Travelling in the footsteps of Burke and Wills By Mary Bremner
With international travel only existing in our dreams and state borders closed for much of the year, many of us have satisfied our wanderlust within our own state. As travel Plan A, became Plans B and C, the Silo Art Trail was popular, and towns such as Bright and Beechworth have been heavily booked. As for my husband and me, our Plan A was a camping trip to south-west Queensland. Destination – the Burke and Wills Dig Tree. A visit to this location has been on my travel bucket list ever since I learned the story of this ill-fated expedition as a child. It was impossible not to be moved at the utter despair that must have been felt by the party of three explorers, who stumbled into the depot camp on the banks of Coopers Creek to find no one there and the coals of the fire still warm. The support party had waited over four months, but gave up hope on the lives of their fellow explorers and departed for home only nine hours before. Burke, Wills and King were three survivors of the party of four that had set out for the Gulf of Carpentaria, thus
Queensland – a route that became impossible under COVID-induced border closures. Not to be deterred, we decided to stick with the Burke and Wills theme, and follow their journey from Melbourne to the point where they crossed the Murray River.
Burke & Wills ‘Dig Tree’ explanatory board at Mt Hope
achieving the purpose of the expedition – to cross Australia from south to north. They found the word ‘DIG’ carved into a tree and unearthed some basic supplies buried at its base. Burke and Wills later died in the desert, while King survived, thanks to sustenance supplied by the local indigenous people. It is still possible to see the tree and its famous blaze, and to camp near the location of these dramatic events. Our journey was supposed to take us into New South Wales, South Australia and
A guide book provided us with maps for the roads that most closely follow the explorers’ actual route. It also contained background information with excerpts from their diaries.
To complete the experience we listened, while driving, to an informative podcast about the expedition from the Explorers series. The Victorian Exploration Expedition, consisting of 19 men, 23 horses, 26 camels and six heavily laden American wagons, left to great fanfare from Royal Park in Melbourne on 20 August 1860. Robert O’Hara Burke had been selected to lead the party, notwithstanding his complete lack of exploration or outback experience. Their first camp was at Queens Park in Moonee Ponds and their second camp is now covered by a runway at Tullamarine Airport. With Melbourne out-of-bounds, we picked up the trail on the Lancefield road, near Sunbury, close to the site of Camp 3. The cold and showery weather resembled that experienced by the expeditioners. From the comfort of our Ford Ranger, we had pity for the men and their animals – the overloaded wagons soon became bogged, while the camels, purchased at huge expense for their abilities in the desert, struggled to walk on the muddy ground. The ‘officers’ on the expedition took full advantage of hospitality offered at station homesteads and available hotel accommodation along the route.
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