CHAPTER XXXIX 

 THE BURKE AND WILLS EXPEDITION, 1 860-61 



FLUSH TIMES IN VICTORIA. A "THOROUGH" INLAND EXPEDITION PLANNED. POLICE 

 INSPECTOR BURKE, LEADER, WILLIAM J. WILLS, ASTRONOMICAL AND METEORO- 

 LOGICAL OBSERVER. EIGHTEEN MEN LEAVE MELBOURNE WITH CAMELS, HORSES, 

 DRAYS AND 21 TONS OF PROVISIONS. DEPOT AT FORT WILLS, COOPER'S CREEK. 

 TIRED OF WAITING FOR FULL EQUIPMENT, BURKE MAKES A " DASH " FOR GULF 

 OF CARPENTARIA, WITH WILLS, KING AND GRAY. NORTHWARD, 6TH DECEMBER, 

 i860. UP DlAMANTINA RlVER. ACROSS WATERSHED AND DOWN CLONCURRY 

 RIVER TO ITS JUNCTION WITH FLINDERS. DOWN THE FLINDERS TO THE GULF 

 BETWEEN BYNOE MOUTH AND NORMAN RIVER, IITH FEBRUARY, 1861. 

 THEY MISTAKE THE FLINDERS FOR STOKES' ALBERT RIVER. BACK TO SITE 

 OF FUTURE CLONCURRY TOWNSHIP. SELWYN RANGE. O'HARA'S GAP. 

 DOWN BURKE RIVER. SITE OF FUTURE BOULIA TOWNSHIP. DEATH OF 

 GRAY, iyTH APRIL. BURKE, WILLS AND KING REACH FORT WILLS IN 

 THE AFTERNOON OF 2IST APRIL. PARTY IN CHARGE HAD LEFT AT NOON, 

 LEAVING LETTER FOR BuRKE. HOPELESS TO OVERTAKE THEM. A WEEK IN CAMP. 

 DEATH OF CAMELS. STARVATION. LIVING ON ALMS GIVEN BY NATIVES. 

 ATTEMPT TO GO WESTWARD TO EYRE'S MOUNT HOPELESS FRUSTRATED. SEARCH 

 FOR AND PREPARATION OF FOOD (NARDOO) TAKES ALL THE TIME. No PROGRESS. 

 DEATH OF BURKE AND WILLS. KING MEETS NATIVES, WHO SUPPORT HIM TILL 

 HE IS RESCUED BY HoWITT's SEARCH PARTY, I5TH SEPTEMBER. DEATH OF FOUR 

 MEMBERS OF OTHER SECTIONS OF THE EXPEDITION. 



STRICTLY speaking, the famous "Burke and Wills Ex- 

 pedition " has no place in a history of the Cape York 

 Peninsula. At its " furthest north " it merely touched 

 one of the angles of the Peninsula, but its disastrous finish 

 was the signal for the dispatch of a number of search parties, three 

 of which were destined to add something to our knowledge of the 

 region under review. 1 



1 Burke's Diary. 



Tracks of McKinlay and Party across A ustralia, by John Davis, one of the Expedition. 

 Edited from Mr. Davis's Manuscript Journal : With an Introductory View of the 

 Recent Australian Explorations of McDouall Stuart, Burke and Wills, Landsborough, 

 etc., by William Westgarth. London, 1863. 



A History of the Discovery and Exploration of Australia, by the Rev. Julian E. 

 Tenison Woods. London, 1865. 



The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888, by Ernest Favenc. Sydney, 

 1888. 



Stories of Australian Exploration, by Charles R. Long, M.A. Melbourne, 1903. 

 Revised Edition, 1918. 



A Short History of Australia, by Professor Ernest Scott. London, 1916. 



A nniversary A ddress of the President of the Royal Society of Victoria (Sir Frederick 

 McCoy), 25th April, 1864. 



G. Phillips, " The Victorian Exploring Expedition, 1860-61." Queensland Geogr. 

 Journal, Vol. XXIII, 1908. 



274 



