Burke and Wills expedition 1860
Burke and Wills expedition 1860
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In 1860 the Government of South Australia offered a prize to the
first expedition to cross the Australian continent from south
to north. Policeman, Robert O'Hara Burke led
an expedition which left from Royal Park, Melbourne on 20 August
1860.
Burke travelled with 18 people, 25 camels, 22 horses and some wagons. This was the first expedition to use camels as a means of transport. Burke took a 2 year supply of food, as well as 80 pairs of shoes, beds, hats and buckets, as well as some firewood.
The 
expedition reached Menindee in about
8 weeks. It is believed that while here, Burke heard that Stuart
was going to attempt to cross the continent from south to north
also. Burke left some of the men there and went on with others
to Cooper Creek where he established a base camp.
Burke's plan was to wait at Cooper Creek until the others arrived. But five weeks passed and they did not arrive. First they were delayed back at Menindee and then on the journey to Cooper Creek some men got sick and died. The remaining men decided to stop before reaching Cooper Creek at a place called Bulloo.
After
waiting for the five weeks, Burke became impatient to race to
the Gulf of Carpentaria to become the first white men to cross
Australia from south to north.
Burke decided to set out with William John Wills, John King and Charles Gray with one horse and six camels and supplies to last for three months. He ordered four other men to remain at Cooper Creek, with William Brahe in charge, and wait three months for their return.
Burke and his party took eight weeks to get from Cooper Creek to the Gulf of Carpentaria. Although they reached the Gulf , they failed to see the sea because mud and thick mangrove swamps blocked their path.
Burke began the return to journey to Cooper Creek immediately. On this journey supplies were short so the men killed and ate one of the camels and later Burke's horse. Charles Gray got sick and died.
When they got back to Cooper Creek, Burke, Wills and King found that the men who had been waiting, for almost 5 months, had left. Some food had been left buried in a box and near a tree with a sign carved on it saying 'DIG'. A letter inside the box indicated that Brahe and the others had left just nine hours before the return of Burke, Wills and King, thinking that the party must have died.
In his diary Wills wrote:
Our disappointment
at finding the depot deserted may easily be imagined; returning
in an exhausted state after four months of the severest travelling
and privation, with our legs so paralysed so that each found it
a most trying task to walk just a few yards.
Burke, Wills and King were too weak
to follow Brahe on foot. Wills buried his notebooks and left a
note telling where the group were heading, but no one thought
to make a sign at the Dig Tree to indicate that they had been
there and were still alive. This was a costly mistake because
two of the men who had left earlier came back a few days later
to see if Burke and his group had returned. Because Wills and
the others had made no sign, these men left again.
Meanwhile, Burke, Wills and King
had set off down the creek, hoping to catch some fish while making
their way to Mount Hopless. Although the Aboriginal people helped
the explorers and gave them food, Burke didn't trust them and
often chased them away and fired his rifle at them.
By now the Burke, Wills and King were very sick and were starving. Burke died of starvation on July 1, 1861. Wills died a few days later. After burying Wills, King joined the Yantruwanta people, who looked after him until he was found a few months later, on September 15, 1861 by other explorers.
The leader of the party that rescued King, a man called Howitt ,was instructed to bring back the bones of Burke and Wills so that a public funeral could be held. It was one of the biggest funerals ever seen in Melbourne at that time. Large sums of money were given to the families of Burke and Wills, and a pension was given to King, who did not live very long owing to the ill health caused by the hardships he had endured. The Aborigines who cared for him were paid a reward.
Go here to read Wills' diary of the expedition
and to see pictures of it
Acknowledge
this source in your bibliography like this:
Burke & Wills Expedition
(2002). [Online], Available: www.kidcyber.com.au
Explorers of Australia
Blaxland, Lawson, Wentworth ...
Eyre ...Hume
and Hovell ... Leichardt ... Mitchell
... Oxley
updated January 2003