Burke and Wills - Across Australia

Australia is a huge country, and the outback (the Australian word for the interior of the country) is desert. In some years, it rains only 8 centimeters in the outback, but in other years, rainstorms turn the desert into sandy swamps. Until the eighteenth century, only aborigines lived in Australia. These are the first people who lived in Australia. When Europeans went there to live, they built town on the coast. However, by the 1850s, people began thinking more about the interior.

In 1860, Robert O’ Hara Burke, a police officer from Ireland, was chosen to lead an expedition across the continent from south to north. He took with him William John Wills and eleven other men, camels, horses, and enough supplies for a year and a half. They left Melbourne for the Gulf of Carpentaria on August 20, winter in the southern hemisphere. The expedition had no experience in the outback. The men fought and would not follow orders. Twice they left some of their supplies so they could move faster and later sent one of the men, William Wright, back for them.

Finally, a small group led by Burke moved on ahead of the others to a river named Cooper’s Creek and set up their base camp. They were halfway across the continent, but it was summer now, with very hot weather and sandstorms. They waited a month for Wright, and then Burke decided that four from his small group, with 3 months’ supplies, should travel the 1250 kilometers to the north coast as quickly as possible. They told the others to wait for them at Cooper’s Creek.

The journey across the desert was very difficult, but at the end of January, they reached the Flinders River near the Gulf of Carpentaria. They started their return journey, but now it was the rainy season and traveling was slow and even more difficult than on their trip north. They did not have enough food, and the men became hungry and sick. Then one of them died. Some of the camels died or were killed for food.

Finally, on April 21, they arrived back at Cooper’s Creek, only to find that no one was there. The rest of the expedition left the day before because they thought Burke must be dead. The men continued south, but without enough food, both Burke and Wills died. Aborigines helped the last man who was still alive, and a search party found him in September 1861. He was half crazy from hunger and loneliness.

There were many reasons that the expedition did not go as it was planned. It had an inexperienced leader, the men made bad decisions, some did not follow orders, and they did not get along. But they were the first expedition to cross Australia, and Burke and Wills are still known as heroes of exploration.