LANDSBOROUGH 279 



SON (SECOND-IN-COMMAND) SENT TO BLANCHE WATER STATION, S.A. RETURNS 

 WITH NEWS OF RESCUE OF KING BY HOWITT. McKiNLAY VISITS GRAVES OF 

 WILLS AND BURKE. DETERMINES TO LOOK FOR THEIR TRACKS IN THE NORTH. 



UP DlAMANTINA RlVER. UP HAMILTON RlVER. CROSSES SfiLWYN RANGE. 



DOWN McKiNLAY RIVER TO ITS JUNCTION WITH CLONCURRY RIVER (3OTH APRIL). 

 DOWN CLONCURRY RIVER. CROSSES AND NAMES DUGALD RIVER. NORTH- 

 WESTERLY TO GREGORY'S LEICHHARDT RIVER. DOWN RIVER TO THE GULF 

 (ALBERT INLET). SATISFIED THAT BURKE AND WILLS HAD NOT REACHED THE 

 GULF HERE. PROVISIONS DIMINISHING. MAKES FOR PORT DENISON. SOUTH- 

 EASTWARD TO FLINDERS RIVER. ON DIVIDE BETWEEN BELMORE CREEK AND 

 GILBERT RIVER. SUBSEQUENT DISCOVERY OF GOLD AT CROYDON. GREGORY 

 RANGE. UP GILBERT RIVER. UP PERCY RIVER TO ITS HEAD. NORTH-EASTERLY 

 TO NEAR SITE OF FUTURE CARPENTARIA DOWNS STATION. ACROSS WATERSHED. 

 DOWN DRY RIVER AND BURDEKIN RIVER. LAST CAMEL KILLED AND EATEN. 

 Loss OF HORSES. BURY "ALL BUT THE CLOTHES THEY STOOD IN." HARVEY AND 

 SOMERS' STATION ON BOWEN RIVER (2ND AUGUST, 1862). STRATHMORE. NATIVE 

 POLICE CAMP. ARRIVE AT BOWEN. LEAVE BY SEA FOR ROCKHAMPTON (IJTH 

 AUGUST, 1862). FOUNDING OF BOWEN, 1861. JIMMY MORRILL, A SHIPWRECKED 

 SAILOR, SIXTEEN YEARS AMONG BLACKS. 



THE Brahe and Wright sections of Burke's expedition, 

 having effected a junction and visited Fort Wills (8th 

 May, 1 86 1 ), hastened back to civilisation. Their reports 

 reached Melbourne in the end of June, and steps were 

 at once taken to send out various parties in search of the missing 

 men. The most successful was that led by A. W. HOWITT, which 

 rescued the only survivor, KING (i5th September), and found the 

 bodies of WILLS and BURKE. There was no occasion for this 

 party to extend their search in the direction of the Cape York 

 Peninsula. 



I. LANDSBOROUGH 



Moved by the Royal Society of Victoria, the Victorian Govern- 

 ment, with the assistance of the Queensland Government, dis- 

 patched the " Firefly," a 2oo-ton brig, Captain Kirby, conveying 

 WILLIAM LANDSBOROUGH and his party, who were to land at the 

 Gulf of Carpentaria, and commence a search for Burke and his 

 men. Unfortunately the brig was severely damaged at the Sir 

 Charles Hardy Islands, but she was refitted and ultimately taken 

 (with twenty-five horses) to the Albert River by COMMANDER 

 NORMAN of H.M. Colonial Steamship " Victoria" where the hulk 

 was utilised as a depot. 1 



1 Extracts from " Report of W. Landsborough, in Command of the Queensland 

 Burke Relief Expedition, to Captain Norman, with reference to the Albert River. Sweers 

 Island, 8th October, 1861." Proc. Roy. Geogr. Soc., Vol. XXXIII, p. 79. 



Journal, " Landsborough's Expedition from Carpentaria to Victoria," ibid. p. 97. 



G. Phillips, " The Victorian Exploring Expedition, 1860-1," Queensland Geogr. 

 Journ., Vol. XXIII, 1908. 



Dispatch from Governor Sir H. Barkly to the Duke of Newcastle, 2ist August, 

 1862. Quoted in Proc. Roy. Geogr. Soc., London, Vol. XXXIII, p. 150. 



C. Bourne, Journal of Landsborough's Expedition from Carpentaria in Search of Burke 

 and Wills, Melbourne, 1862. 



