels in India for use in desert exploration[5]. The camels arrived in Melbourne in June 1860 and the Exploration Committee purchased an additional six camels from George Coppin's Cremorne Gardens. The camels were initially housed in the stables at Parliament House and later moved to Royal Park. Twenty-six camels were taken on the expedition, with six camels (two females with their two young calves and two male camels) being left in Royal Park.

Members of the Exploration Committee
The Exploration Committee of the Royal Society of Victoria included the following prominent Victorians;

* Sir William Foster Stawell, Chief Justice of Victoria,
* Dr David Elliott Wilkie MD., Treasurer.
* Dr John Macadam, Honorary Secretary.
* Professor Georg Neumayer,
* Dr Ferdinand von Mueller, Government Botaninst,
* Sir Frederick McCoy, Melbourne University's first professor,
* The Hon. Captain Andrew Clarke,
* Dr Richard Eades, Mayor of Melbourne,
* Charles Whybrow Ligar, Government Surveyor General,
* The Hon Sir Francis Murphy, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly,
* Lieutenant John Randall Pascoe, JP.,
* Captain Francis Cadell,
* Alfred Selwyn Esq., Government Geologist,
* Reverend Father Dr John Ignatius Bleasdale,
* Clement Hodgkinson Esq,
* Dr J William McKenna,
* Mr Edward Wilson, Editor of the Argus,
* Dr William Gilbee,
* Sizar Elliott Esq,
* Dr Solomon Iffla,
* Angus McMillan Esq,
* James Smith Esq,
* John Watson Esq.

Departure
The expedition set off from Royal Park, Melbourne at about 4pm on August 20, 1860 watched by around 15,000 spectators. The 19 men of the expedition included five Englishmen, four Indian sepoys, three Germans and an American. They took 23 horses, six wagons and 27 camels imported from India especially for the mission.

There was an enormous amount of equipment; 6 tonnes of firewood, enough food to last two years, a cedar-topped oak camp table with two chairs, rockets, flags and a Chinese gong; the equipment all together weighed as much as 20 tonnes. Burke decided not to take up Captain Francis Cadell's offer to transport the supplies to Adelaide by ship and up the Murray and Darling Rivers and everything was loaded onto the six wagons. One wagon broke down before it had even left Royal Park and by midnight of the first day the expedition had only reached Essendon on the edge of Melbourne. At Essendon two more wagons broke down. Heavy rains and bad roads made travelling through Victoria difficult and time-consuming. They reached Swan Hill on September 6, and arrived in Balranald on September 15. There they left behind some equipment and a few men. At Gambala on September 24, Burke decided to load some of the provisions onto the camels for the first time, meaning that the men would have to walk the rest of the way. At Bilbarka during the first week of October, Burke and his second-in-command, Landells, argued after Burke decided to dump the 60 gallons (≈270 litres) of rum that Landells had brought to feed to the camels. At Kinchega on the Darling, Landells resigned from the expedition, followed by the expedition's surgeon, Dr Hermann Beckler. Third-in-command Wills was promoted to second-in-command.

In July 1859 the South Australian government offered a reward of £2000 (about A$230,000 in 2003 dollars) for the first successful south-north crossing of the continent west of the 143rd line of longitude. The experienced explorer John McDouall Stuart had taken up the challenge. Burke was concerned Stuart might beat him to the north coast and he soon grew impatient with their slow progress. When they reached Menindee on October 12, Burke split the group, taking eight men including himself and a smaller amount of equipment, with plans to push on quickly to Coopers Creek and then wait for the others to catch up. They left Menindee on October 19, guided by William Wright who was appointed third-in-command. At Torowotto Swamp Wright returned to Menindee to bring up the remainder of the men and supplies and Burke continued on to Coopers Creek.

Coopers Creek
In 1860 Coopers Creek was the edge of the land that had been explored by Europeans; the river having been visited by Captain Charles Sturt in 1845 and Augustus Charles Gregory in 1858. Burke arrived at the Cooper on November 11 and they formed a depôt at Camp LXIII (Camp 63) while they conducted reconnaissance to the north. A plague of rats forced the men to move camp and they formed a second depôt further downstream at Bullah Bullah Waterhole. This was Camp LXV (Camp 65) and they erected a stockade and named the place Fort Wills.

It was thought that Burke would wait at Coopers Creek until Autumn (March the next year) so they would avoid having to travel during the hot Australian summer. However, Burke only waited until December 16, before deciding to make a dash for the Gulf of Carpentaria. He split the group again, leaving William Brahe in charge of the Depôt, with Dost Mahomet, William Patton and Thomas McDonough. Burke, Wills, John King and Charles Gray set off for the Gulf with six camels, one horse and enough food for just three months.

The Gulf of Carpentaria
On February 9, 1861 they reached the Little Bynoe River, an arm of the Flinders River delta. They could not reach the ocean because of the swamps in their way. Burke and Wills left the camels behind with King and Gray at Camp CXIX (Camp 119), and set off through the swamps, although after 15 miles (24 km) they decided to turn back. They were by this stage desperately short of supplies. They had food for 5 weeks, but it would take 10 weeks to get back to Coopers Creek. They turned back.

On their way north, the weather had been hot and dry, but on the way back the wet season broke and the tropical monsoonal rains began. A camel named Golah Sing was abandoned on March 4 when it was unable to contine. Three other camels were shot and eaten along the way and they shot their only horse, Billy, on April 10 on the Diamantina River, south of today's town of Birdsville. Equipment was abandoned at a number of locations as the number of pack animals was reduced. One of these locations, Return Camp 32 was relocated in 1994 and The Burke and Wills Historical Society mounted an expedition to verify the discovery of camel bones in 2005.

Gray fell ill, but the others thought he was gammoning (pretending). On March 25, on the Burke River near today's town of Boulia, Gray was caught stealing skilligolee (a type of watery porridge) and Burke beat him. Gray died on April 17 of dysentery at a place they called Polygonum Swamp. The location of Gray's death is unknown, although it is generally believed to be Lake Massacre in South Australia. While the possibility that Burke killed Gray has been discounted, the severity of the beating Burke gave has been widely debated. The three surviving men stopped for a day to bury Gray, and to recover their strength – they were by this stage very weak from hunger and exhaustion. They finally reached Coopers Creek on April 21, only to find the camp abandoned.

Meanwhile the other mission led by William Wright was having terrible problems of its own. He was supposed to bring supplies up from Menindee to Coopers Creek, but a lack of money and too few pack animals to carry the supplies meant he had not set out until the end of January. Wright's delay subsequently resulted in him being blamed for the deaths of Burke and Wills. (An in-depth study of Wright's action formed a part of Dr Tom Bergin's 1982 MA Thesis at the University of New England.) The hot weather and lack of water meant the party moved incredibly slowly, they were harassed by the Bandjigali and Karenggapa Murris, and three of the men, Dr Ludwig Becker, Charles Stone and William Purcell, died from malnutrition on the trip. On his way north, Wright camped at Koorliatto Waterhole on the Bulloo River while he tried to find Burke's tracks to Coopers Creek. While he was there he met Brahe who was on his way back from the Cooper to Menindee.

Return to Cooper's Creek
Burke had asked Brahe and the depôt party to remain at the depôt camp on the Cooper for three months. The depôt party actually waited for over four months, but by then they were then running low on supplies and starting to feel the effects of scurvy and they believed Burke would not be returning from the Gulf. Brahe decided to leave Coopers Creek and return to Menindee, but before he left he buried some provisions in case Burke did return and he blazed (cut or carved) a message on a tree to mark the spot.

The day that Brahe decided to leave the depôt was Sunday 21st April 1861. The evening of the same day was when Burke, Wills and King arrived back at Coopers Creek. Finding the depôt camp deserted, they dug up the cache of supplies, and a letter explaining that the party had given up waiting and had left only that morning. Burke's team had missed them by only 9 hours. The three men and two remaining camels were exhausted; they had no hope of catching up to the main party.

They decided to rest and recuperate, living off the supplies which had been left in the cache, before making an attempt to reach the furthest outposts of pastoral settlement in South Australia, at Mount Hopeless>. This would mean travelling southwest through the desert for 150 miles (240 km). They wrote a letter explaining their intentions and reburied it in the cache under the marked tree in case a rescue party visited the area. They did not change the mark on the tree or alter the date. On April 23 they set out into the Strzelecki Desert towards Mt Hopeless in an attempt to effect their own rescue.

Meanwhile, while returning to Menindee, Brahe had met with Wright trying to reach the Cooper with the supplies. The two men decided to go back to the depôt camp on the Cooper and check to see if Burke had returned. When they arrived on May 8, Burke had already left for Mt Hopeless and the camp was again deserted. Burke and Wills were 35 miles (56 km) away at this point. As the mark on the tree was unchanged, Brahe and Wright assumed that Burke had not returned, and did not think to check to see if the supplies were still buried. They left to rejoin the main party and return to Menindee.

The exact inscription that Brahe carved is not known. It is variously recalled to be "DIG under" or "DIG 3 FEET N.W." or "DIG 40 FEET N.E." or a combination of these. The dates blazed indicated the date of arrival and the date of departure "Dec 6-60" carved over "Apr 21-61". The camp number was also cut into the tree, "B" over "LXV". As a result of the blaze on the tree and partly as a result of the popularity of the book "Dig" written in 1935 by Frank Clune, the tree is now known as The Dig Tree.

Cooper's Creek summary
11 November 1860. Burke, Wills, King, Gray, Brahe, Mahomet, Patton and McDonough make their first camp on the Cooper, Camp LVII (Camp 57).

Wills returned to the Dig Tree to put his diary, notebook and journals in the cache for safekeeping. Burke bitterly criticised Brahe in his journal for not leaving behind any supplies or animals.

Burke died at the end of June 1861. The exact date is unknown, but has generally been accepted to be June 28, 1861. King buried Burke's body and returned to Wills, but found that he was already dead. He found a tribe of Yandruwandha willing to give him food and shelter.

In Melbourne, several rescue parties had been mounted. John McKinlay led the South Australian Burke Relief Expedition, William Landsborough led the Queensland Relief Expedition, Captain William Henry Norman sailed the HMCS Victoria to the Albert River on the Gulf of Carpentaria, >Frederick Walker led the Victorian Relief Expedition and Alfred William Howitt set off from Melbourne for Coopers Creek.

Howitt arrived at the Dig Tree on September 15 1861 and four days later found King living with the Yandruwandha. In pitiful condition, King survived the slow trip back to Melbourne, and died nine years later, aged 31. He is buried in the Melbourne General Cemetery.

• Charley Gray, Wednesday 17th April 1861, Polygonum Swamp.
• Charles Stone, Monday 22nd April 1861, Koorliatto Waterhole, Bulloo River.
• William Purcell, Tuesday 23rd April 1861, Koorliatto Waterhole, Bulloo River.
• Dr Ludwig Becker, Monday 29th April 1861, Koorliatto Waterhole, Bulloo River.
• William Patten, Wednesday 5th June 1861, Desolation Camp, Rat Point.
• William John Wills, probably either Friday 30th June or Saturday 1st July 1861, Breerily Waterhole, Coopers Creek.
• Robert O'Hara Burke, probably Saturday 1st July 1861, Burkes Waterhole, Coopers Creek.

Afterwards
The Victorian Government held a Commission of Enquiry into the deaths of Burke and Wills. Howitt was sent back to Coopers Creek to recover the bodies of Burke and Wills and the explorers were given a state funeral in Melbourne on 23 January 1863. The funeral car was modelled on the design used for the Duke of Wellington ten years earlier. There were reported to have been 40,000 spectators. Burke and Wills were buried at the Melbourne General Cemetery.

In some ways the tragic expedition was not a waste of time. It had completed the picture of inland Australia, and proved that there was no inland sea. More importantly, each of the rescue parties sent from different parts of the continent added in some way to the understanding of the land it crossed.

The "Dig Tree" still stands, and is now a popular tourist destination.

In 1862 a memorial was erected overlooking the town of Castlemaine where Burke had been stationed before leading the expedition. The Victorian towns of Bendigo, Ballarat and Fryerstown also erected monuments. In 1890 a monument was erected at Royal Park, the expedition's departure point in Melbourne. The plaque on the monument states:

This memorial has been erected to mark the spot from whence the Burke and Wills Expedition started on the 20th August 1860. After successfully accomplishing their mission the two brave leaders perished on their return journey at Coopers Creek in June 1861.

A 1985 film, Burke and Wills, was made about the expedition with Jack Thompson as Burke, and Nigel Havers as Wills.

Cause of Death
While ngardu (nardoo - Marsilea drummondii) was available as a food source in abundance, Wills' journal entries reveal that it assuaged their hunger but provided virtually no nutrients and did nothing to curb their physical deterioration.

Wills' last journal entry includes the following revelation:

"...starvation on nardoo is by no means very unpleasant, but for the weakness one feels, and the utter inability to move oneself, for as far as appetite is concerned, it gives me the greatest satisfaction. Certainly, fat and sugar would be more to one's taste, in fact, those seem to me to be the great stand by for one in this extraordinary continent; not that I mean to depreciate the farinacious food, but the want of sugar and fat in all substances obtainable here is so great that they become almost valueless to us as articles of food, without the addition of something else."

Unbeknown to the explorers, ngardu seeds contain thiaminase which depletes the body of Vitamin B1. As a result, it is likely that the deaths of Burke and Wills resulted in part from beri-beri. Evidence to this effect is further provided by King's account, in which it is revealed that Burke complained of leg and back pain shortly before his death.

References

• Burke and Wills Web by Dave Phoenix
• Australian Explorers by Roma Reilly
• Discoverers Web by Andre Engels
• Enchanted Learning
• Murgatroyd, Sarah, The Dig Tree: The Story of Burke and Wills, Melbourne, Text Publishing, 2002.
  (ISBN 1-877008-08-7)
• Burke and Wills: Food supplies from Terra Incognita at the State Library of Victoria

Further reading

• The [Melbourne] Argus, 1861. "The Burke and Wills exploring expedition: An account of the crossing the continent of Australia from Cooper Creek to Carpentaria, with biographical sketches of Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills." Melbourne: Wilson and Mackinnon.
• Bergin, Thomas John, & Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 1981. In the steps of Burke and Wills. Sydney: Australian Broadcasting Commission. ISBN 0-642-97413-6.
• Bergin, Thomas John, & Readers Digest, 1996. Across the outback.. Surrey Hills: Readers Digest. ISBN 0-86449-019-4.
• Bonyhady, Tim, 1991. Burke and Wills: From Melbourne to myth. Balmain: David Ell Press. ISBN 0-908197-91-8.
• Burke and Wills Outback Conference 2003, 2005. The Inaugural Burke & Wills Outback Conference : Cloncurry 2003 : a collation of presentations. Dave Phoenix, Cairns Qld. ISBN 0-646-44702-5
• Clune, Frank, 1937. Dig: A drama of central Australia. Sydney: Angus and Robertson.
• Colwell, Max, 1971. The journey of Burke and Wills. Sydney: Paul Hamlyn. ISBN 0-600-04137-9.
• Corke, David G, 1996. The Burke and Wills Expedition: A study in evidence. Melbourne: Educational Media International. ISBN 0-909178-16-X.
• Earl, John W, & McCleary, Barry V, 1994. "Mystery of the poisoned expedition." Nature,. Vol. 368.
• Ferguson, Charles D, 1888. Experiences of a Forty-Niner during the thirty-four years residence in California and Australia. Cleveland, Ohio: The Williams Publishing Co.
• Fitzpatrick, Kathleen, 1963. "The Burke and Wills Expedition and the Royal Society of Victoria." Historical Studies of Australia and New Zealand. Vol. 10 (No. 40), pp. 470-478.
• Judge, Joseph, & Scherschel, Joseph J, 1979, February 1979. "First across Australia: The journey of Burke and Wills." National Geographic Magazine, Vol. 155, pp.152-191.
• Moorehead, Alan McCrae, 1963. Coopers Creek. London: Hamish Hamilton.
• Murgatroyd, Sarah, 2002. The Dig Tree. Melbourne: Text Publishing. ISBN 1-877008-08-7.
• Phoenix, Dave, 2003. From Melbourne to the Gulf: A brief history of the VEE of 1860-1. Cairns: Self published.
• Victoria: Parliament, 1862. Burke and Wills Commission. Report of the Commissioners appointed to enquire into and report upon the circumstances connected with the sufferings and death of Robert O'Hara Burke and William John * Wills, the Victorian Explorers. Melbourne: John Ferres Government Printer.
• White, John, 1992. Burke and Wills: The stockade and the tree. Footscray, Vic: The Victoria University of Technology Library in association with Footprint Press.

External links

• Terra Incognita Burke and Wills online exhibition at the State Library of Victoria.
• Burke & Wills Web A comprehensive website containing many of the historical documents relating to the Burke & Wills Expedition.
• The Burke & Wills Historical Society The Burke & Wills Historical Society.
• The Diary of William John Wills The diary written by Wills while at the Cooper from 23 April to 28 June 1861.
• William John Wills' journal Images from the National Library of Australia's digital manuscript collection.
• History House Humorously written account of the expedition.
• Burke and Wills Trail on Picture Australia
• Burke and Wills online collection - State Library of NSW