Melbourne, 20 August 1860. In an ambitious quest to be the first Europeans to cross the harsh Australian continent, the Victorian Exploring Expedition sets off, far welled by 15,000 cheering well-wishers. Led by Robert O’Hara Burke, a brave man totally lacking in the bush skills necessary for his task: surveyor and meteorologist William Wills, and 17 others, the expedition took 20 tons of equipment carried on six wagons, 23 horses and 26 camels.
Although immediately plagued by disputes and sackings, the expedition era battled the extremes of the Australian landscape and weather: its’ deserts, the boggy mangrove swamps of the Gulf, the searing heat and flooding rains. Food ran short and, unable to live off the land, the men nevertheless mostly spurned the offers of help from the local Indigenous people.
In desperation, leaving the rest of the party at the expedition’s Depot on Cooper’s Creek, Burke, Wills, Charley Gray and John King made a dash for the Gulf in December 1860. Bad luck and bad management would see them miss by just hours a rendezvous back at Cooper’s Creek, leaving them stranded in the wilderness with practically no supplies. Only King survived to tell the tale.
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