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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burke and Wills Dig Tree | 2/4 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burke_and_Wills_Dig_Tree | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T12:39:52.548626+00:00 | kb-cron |
=== Coopers Creek Depot === On 6 December 1860 Burke and his seven men established Camp LXV (65) at Cooper's Creek, having halted at several other spots along the Creek during the preceding three and a half weeks while searching for the best location for a longer-term depot. Here Burke split his party once again, and on 16 December pressed on to the Gulf accompanied only by Wills, King and Gray. Brahe, Thomas McDonough, William Patten and Dost Mahomet were instructed by Burke to wait for at least three months (the more cautious Wills preferred four months), before retracing their steps homewards via the Darling River. During their stay at Camp LXV, Brahe's party erected a timber stockade to protect themselves and their supplies from the unwanted interest of local Aborigines. Four months later on the morning of 21 April 1861, William Brahe and his party of three others including the seriously injured Patten, left for Menindee. Before embarking on this four-hundred-mile return journey, Brahe carved three messages on two separate coolibah trees at Depot Camp LXV. One of the inscriptions contained the word 'DIG' and the location of the cache of buried stores. Two other blazes were carved on an adjacent tree; one displaying the letter 'B' for Burke and the camp number 'LXV', the other contained the dates of the arrival of the party (6 December 1860) and the date of Brahe's departure. Brahe noted in his journal that the party left the depot at 10 o'clock a.m., leaving 50 pounds (23 kg) of flour, 50 pounds (23 kg) of oatmeal, 50 pounds (23 kg) of sugar, and 30 pounds (14 kg) of rice buried near the stockade, at the foot of a large tree, and marked the word "Dig" on the tree. Brahe headed towards Menindee, taking all the camels, horses and clothes, and the bulk of the remaining food stores. He later testified that he did not leave the message and stores in any real expectation of Burke's return, given that he was already well overdue. "Rather, only for any party that should come up - that was most likely to come up from the Darling - to know what had become of us. I was very likely to miss any party coming up", he told the 1861–2 Royal Commission established to inquire into and report upon the deaths of Burke and Wills. Burke's party, by now reduced to three with the death of Gray on 17 April 1861, reached Camp LXV on the evening of 21 April 1861. Only two exhausted camels survived and the men were perilously low on stores. They discovered that Brahe had departed that same day, leaving the messages carved into the Dig Tree pointing to the cache of supplies. Subsequent events would prove to be a litany of missed opportunities and failure to communicate. A week after their departure from Camp LXV, Brahe met with Wright's party, heading north and finally en route to Cooper's Creek. Brahe and Wright then returned to the camp, but having noticed no evidence of Burke's return on 21 April, left no further messages or indications and retraced their steps southwards. Brahe arrived in Melbourne late in June 1861 to report on the missing men. On April 23 Burke's trio began the 150-mile westward journey to Blanchewater Station, near Mount Hopeless in South Australia, preferring to take this direction over the longer, but known, journey to Menindee. Twice they were forced back to Cooper's Creek due to lack of water to the west. They then remained along the Creek throughout June. On 30 May 1861 Wills had returned to Camp LXV. He found no evidence of Brahe's return in early May, and placed his journals and a new note in the buried cache for fear of accidents, and returned to his companions waiting further along Cooper's Creek. After surviving on ground nardoo, which was slowly poisoning them due to their lack of expertise in its preparation in leaching out the toxins, Wills died alone on the banks of Cooper's Creek on 27 or 28 June. He had insisted that his companions head further up the creek to seek assistance from the Aborigines. A day or two later, Burke also succumbed, having sent King on to look for help. With the assistance of Aborigines, King survived along the watercourse until found on 15 September 1861 by Alfred William Howitt's search party.