Burke and Wills collection | National Museum of Australia You are in site section: Collections Burke and Wills collection Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills Water bottle, breastplate and other National Historical Collection objects A growing collection The National Museum of Australia has a growing collection of objects related to the Burke and Wills expedition. This includes a breastplate awarded to the Aboriginal people who came to their assistance, a water bottle which belonged to Burke and various tributes to the explorers. The Victorian Exploring Expedition, 1860–61 Detail of the illumination given to Ambrose Kyte, MP, showing a portrait of Robert O'Hara Burke. Photo: National Museum of Australia. The Victorian Exploring Expedition, usually known as the Burke and Wills expedition, remains one of the most celebrated journeys of the 'heroic era' of Australian land exploration. In the 1860s the colony of Victoria was flush with wealth from the gold fields and wanted to enter the field of exploration. Supported by the Victorian government, the Royal Society of Victoria and private citizens, the expedition hoped to be the first to cross the continent from south to north.

Robert O'Hara Burke (1821–1861) led the expedition. Burke was an Irish-born soldier who emigrated to Melbourne in 1853. He served as a police inspector and superintendent in Victoria, and was involved in policing at the Buckland River riots in 1857. Despite having little exploration or navigation experience, he was chosen to lead the expedition. William John Wills (1834–1861) was the expedition's surveyor and astronomer, and was second-in-command. Wills had arrived in Victoria in 1853, first working as a shepherd and then as an assistant to his father, a surgeon. He studied surveying and was appointed to a position at the Melbourne Observatory. Described as the best equipped expedition in Australia's history, the explorers set off for the Gulf of Carpentaria carrying some 21 tonnes of equipment. The departure from Royal Park in Melbourne on 20 August 1860 was a grand public event – the expedition party was farewelled by 15,000 Victorians. As they progressed northward, Burke found the expedition overburdened and the wagons unreliable.

Furthermore, he feared that South Australian explorer John McDouall Stuart, who was also heading for the Gulf, might get there first. At Menindie, Burke appointed William Wright to be in charge and left for Cooper Creek. Wright was to bring up the party and supplies. Burke grew impatient waiting for Wright to arrive and decided to leave Depot Camp 65 for the Gulf. On 16 December 1860, Burke, Wills, Charles Gray and John King left Cooper Creek to make a dash for the northern shoreline. Burke and Wills eventually encountered salty marshes and a shifting tide, and could proceed no further. They had reached their goal, even though they could not see the open water. The return journey proved fatal. Charles Gray died and the others limped back to the Cooper Creek camp only to find that rest of the depot party had departed just hours earlier. Burke and Wills died attempting to reach Mount Hopeless. King, near death, was cared for by the Yandruwandha people until a relief expedition rescued him. When news of their disappearance reached Melbourne, four relief parties were despatched to search for them.

One of the parties, led by Alfred Howitt, rescued King and buried Wills and Burke at Cooper Creek. An expedition led by William Landsborough worked south from the Gulf through the Flinders, Gregory and Georgina River regions. Landsborough continued all the way to Melbourne and was the first European to cross the continent from north to south. John McKinlay and his party left from Adelaide and found the flood plains of the Diamantina and travelled through northern Queensland. Frederick Walker's party left from Rockhampton and travelled across northern Queensland. They did not find the expedition party, but these three relief parties made significant tracts of grazing land known and accessible to pastoralists. John McDouall Stuart reached the ocean and returned to Adelaide in 1863. In 1862, Howitt returned to Cooper Creek and retrieved the remains of Burke and Wills. They lay in state at the Royal Society of Victoria in Melbourne and were viewed by over 100,000 people. Some estimated that three-quarters of the city's population watched the funeral procession in January 1863. The tragic fate of the Burke and Wills expedition received international attention.

King was given a public welcome on his return to Melbourne but never recovered from the expedition ordeal. Burke and Wills material in the National Historical Collection Robert O'Hara Burke's water bottle The Robert O'Hara Burke water bottle collection is a tear-shaped water bottle of hardened leather with a cylindrical horn lid. String connects the horn lid to the bottle. Part of the spout of the bottle exhibits wear suggestive of extended rubbing. The water bottle is aged and in fair condition. Leather water bottle belonging to Robert O'Hara Burke. Photo: Dean McNicoll. Victorian Exploring Expedition breastplate This breastplate was one of three presented to the Yandruwandha people in appreciation for the assistance they gave to Burke, Wills and King. More on the Victorian Exploring Expedition breastplate A breastplate from the Victorian Exploration Committee presented to the Yandruwandha people of Cooper Creek as a token of appreciation for the care they extended to Burke, Wills and King. Photo: Lannon Harley. Map of the route taken by the Victorian Exploring Expedition, lithographed at the Office of Lands & Survey, Melbourne, 1861. Photo: National Museum of Australia.

Map of the route taken by Burke and Wills Map in black ink on white paper which is stained. The map is set in a buff-coloured mat, with has a thin clear plastic window. It is titled: FROM COOPER'S CREEK TO CARPENTARIA (Copied from the map prepared by Wills.) Scale about 20 Miles to 1 Inch. Lithographed at the Office of Lands & Survey, Melbourne, Victoria, Nov. 25th 1861 by J. B. Philp & W. Collis. William Wills' copy of Georg von Neumayer's Magnetical, Nautical and Meteorological Observations, Parliament of Victoria. Photo: National Museum of Australia. Neumayer's observations The copy of the survey in the Museum's collection belonged to William John Wills who worked at the Melbourne Observatory. The title page is signed 'William Wills / July 31st 1860' above his black wax seal. The survey is an official Parliament of Victoria report by Professor Georg von Neumayer, a Bavarian scientist.

The full title of the report reads: 1859-60 AT THE FLAGSTAFF OBSERVATORY, MELBOURNE AND AT VARIOUS STATIONS IN THE COLONY OF VICTORIA. MARCH, 1858, TO FEBRUARY, 1859. PRESENTED TO BOTH HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT BY HIS EXCELLENCY'S COMMAND Detail of Georg von Neumayer's Observations showing William Wills' name and black wax seal, dated 31 July 1860. Photo: National Museum of Australia. Illuminated address given to Ambrose Kyte, MP, in recognition of his financial support of the Victorian Exploring Expedition. Photo: National Museum of Australia. Ambrose Kyte illuminated address A framed manuscript, written in black ink and coloured paints recognising Ambrose Kyte's support of the Victorian Exploring Expedition. The manuscript features two rondels housing albumen print photographs of Kyte (left) and Burke (right). It is housed in an elaborate, carved timber, glazed frame which features the Australian coat of arms on the top.

The illumination was presented to Kyte by the Governor of Victoria, Sir Henry Barkly, on behalf of the Victorian Exploration Committee, on 21 January 1863, in recognition of Kyte's support of the Burke and Wills expedition. In 1858, Kyte had donated £1000 towards the fit-out of the expedition. This enabled the Committee to raise further funds required for the expedition. Herbert Basedow image of blazed tree at Cooper Creek An original negative taken by Herbert Basedow in 1919. Basedow's caption reads 'The famous tree at Fort Wills on the Cooper, under which a relief party buried a cache containing provisions for members of the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition in 1861. The tree was marked: "Dig three feet westward"'. 'The famous tree at Fort Wills on the Cooper'. Fort Wills was the stockade built to protect the expedition's animals and supplies. The remains can be seen to the right of the tree. Photo: Herbert Basedow, 1919, reproduced from glass negative by George Serras.

Hand carved emu egg showing a map of the route taken by Burke and Wills, carved by Peter Harris. Photo: Dragi Markovic. Carved and mounted emu egg The egg, carved by craftsman Peter Harris, depicts a map of the journey of Burke and Wills. The egg rests on a marble base with a plaque with gold lettering. The engraved text reads 'HAND CARVED / EMU EGG / Peter J. Harris GL 470'. Postcard of a Burke and Wills monument located in Castlemaine, Victoria. Photo: National Museum of Australia. Burke and Wills have been the subject of art, craft and popular media since the outset of their journey. Mr Harris has carved two eggs relating to Burke and Wills. They display his interest in local and national history as his home in Lake Cargelligo, New South Wales lies on the explorers' route. Emu egg carving has its origins from the 1930s when it was first taken up by Aboriginal people. Mr Harris' compositions reflect the style of these early carvers. He is regarded as one of the most skilled contemporary emu egg carvers.

Postcard of a Burke and Wills monument, Castlemaine, Victoria An unused postcard featuring a slightly pressed black and white photograph of an obelisk with a fence around it. The text reads 'BURKE AND WILLS MONUMENT, CASTLEMAINE'. The postcard was made by Ward, Lock and Co Ltd in England and is part of the Museum's Josef Lebovic Gallery collection. More Burke and Wills Expedition | Monument Australia Front Inscription Plaque 1 : This plaque, placed here by members of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (QLD) Inc. during their 1986 expedition to Lawn Hill Gorge, marks the general area where 125 years ago, Burke, Wills, King and Grey as members of the Victorian Expedition instigated by the Royal Society of Victoria, established Camp No. CXIX after the first successful crossing south to north of the Australian continent in February 1861. Hon. John Greenwood Q.C. President Oct. 1986 Plaque 2 : This monument marks the site of Camp No.

119 of the 1860-61 Burke and Wills expedition occupied on Saturday 9th February 1861 by Robert O`Hara Burke, William John Wills, John King and Charley Gray. On Sunday the 10th February Burke and Wills left on the attempt to journey to the Gulf of Carpentaria, returning on Tuesday the 12th February all four abandoned the camp next day for the return journey to Coopers Creek (Depot 75) and home to Melbourne. During the return journey, all died with the exception of King who survived with the assistance of a friendly Aboriginal Tribe. This monument was provided through, and with thanks to, the generous donation of Mr Douglas Jolly of Brisbane and the historical advice of the State Library of Victoria, and was erected in 1978 by the Normanton Lions Club. Source: MA,ADB Burke and Wills expedition 1860 — kidcyber Contact / The Burke and Wills expedition 1860 was led by Robert O'Hara Burke (1821-1861).

Together with William John Wills (1834 - 1861) they became the first men to cross Australia from south to north. The Burke and Wills expedition 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 two year supply of food, as well as 80 pairs of shoes, beds, hats and buckets, as well as some firewood. Burke and Will: their expedition left Melbourne in 1860 The expedition reached Menindee in about 8 weeks. It is believed that while here, Burke heard that John McDouall Stuart was going to attempt to cross the continent from south to north also. Burke left some of the men at Menindee 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. Cooper Creek 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 William Brahe the other men had left, just nine hours before the return of Burke, Wills and King, thinking that the party must have died. Welcome to a website established in 1999 for primary students and teachers. We provide: Easy to understand text for student research, including material for primary school students K-6 Easy to navigate format Units of work and lesson plans for teachers on a variety of topics in key learning areas kidcyberQuests: student webquest assignments with links to information sites for research, project ideas, evaluation 'Ask a kidcyber Researcher' feature where students can request specific information about a topic Advice to parents about helping with school homework assignments and projects Who are we? The writers and publishers of kidcyber are Shirley Sydenham, a primary teacher, and Ron Thomas, a primary teacher-librarian.

We are authors (together, individually and with others) of numerous books for teachers and kids, published in Australia and overseas. Recent books written together include Using the Library 1, 2 & 3; Thinking Through Themes (4 titles: Air, Fire, Water, Earth); and The Perfect School Project, published by and available at Teaching Solutions. Our Audience Students from K to 8, their teachers and parents. Homeschool students and their parents. Teacher Librarians Burke and Wills � Terra Incognita Burke and Wills � Terra Incognita University of Sydney October 2003 This site presents manuscripts and objects relating to the ill-fated expedition led by Robert O’Hara Burke (1821�61) that attempted to cross the Australian continent from south to north in 1860�61. The Burke and Wills expedition was lavishly funded but it proved unwieldy and was plagued by internal dispute and bad judgment. Burke and William Wills, his second-in-command, both perished of starvation on the return journey, along with several other members of the expedition.

A key mistake, as one of the newspaper reports included in the site points out, was their failure to take sufficient advantage of the expertise of Indigenous Australians. Burke and Wills were buried in an elaborate ceremony that marked Australia’s first state funeral. Supplementary material is easy to follow and fairly extensive. Given the wide audience for which the site is intended, it is popular rather than scholarly in tone, although it is based on sound research. Information is included on the background to the expedition, its historical context, biographies of those involved, the preparation for and events of the expedition, and its aftermath. The Burke and Wills expedition speaks to many themes pertinent to the study of European exploration in a global context. The scientific interest in landscape, flora, and fauna are evident in the journals and sketches. Other documents bear witness to the search for imperial glory that was of greater importance to members such as Burke himself. The letters of application from those wishing to join the expedition (both successful and unsuccessful) illuminate the qualifications thought necessary for such endeavors, in particular the question of colonial masculinity and scientific endeavor. One unsuccessful applicant promoted his expertise as a flower painter. Another described his skills thus: “I consider myself a bushman . . .

I can climb a gum tree � la aborigine and drag or cut out an opossum.” The site provides a bibliography of eight published sources (both primary and secondary) that provide excellent guidance for teachers seeking further scholarly discussion of this topic. Particularly recommended is Burke and Wills: from Melbourne to Myth, 1 which places the expedition in its social and cultural context as well as providing a detailed discussion of the place of the expedition in Australian culture into the 1990s. ______________________ Burke & Wills Web: the online digital research archive of expedition records - The online digital research archive of expedition records © 2017 and welcome to BURKE & WILLS WEB the digital research archive of expedition records. The Burke and Wills Expedition was originally called the Victorian Exploring Expedition and its aim was to cross the continent of Australia from Melbourne on the south coast to the north coast, which at the time was uninhabited by the migaloo (white-fella). No one had done this before, and to the Victorian colonists the centre of the continent was unknown, unmapped and unexplored. The expedition was organised by the Royal Society of Victoria and it became the first to cross the continent.

Three men traveled 5,000 kilometres from Melbourne to the shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria and then back to the Depot Camp at Cooper Creek. Seven men died in the attempt, including the leader, Robert O'Hara Burke and the third in command William John Wills. Only one of the four men who reached the north coast, John King, survived to return to Melbourne. Burke and Wills Web - realising Macadam's dream ... Honorary Secretary of the Exploration Committee, Dr. John Macadam, compiled the records of the Expedition and wrote to the Chief Secretary of Victoria asking for assistance in making the records available to the public: Macadam's wishes were not fulfilled. Many of the records were lost and the surviving ones have become overshadowed by the huge amount of popular literature that has been published. Now, 150 years after the expedition, Burke & Wills Web is the realisation of that dream. This website is an historic research resource which provides digital access to the primary archive sources, that 'accumulated mass of valuable geographical information' that Macadam referred to.

Following Burke & Wills across Australia: A touring guide Following Burke and Wills Every Australian has heard of Burke and Wills but few have travelled in their footsteps. In 2008, historian Dave Phoenix walked across Australia from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria, following the track taken by the ill-fated Burke and Wills Expedition. Now you can follow them too. 'Following Burke and Wills Across Australia' guides you on a road trip that follows one of history’s great transcontinental journeys, sharing the explorers’ experiences on the way. Maps lay out a route that takes you as close as possible to the Expedition’s track. As you travel the outback roads, you can learn all the details of the day to day journey of the Expedition from the explorers’ own words, and compare what you see with their descriptions of the country in 1860–1. Each chapter provides information about what to see now: the location and descriptions of the markers and memorials placed along the route over the 150 years since the Expedition, and places where you can stand where the explorers stood and look out over prospects they drew and described.

Burke & Wills Web: Terms of Use Your use of this website is subject to the following terms and conditions: Content on this webspace is licensed under the terms of an 'Attribution-Non-Commercial-ShareAlike' Creative_Commons_4.0_International_License . The content on this website is not 'Public Domain' or 'Free Cultural Work', so if you wish to reproduce any content on this website you must abide by the CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0-INT license conditions. Please read the Disclaimer and Privacy statements before proceeding, as well as the Statement on Aboriginal culture. There are details about the website creator, Dave_Phoenix , and there is a Help_Page with links which might assist you find your way around. Burke and Wills 1834-1861 Doctor and Surveyor. Born on the 5th. Jan. 1834 in Devon, England he and his brother Thomas left for Australia in 1852, arriving in Melbourne on the 3rd. January 1853. He began work as a surveyor with the Surveyor of Crown Lands.

He accompanied Burke as the official surveyor for the ill-fated expedition which cost his life aged 27. The Expedition On the 20th. of August, 1860, Robert O'Hara Burke led an expedition of 16 men out of Melbourne with the ambition of being the first persons to cross the continent from south to north. The idea was to open up a route by which the new-fangled invention of the telegraph line could be connected via Java to Europe, to explore whether there existed a large inland sea, and to discover a possible route for a railway. An added incentive was a 2,000 pounds reward for the first people to survey a route north, and already, Sturt and Stuart were planning similar journeys from Adelaide. Burke was to lead the expedition with Wills as surveyor and they took a 2 year supply of food, as well as 80 pairs of shoes, beds, hats and buckets. At the Darling River, Wright and Gray joined the crew and led them to Coopers Creek where, on Nov. 11th., they set up base camp. It was at this point things began to go wrong.

After a long wait at the base camp for the others to reach them with additional supplies, an impatient Burke decided to leave with Wills, King and Gray anyway and worry about the additional supplies when they returned. Arduous conditions, intense summer heat, and problems with dysentry and health delayed their return from the Gulf which they reached in Feb. 1861, and the party waiting at the base camp had left the previous day, leaving buried supplies under a tree beside the creek after carving "DIG" into it and presuming the party would find it easily....They didn't ! The tree at Coopers Creek with its inscription is now a national monument. Gray died of dysentery on the return journey from the gulf and Burke, Wills and King did not find the food and water supplies when they returned. Burke and Wills survived for two months at the site, while King wandered around delerious and was helped by aboriginals. He was found by a search party and returned to Melbourne where he died in Jan. 1872 aged 31. His grave is in the Melbourne Cemetery.

There is a monument to Burke at Castlemaine in the goldfields area of Victoria where he was a superintendent of police up until the time he led the expedition. There is also a large monument to the explorers in Melbourne. � Copyright Peter W. Wilkins Burke and Wills Expedition Burke and Wills Expedition by William Strutt William John Wills John Longstaff - Arrival of Burke, Wills and King at the deserted camp at Cooper's Creek, Sunday evening, 21 April 1861 oil on canvas, 1907, National Gallery of Victoria Return of Burke and Wills to Coopers Creek, Nicholas Chevalier (1868), National Library of Australia Camels at Royal Park before the Burke & Wills Expedition, 1860. Dixson Library, State Library of NSW. The Outback Camel Company heritage stretches back to 1860/61 when camels were brought to Australia for the Burke & Wills Expedition.

Prior to 1860 horses were used for major inland explorations and as the explorers encountered the great deserts it was very quickly realised that camels would be the only way to effectively explore the continent as they would be best suited to the dry conditions. Even though camels had first been brought to the country beforehand in 1840, it was not until the Royal Society of Victoria instructed that camels be brought from the sub continent for the Victorian Exploring Expedition (later officially renamed the Burke & Wills Expedition). The primary purpose of the Burke & Wills Expedition was to find a way north to the Gulf and thus become the first exploring party to succeed in crossing Australia, which would open up 'new country' for settlement and cementing the colony of Victoria as the pre-eminent outpost on the continent. Although Burke & Wills succeeded in crossing the continent, the expedition ultimately ended in disaster as a combination of ill-timing and incompetence resulted in the deaths of several of the party including both Burke & Wills themselves at Cooper Creek in South Australia in April 1861.

Nevertheless, the value of camel based exploring was guaranteed and exploration of Australia by the 1890's was of a completely different nature from that of the preceding decades. The last unknown areas were now being closed in and the overall approach was changing to scientific research. • Elder Scientific Exploring Expedition 1891/92 • Calvert Scientific Exploring Expedition 1894 • The 1896 Horn Scientific Expedition • Edward Kidson 1914 • Cecil Madigan's 1939 Simpson Desert Expedition Private sources were also by then playing a considerable role in providing funding. All of John McDouall Stuart's expeditions were backed, in whole or in part, by Chambers and Finke (after whom the central Australian landmark and town are named respectively). John Forrest's expeditions were supported by a mixture of government funding, private donations and grants from scientific societies. Warburton was financed by Sir Thomas Elder, who also provided the camels for both his and Ernest Giles expeditions. Giles' five expeditions were funded by himself and his brother-in-law.

Ferdinand von Mueller, and the South Australian Government.* Madigan's scientific expedition across the northern Simpson Desert was supported by Allen Simpson, the then President of the Royal Geographical Society in Adelaide, and a major financial backer of Madigan's work. This expedition contributed greatly to the scientific and popular understanding of the Simpson Desert. On his various commercial camel expeditions in the early 2000s, OCC owner Andrew Harper realised the obvious need for dedicated research expeditions to explore and document those areas of the map that are never visited by conventional means - and in most cases, areas that may never have been surveyed at all. With four colleagues, he founded Australian Desert Expeditions in 2007 and after completing a 3 year pilot program, Australian Desert Expeditions Limited was listed on the Commonwealth Register of Environmental Organisations. So 155 years after the first camel-borne scientific desert expedition, Australia now has a 'full time' scientific & ecological research organisation - Australian Desert Expeditions - that can help to discover and document the diversity of the continents arid wilderness. Nocookies | The Australian The Australian Property You have cookies turned off To use this website, cookies must be enabled in your browser.

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Press the home button to return the the iPhone home screen. Select the Safari icon to return to Safari. Before the cookie settings change will take effect, Safari must restart. To restart Safari press and hold the Home button (for around five seconds) until the iPhone/iPad display goes blank and the home screen appears. Select the Safari icon to return to Safari. You are currently using private or incognito browsing mode so you’ll need to log in every time you visit The Australian The 7.30 Report - ABC Broadcast: 18/08/2010 Reporter: Paul Lockyer The 150th anniversary of the ill-fated expedition by Burke and Wills to cross Australia is this week. While efforts to commemorate the journey have been postponed due to the federal election, itï¿½s interesting to consider what would have happened if they headed out in a year like this, with outback rivers flowing and the desert blooming. Transcript KERRY O'BRIEN, PRESENTER: This week marks the 150th anniversary of the ill-fated expedition by Burke and Wills to cross Australia from south to north. Even the efforts to mark the anniversary have struck trouble.

A big day of events was originally organised in Melbourne for Saturday, but has had to be rescheduled because of the federal election. But it's intriguing to speculate on what might have happened to Burke and Wills if they had headed out on a year like this, with the outback rivers running strong and the desert blooming after widespread rain. Paul Lockyer reports from the Simpson Desert in the Northern Territory. PAUL LOCKYER, REPORTER: The interior which can be so harsh and foreboding has seldom been so soft and inviting. MIKE SMITH, NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AUSTRALIA: There's very little red soil, but red dust around at the moment. It's all covered in grass. PAUL LOCKYER: Easy going for these 21st Century adventurers as they take their camel train through the Simpson Desert near the Northern Territory Queensland border. MIKE SMITH: There's a sense of anticipation, of turning the page in a book, and I'm looking forward to reading that page and seeing what's there. PAUL LOCKYER: Archaeologist Dr Mike Smith has tramped across remote areas of Central Australia for more than 30 years.

MIKE SMITH: We're trying to document a great human story. It's the human story of Australia's desert. And travelling with a string of camels also means you walk over the land, so every day you see it, you notice things because they're under your feet. PAUL LOCKYER: Camels were first brought to Australia for the Burke and Wills expedition and were then used to open up the outback. Even though they now run wild in worrying numbers throughout Central Australia, they're still favoured for scientific expeditions. Andrew Harper is a team leader. ANDREW HARPER, EXPEDITION LEADER: It's the best way, I believe, to get right out into the remote areas and see what's happening. MIKE SMITH: One aspect I enjoy is the fact that this is keeping alive a 150-year Australian tradition of cameleering. PAUL LOCKYER: Burke and Wills hardly had that legacy in mind when they made their celebrated departure from Melbourne in August, 1860.

They enjoyed enormous support in Victoria as they attempted to become the first explorers to cross Australia from south to north before a rival South Australian expedition, led by John McDouall Stuart, could achieve the feat. NICK HADNUTT, QUEENSLAND MUSEUM: It was a race for them to get across the continent; they were in a race with Adelaide. PAUL LOCKYER: But by the time they reached the Cooper Creek in Queensland, establishing a staging camp under a spreading Coolabah tree which still stands, they were in deep trouble. Big on trappings, short on essentials. NICK HADNUTT: When you read through what they did take and what they didn't, the extra things that they didn't need far outweighed the things that they did. PAUL LOCKYER: Burke and Wills still pushed north across the barren outback to the Gulf of Carpentaria through the searing summer heat. The desperation on their return leg has been highlighted by the recent recovery of items they dumped to lighten their load at a camp site discovered near Birdsville in far west Queensland.

NICK HADNUTT: They were starving after having crossed the desert, so they basically unloaded everything that was heavy and that they couldn't carry any further, including Wills' navigational and scientific instruments. PAUL LOCKYER: The Queensland Museum team that carried out the dig included Nick Hadnutt. NICK HADNUTT: We found about 168 objects. Most of them are small metal objects, including the bullets, percussion caps, pen nibs and buttons and pieces of small glass. PAUL LOCKYER: Burke and Wills struggled on to the Cooper Creek, only to discover that the camp had been abandoned just hours earlier. A carving in the tree trunk directed them to some buried stores, but they both eventually died of starvation. Had Burke and Wills ventured out in a flood year they would have found a more forgiving outback, but then again they may never have made it this far to the Cooper, past the many swollen creeks and rivers that they would have had to negotiate.

ANDREW HARPER: It would have put a different slant entirely on their expedition about what was fertile country, and they could have eventually been lulled into a false sense of security thinking, "Well, this is the way it always is out here, this is productive, fertile country, just add water and a way we go," only to discover further down the track that it was gonna turn dry again. MIKE SMITH: It's fantastic to see the pulse of life in the country now, but for an archaeologist, I like to see the bones of the country and they're all hidden now. ... And over here we can see a lot of finely-fragmented animal bone. These are food remains. PAUL LOCKYER: All these white specks. MIKE SMITH: Yes, it looks like glass chaff, but it's bone. PAUL LOCKYER: Dr Mike Smith's work has already produced dramatic results, helping to establish that the human occupation of some parts of Central Australia stretches back 35,000 years, much earlier than originally thought. MIKE SMITH: It's not just empty history, you have to start filling in some of that form work, some of the details.

PAUL LOCKYER: 150 years after Burke and Wills headed into the unknown, there are still great mysteries to unlock in the heart of an ancient continent and there's little doubt that camels will continue to play a big part in that role. ANDREW HARPER: That heritage is something that is integral to outback Australia. As a team, and it very much is a team partnership, you can explore these remote areas. MIKE SMITH: You approach places in the way people would have approached them in the past on foot. So you see the structure of the landscape through different eyes, and I think that's very special. KERRY O'BRIEN: Paul Lockyer in the Simpson Desert. Search the 7.30 Report Burke and Wills | State Library of New South Wales View the Burke and Wills' Exploring Expedition The Burke and Wills expedition: crossing the continent By the 1850s, the focus of exploration had shifted to Central Australia and in particular to crossing the continent from south to north.

The race was on between Victoria and South Australia to see which state could be the first to scout a location for a telegraph station on the north coast and find a course for the telegraph line to connect with the southern cities. In 1860, a South Australian, John McDouall Stuart, became the first European to gaze upon the 'red centre'. However, a combination of scurvy, lack of water and hostile Aborigines forced him to turn back before he could reach the north coast. In the same year Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills set out from Melbourne to travel to the Gulf of Carpentaria, Qld, via the Darling River and Cooper's Creek. Funded entirely by the newly independent colony of Victoria, partly by subscription, there was much public interest in their expedition. The party consisted of 15 men and they were provided with camels, horses, wagons and enough food for two years. They left Melbourne on 20 August, 1860. After a slow passage they reached Menindee, NSW, on the Darling River at the beginning of October.

Here, in a controversial move, Burke left most of his men and equipment and set out with six men and 15 camels for Cooper's Creek, Qld. Camp at Coopers Creek, c.1862, by S.T. Gill Watercolour DGA 15/ 3 At the Cooper's Creek depot, stores were left under the charge of William Brahe. Burke plunged on with three men, Wills, John King and Charles Gray in a dash for the Gulf of Carpentaria. They reached the Gulf, half starving, in February, 1861. During the return journey Gray died. When the three remaining men staggered into the depot at Cooper's Creek they found it deserted - the ashes of the campfires still warm. Brahe's party had left only seven hours earlier with most of the food. Arrival at Carpentaria, c.1862, by S.T. Gill Watercolour DGA 15/ 6 Instead of following them, Burke decided to make for the police station at Mount Hopeless, 150 miles away. Before leaving he buried a letter explaining his decision.

The three men were too weak to make much progress and they stayed close to Cooper's Creek hoping to be rescued. Wills died first followed by Burke two days later. King managed to survive with the help of the local Aboriginal people and was eventually found by a rescue party led by A.W. Howitt. Read the explorer's narratives, published in The Illustrated Australian Mail A Royal Commission was held to enquire into the deaths of Burke and Wills. It found that Burke had made a number of wrong decisions. Burke's journey had little value in terms of exploration as he failed to keep a detailed journal and made no scientific observations. His route through tropical Queensland was only practical in the exceptionally dry season he had experienced. The artist William Strutt (1825-1915) took a keen interest in the Victorian Exploring Expedition. He watched the preparations and departure of the explorers and even followed them to their first camp at Essendon, where he had some photographs taken. These are the only known photographs of the expedition. Strutt's Burke and Wills albums also contain his own detailed drawings and notes which he used as source material for his later artworks.

Question: Burke and Wills crossed which continent in an 1860 expedition?
Answer: Australia