BURKE AND WILLS EXPEDITION 275 



The sixth and seventh decades of the nineteenth century were 

 " flush " times in the new colony of Victoria, for the output of the 

 goldfields had flooded it with prosperity. A period of lavish, 

 extravagant and whimsical private spending suggested that the 

 Colony should do something worthy of itself in its collective 

 capacity, and a proposal for a thorough exploration of the interior 

 of Australia by a strong party equipped as no previous party had 

 ever been was enthusiastically taken up. A sum of 12,000 was 

 found in Victoria for the expedition itself, and it has been calculated 

 that, including the relief expeditions, at least 50,000 was expended. 

 An ideal leader seemed to have been found in ROBERT O'HARA 

 BURKE, a popular Inspector of Police. With him was associated 

 WILLIAM JOHN WILLS, at first as astronomical and meteorological 

 observer, but he soon became second in command. There were 

 in all eighteen men when the expedition left Melbourne in August, 

 1860, with at least 20 camels, numerous horses and drays and 21 tons 

 of provisions. 



A depot, FORT WILLS, Camp 65, was made on Cooper's Creek 

 on the Queensland side of the South Australian border line, and 

 here Burke and half the party waited for some time for the arrival 

 of the other half, with the greater part of the stores. Burke soon 

 grew tired of waiting and, having determined to make a dash for 

 the GULF OF CARPENTARIA, left Fort Wills on i6tb December, 1860, 

 accompanied by Wills, King and Gray, taking two horses, six 

 camels and three months' provisions. On a course a little east of 

 north, he struck the DIAMANTINA, which he named and followed 

 up, and then crossed the almost imperceptible watershed between 

 that river and the Cloncurry, which latter river was struck at the 

 site of the future Cloncurry township. (SEE MAP R.) 



The CLONCURRY (which Burke named after Lord Cloncurry) 

 was traced down to the north till it fell into the Flinders, and the 

 FLINDERS was then followed down till it debouched on the coastal 

 plain and led the party of four almost to the sea. (SEE MAP M.) By 

 this time it was the middle of February, 1861, and four of the camels 

 had died and the stock of provisions had diminished to such an extent 

 that a single exhausted pack-horse could easily carry it. King and 

 Gray were therefore left behind on 9th February while Burke and 

 Wills pushed on through the mangroves. They did not actually 

 see the blue water of the Gulf, but they saw the salt water rushing 

 through the tortuous passages in the mangrove swamps with the 

 rise and fall of the tides. The camp (No. 119, lat. 17 53', 

 according to Wills' Diary) where King and Gray were left 

 behind has been identified by means of marked trees on the right 

 bank of the Bynoe Arm (or mouth) of the Flinders, about 5 miles 

 below where it leaks out of the river. Burke and Wills probably 

 reached (nth February, 1861) a point between the BYNOE MOUTH 

 OF THE FLINDERS and the mouth of the NORMAN RIVER. From the 



