How old is burke and wills

They had three goals: scientific discovery, seeking new grazing land and finding a route for an overland telegraph line.

South Australian explorer John McDouall Stuart had already discovered productive grazing country during several expeditions from Adelaide to north of Lake Eyre by the late s. It was lavishly equipped with items including 50 gallons of rum to revive tired camels there were 27 of them , and an oak table. However, three months passed before Wright left Menindee.

Just over a month later he divided the exploring party again, setting off with Wills, King and Gray for the Gulf of Carpentaria. William Brahe was left in charge of the depot with instructions to wait three months for their return. On about 9 February the four expeditioners reached the Bynoe River, near the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Burke and Wills left the other two and tried to walk to the ocean but were unable to find a way through the mangrove swamps. The party started their return journey to Cooper Creek on 12 February Extreme heat and illness forced the party to rest at the Bulloo River where Charles Stone, William Purcell and Ludwig Becker died of malnutrition and dysentery between 22 and 29 April.

On 5 June William Patton also died. He buried a cache of food and a note stating his intention at the foot of a coolabah tree. About nine hours after Brahe departed, Burke, Wills and King arrived.

They found the cache, which had enough supplies for a month, but instead of following Brahe back to Menindee or staying at the depot, on 22 April they decided to head south west to try to reach a station at Mount Hopeless. Burke, Wills and King buried a message of their own under the Dig Tree explaining their plans. They were careful to leave no trace that they had been there, so that Aboriginal people would not dig up the letter.

Brahe too left no indication of his visit, so that when Wills doubled back for one last look at the depot on 27 May , he found nothing to suggest that anyone had returned to search for them. Wills died alone, having urged the other two to leave him and keep searching for Yandruwandha people who had been generous with their food and hospitable since the expeditioners had arrived at Cooper Creek.

Up to this point, these overtures of cooperation had been met with suspicion and sometimes hostility by the explorers.

King eventually found the Yandruwandha people, who accepted him into their community and saved his life. They reached Menindee on 16 October where Landells resigned following an argument with Burke. Wills was promoted to second-in-command. Burke split the expedition at Menindee and the lead party reached Cooper Creek on 11 November where they formed a depot. The remaining men were expected to follow up from Menindee and so after a break, Burke decided to make a dash to the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Burke split the party again and left on 16 December , placing William Brahe in charge of the depot on Cooper Creek. Flooding rains and swamps meant they never saw open ocean. Already weakened by starvation and exposure, progress on the return journey was slow and hampered by the tropical monsoon downpours of the wet season.

Gray died four days before they reached the depot at Cooper Creek and the other three took a day to bury him. They eventually reached the depot on 21 April to find the men had not arrived from Menindee, and ironically that Brahe and the Depot Party had given up waiting and left just 9 hours earlier. Brahe had already waited 18 weeks for their return he and Burke had agreed to 13 weeks and had buried a note and some food underneath a tree which is now known as the Dig Tree.

Burke, Wills and King attempted to reach Mount Hopeless, the furthest extent of settlement in South Australia, which was closer than Menindie the route preferred by Wills [2], but failed and returned to Cooper Creek. While waiting for rescue Wills became exhausted and was unable to continue. He urged Burke and King to continue on, leaving him alone with food, water and shelter. The trio stumbled back to the main camp on Coopers Creek to find the rest of the party had left for Melbourne that morning.

Both Wills and Burke died two months later within a few hundred metres of each other. King managed to stay alive for another month, helped by Aboriginals, before a search party found him. Many memorials have been erected throughout Victoria to the Burke and Wills expedition, and small memorials can be found at their death sites near Innamincka, South Australia. Burketown, near the Gulf of Carpentaria, is named after Burke, as is the mainly dry Burke River in central western Queensland.

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