Jump to content

Burke and Wills expedition

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Rocketfrog (talk | contribs) at 00:20, 11 April 2006 (→‎External links). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Robert O'Hara Burke
William John Wills

In 1860-61, Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills led an expedition of 19 men with the intention of crossing Australia from south to north, a journey of 1,650 miles (≈2 660 km). It would also be necessary to safely complete the return journey.

At that time, most of the inland of Australia was completely unknown. The south-north leg was successfully completed (except for the fact that they only reached swampland near the northern coast, not the actual coast itself) but, owing to poor leadership and bad luck, both of the expedition's leaders died on the return journey. All together, seven men lost their lives, and only one man, John King, travelled the entire expedition and returned alive to Melbourne.

Beginning

Monument in Royal Park, Melbourne where the expedition commenced
Map of Burke's and Wills's expedition

Neither Burke nor Wills was experienced in exploration, and it is strange that they were chosen to lead the mission. Burke was an Irish-born ex-officer with the Austrian army, and later became police superintendent with virtually no skills in bushcraft. Wills was a surveyor and meteorologist. Wills was more adept than Burke at living in the wilderness, but it was Burke's leadership that was especially detrimental to the mission.

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, 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, a bathtub and a Chinese gong; the equipment all together weighed as much as 20 tonnes.[1] 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 caravan train, half a kilometre long, had only reached Essendon on the edge of Melbourne. At Essendon two more wagons broke down. The first part of the expedition was difficult and time-consuming, getting through bogs and rain in Victoria, with all the supplies. They reached Swan Hill on September 6, and arrived in Balranald on September 15. There they left some equipment and a few men. At Gambala on September 24, Burke decided to put much of the provisions onto the camels, meaning that the men would have to walk the entire way. At Bilbarka during the first week of October, Burke and his second-in-command, George James Landells argued after Burke decided to dump the 60 gallons (≈273 L) of rum they had been carrying. At Kinchga on the Darling, Landells resigned from the expedition, followed by the doctor, Hermann Beckler. Third-in-command Wills was promoted to second-in-commnad.

Burke soon grew impatient with their slow progress. A reward of £2000 (about A$230,000 in 2003 dollars) had been offered by the Victorian government for the first successful south-north crossing of the continent. The experienced explorer John McDouall Stuart had also taken up the challenge, and Burke was concerned Stuart might beat him. 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 was the edge of the land that had been explored by Europeans in 1860, 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 reconnaisance 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 enough food for only three months, with six camels and one horse.

Return journey

The return journey

On February 9, 1861 they reached the delta of the Flinders River. They could not reach the ocean because of the swamps in their way. Burke and Wills left the camels behind with King and Gray, 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 Cooper's Creek. They turned back.

On their way north, the weather had been hot and dry, but on the way back it started to rain. They shot a camel on March 4 for meat. They shot their only horse, Billy on April 10, and some of the camels were shot or left behind. Gray fell ill, but the others thought he was pretending. He was caught stealing food and Burke beat him. He later died of dysentery, although the possibility that he was killed by Burke himself has been suggested. The others 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 Cooper's 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 Cooper's Creek, and had not set out until near the end of January. Three of his men died from malnutrition on the trip. On his way to Cooper's Creek, he met Brahe who was on his way back, at Bulloo.

Return to Cooper's Creek

Burke, Wills and King arrive at Cooper's Creek

Brahe and the rest of the group had waited there for four months, then deciding that they should leave. They buried some provisions, cutting a message on a tree to mark the spot: "DIG 3 FEET N.W. Apr. 21 1861". The date marked on the tree was the same date that Burke, Wills and King arrived back at Coopers Creek. They dug in the spot, and found some 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 then filled in the pit with supplies, and left their own letters there in case someone returned. They decided to rest and recuperate, living off the supplies which had been left, before making an attempt to reach a cattle station 240 km away, setting out on April 24. This would mean travelling southwest through the desert to try and reach the South Australian police outpost of Mt. Hopeless.

Meanwhile, William Brahe with Wright decided to go back to Cooper's Creek and check to see if they had returned. When they arrived on May 8, the three men had already left for the cattle station and the camp was again deserted. Burke and Wills were 35 miles (56 km) away at this point. Brahe and Wright assumed that they had never been there, and did not think to check to see if the supplies were still buried. They left to rejoin the main party.

Cooper's Creek summary

  • Nov. 11 1860 - Dec. 16 – Burke arrives and waits for Wright to come up from Menindee, gives up waiting and heads north leaving Brahe behind.
  • Dec. 16 - Apr. 21 1861 – Brahe is camped at Cooper's Creek, before leaving heading back south.
  • Apr. 21 - Apr. 24 – Burke, Wills and King arrive back at Coopers Creek 8-9 hours later, before leaving again.
  • May. 8 – Brahe who had found Wright return to Coopers Creek, before leaving after a quarter of an hour.
  • May. 30 – Wills arrives back at Coopers Creek.

Second return to Cooper's Creek

Aborigines fed the explorers cakes made from the seeds of this plant, Nardoo

Burke, Wills and King soon gave up their attempt to reach the cattle station. Their supplies were too short, and they were very unhealthy. They killed and ate the two remaining camels. Despite assistance from Aborigines who gave them food and water, they were unable to complete their journey and they returned to Cooper's Creek.

At Cooper's Creek, the three laboured to gather and pound the seeds of the Nardoo plant, which they consumed in the form of porridge.

Wills arrived back in the camp on May 30. Burke bitterly criticised Brahe in his journal for not leaving behind any supplies or animals.

Death

Artist's depiction of Burke's death

The three men again left the camp. Wills became too weak to continue, so they left him behind with some food. Burke died on June 20 1861. King returned to Wills, but found that he was already dead. He found a tribe of Yantruwanta Aborigines willing to give him food and shelter, and there he stayed for two and a half months until he was found by a search party on September 15. King was rescued by Alfred William Howitt, who and been sent with a search party from Melbourne, where it had been guessed that Burke's expedition was in trouble. In pitiful condition, King survived the slow trip back to Melbourne, and died nine years later, aged 31.

Afterwards

The explorers were given a state funeral in Melbourne on 21 January 1863 and buried in a sarcophogus modelled on the design for the Duke of Wellington ten years earlier. There were reported to have been 40,000 spectators.

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. A monument stands on the Melbourne site where the expedition commenced in Royal Park. 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.

In 1862 a memorial was also erected overlooking the town of Castlemaine where Burke had been stationed before leading the expedition.

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 Nardoo 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."

Unbeknownst to the explorers, Nardoo 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.


See also: History of Australia

References

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Burke_and_Wills_expedition&oldid=47878603"