Dig tree: the story of Burke and Wills. Sarah Murgatroyd. 2015.

In 1860, an eccentric Irish police officer named Robert O’Hara Burke led a cavalcade of camels, wagons and men out of Melbourne. Accompanied by William Wills, a shy English scientist, he was prepared to risk everything to become the first European to cross the Australian continent.

A few months later, an ancient coolabah tree at Cooper Creek bore a strange carving: ‘Dig Under 3ft NW’. Burke, Wills and five other men were dead. The expedition had become an astonishing tragedy.

Sarah Murgatroyd reveals new historical and scientific evidence to tell the full story of the disaster with all its heroism and romance, its discoveries, coincidences and lost opportunities.