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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burke and Wills expedition | 1/9 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burke_and_Wills_expedition | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T12:39:46.567045+00:00 | kb-cron |
The Burke and Wills expedition, originally called the Victorian Exploring Expedition, was an exploration expedition organised by the Royal Society of Victoria (RSV) in Australia in 1860–61. The exploration party initially consisted of nineteen men led by Robert O'Hara Burke, with William John Wills being a deputy commander. Its objective was the crossing of Australia from Melbourne in the south to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north, a distance of around 3,250 kilometres (approximately 2,000 miles). At that time most of the inland of Australia had not been explored by non-Indigenous people and was largely unknown to European settlers. The expedition left Melbourne in winter. Very bad weather, poor roads and broken-down horse wagons meant they made slow progress at first. After dividing the party at Menindee on the Darling River, Burke made good progress, reaching Cooper Creek at the beginning of summer. The expedition established a depot camp at Cooper Creek, and Burke, Wills and two other men pushed on to the north coast (although dense swampland stopped them from reaching the northern coastline). The return journey was plagued by delays and monsoon rains, and when Burke's party reached the depot at Cooper Creek, they found it had been abandoned just hours earlier. Burke and Wills died on or about 30 June 1861. Several relief expeditions were sent out, all contributing new geographical findings. Altogether, seven men died, and only one man, the Irish soldier John King, crossed the continent with the expedition and returned alive to Melbourne.
== Background == In 1851, gold was discovered in what was then the Colony of Victoria. The subsequent gold rush led to a huge influx of migrants, with the local population increasing from 29,000 in 1851 to 139,916 in 1861 (Sydney had 93,686 at the time). As a result, Melbourne rapidly grew to become Australia's largest city and the second largest city of the British Empire. The boom lasted forty years and ushered in the era known as "marvellous Melbourne". The influx of educated gold seekers from England, Ireland and Germany led to rapid growth of schools, churches, learned societies, libraries and art galleries. The University of Melbourne was founded in 1855 and the State Library of Victoria in 1856. The Philosophical Institute of Victoria was founded in 1854 and became the Royal Society of Victoria (RSV) after receiving a Royal Charter in 1859. By 1855 there was speculation about possible routes for the Australian Overland Telegraph Line to connect Australia to the new telegraph cable in Java, then part of the Dutch East Indies, and then Europe. There was fierce competition between the colonies over the hypothetical route, with governments recognising the economic benefits that would result from becoming the centre of the telegraph network. A number of routes were considered including Ceylon to Albany in Western Australia, or Java to the north coast of Australia and then either onto east coast, or south through the centre of the continent to Adelaide. The Government of Victoria organised the Burke and Wills expedition to cross the continent in 1860. The Government of South Australia offered a reward of £2000 to encourage an expedition to find a route between South Australia and the north coast.
== Exploration Committee ==
In 1857 the Philosophical Institute formed an Exploration Committee with the aim of investigating the practicability of fitting out an expedition of the Australian interior. While interest in inland exploration was strong in the neighbouring colonies of New South Wales and South Australia, in Victoria enthusiasm was limited. Even the anonymous donation of £1,000 (later discovered to be from Ambrose Kyte) to the Fund Raising Committee of the RSV failed to generate much interest and it wasn't until 1860 that sufficient money was raised and the expedition was assembled. The Exploration Committee called for offers of interest for a leader for the Victorian Exploring Expedition. Only two members of the committee, Ferdinand von Mueller and Wilhelm Blandowski, had any experience in exploration. However, due to factionalism, both men were consistently outvoted. Several people were considered for the post of leader and the RSV held a range of meetings in early 1860. Robert O'Hara Burke was selected by committee ballot as the leader, and William John Wills was recommended as surveyor, navigator and third-in-command. Burke made for an unusual choice as he had no experience in exploration; he was an Irish-born ex-officer with the colonial forces, and later became police superintendent with virtually no skills in bushcraft. Wills was more adept than Burke at living in the wilderness, but it was Burke's leadership skills (or lack thereof) that were especially detrimental to the mission. Rather than take cattle to be slaughtered during the trip, the Exploration Committee decided to experiment with dried meat. The weight required three extra wagons and slowed the expedition down appreciably.
=== Instructions from the Exploration Committee ===
The Exploration Committee gave Burke written instructions. These included suggestions for the expedition's route, but also gave Burke discretion depending on conditions and barriers he might encounter. The instructions were signed by the Honorary Secretary Dr John Macadam and in part advised:
"The object of the Committee in directing you to Coopers Creek is that you should explore the country intervening between it and Ludwig Leichhardt's track south of the Gulf of Carpentaria avoiding as far as practicable Sturt's route on the west and Gregory's down the Victoria on the east….. should you determine the impracticability of this route you are desired to turn westward into the country recently discovered by Stuart and connect his furthest point north with Gregory's furthest southern exploration in 1856..... The Committee is fully aware of the difficulty of the Country you are called on to traverse and in giving you these instructions has placed these routes before you more as an indication of what it has been deemed desirable to have accomplished than as indicating an exact course for you to pursue.