In 1858, Melbourne was only 23 years old and the Victoria colony had been only officially established for 7 years. Only a few other cities such as Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth had already been established on Australia costs. Their only way to contact each other was by circumnavigating the continent; a very costly and dangerous activity at the time of sailing.
The inside part of Australia’s territory was still considered « Terra Incognita »; few white explorers had penetrated the interior and none had succeeded to cross that unforgiving land inhabited by numerous Aboriginal tribes.
The newly created Royal Society of Victoria decided to send an explorative expedition to unfold the great mysteries of the continent centre and hopefully open a new route from South to North. Robert O'Hara Burke, a police officer of Irish origins, was selected as the expedition leader, which was composed of another 17 men; 4 Irish, 5 English, 4 Afghans, 3 Germans and 1 American. They had packed 20 tonnes of material and supplies to be carried by 25 camels, 22 horses and 6 bullock wagons.
After nearly 2 years of preparation, the expedition left Melbourne on August 20th 1860, with the intent to walk North to the Gulf of Carpentaria. On February 9th 1861, an advance party composed of Burke, Wills (now Burke’s second-in-command), King and Gray reached the Flinder river, 15 miles away from the Gulf of Carpentaria, but the impenetrable mangroves prevented them from actually obtaining a view of the open ocean. They returned to the Cooper Creek base camp several weeks later than planned and found it deserted.
Their lack of bush craft and Burke’s distrust of the local aborigines led them to starvation and death. On September 15, 1861, a rescue party discovered John King who had been treated as one of their own by the local Yantruwanta tribe for nearly 3 months. He was the sole survivor of the expedition.
The burial of Burke and Wills on January 21st 1863 in Melbourne was Australia’s first state funeral. Burke and Wills are not the most successful Australian explorers but they are probably the most well known. This expedition was a key turn in Australia’s development by opening the first inland route to pioneers, graziers and miners.
