18 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 



The journey from the depot to Petamorra, the cattle station, 

 which is a little beyond Mount Hopeless, took me 14 days, with horses 

 and camels in good working condition ; but in the state in which 

 Burke, Wills, and King were it would have required at least twice 

 that time for them to get there, even if they had no hindrance on the 

 way. According to the account given by Wills, they wandered about 

 for 29 days {k) endeavoring to find a way out of their difficulties, and at 

 last returned to die of starvation, Burke at Innamincka and Wills at 

 Brierili — two heroes who sacrificed their lives to the ultimate benefit 

 of their country. 



I speak with some feelings of certainty as to the difficulties they 

 would probably have had to meet on the route to Mount Hopeless, 

 for the first thing I did after fixing my depot on my second expedition 

 was to open up a line of communication with the northern settlements 

 in South Australia. As there did not seem to have been any rain, I 

 went provided for the worst. I took nine camels, which, in addition 

 to the necessary food and personal requirements of the party of five, 

 had all our water-bags full, the load being as much as they could carry, 

 the smaller camels being obliged, in some places, to ascend the steeper 

 sandridges on their knees. For the first three days from the depot 

 we travelled over earthy plains and sandridges without any signs of 

 grass. In many parts the dead bushes on the tops of the ridges were, 

 so to say, standing on tiptoe, the sand having been blown away from 

 them. Fortunately, however, summer rains had fallen at Strzelecki 

 Creek, and thence onwards to Petamorra I had plenty of water. 

 Before these summer rains the country was probably as bare and water- 

 less as that we crossed during the first three days, and it would, under 

 such conditions, have been impossible for Burke and his companions 

 to have made their way through. 



My return journey to the depot was made by following up the 

 course of Cooper's Creek, and thus having permanent waters all the 

 way. 



When one considers all the circumstances which contributed to 

 the disastrous ending of the Burke and Wills Expedition, one might 

 well call them a series of misfortunes. But in considering them and 

 the causes which produced them, I am of the same opinion as the Royal 

 Commission, that the party " was most injudiciously divided at 

 Menindie. It was an error of judgment on the part of Mr. Burke to 



(k) " Andrew Jackson, Robert O'Hara Burke, and the Australian Explora- 

 tion Expedition of 1860," p. 122, "Journal of the Trip from Cooper's 

 Creek towards Adelaide, April, 1861." 



