87-739: The Bulloo Developmental Road is an outback road in Queensland , Australia . It is part of the Adventure Way , a route from Brisbane to Adelaide via the Australian outback. It commences at Cunnamulla and travels approximately west for 361 kilometres (224 mi) until it meets the Cooper Developmental Road at 27°21′31″S 142°34′18″E / 27.3587°S 142.5718°E / -27.3587; 142.5718 . A project to widen and seal sections of
174-589: A Chinese gong ; the equipment all together weighed as much as twenty tonnes. Committee member Captain Francis Cadell had offered to transport the equipment from Adelaide up the Murray River to the junction with the Darling River to be collected on the way. However, Burke declined his offer, possibly because Cadell had opposed Burke's appointment as leader of the expedition. Instead, all of
261-525: 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,
348-470: A long way from anywhere, or a long way away. The well-watered north of the continent is often called the " Top End " and the arid interior "The Red Centre", owing to its vast amounts of red soil and sparse greenery amongst its landscape. The outback is criss-crossed by historic tracks. Most of the major highways have an excellent bitumen surface and other major roads are usually well-maintained dirt roads. The Stuart Highway runs from north to south through
435-464: A low human population density, a largely intact natural environment and, in many places, low-intensity land uses, such as pastoralism (livestock grazing) in which production is reliant on the natural environment. The Outback is deeply ingrained in Australian heritage, history and folklore . In Australian art the subject of the Outback has been vogue, particularly in the 1940s. In 2009, as part of
522-410: A message on a tree to mark the spot. Brahe blazed two trees ( 27°37′26″S 141°04′33″E / 27.623902°S 141.075784°E / -27.623902; 141.075784 ) at Camp 65. Located on the banks of Cooper Creek, both are coolibahs ( Eucalyptus coolabah formerly Eucalyptus microtheca ) and both are estimated to be at least 250 years old. One tree has two blazes on it; one denoting
609-495: A painting of this skirmish. On 29 April, Brahe's group arrived at the Bulloo River after abandoning Camp 65 eight days previously. They united with Wright's group and started to head back to Menindee to try and save their remaining men. However, Wright and Brahe decided to make one last quick excursion to Camp 65 to see if Burke had returned. When the two men arrived on 8 May, Burke had already left for Mount Hopeless , and
696-473: A place called Yaenimemgi, his pistol loaded and capped in his hand. King stayed with his body for two days and then returned downstream to Breerily waterhole, where he found that Wills had died as well. The exact dates on which Burke and Wills died are unknown, and different dates are given on various memorials in Victoria. The Exploration Committee fixed 28 June 1861 as the date both explorers died. After
783-506: A reward of £2000 to encourage an expedition to find a route between South Australia and the north coast. 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
870-414: A stockade for protection. For the rest of April, Wright was stuck at the lagoon, unable to move due to his sick men. Eventually three of the men, Dr Ludwig Becker , Charles Stone and William Purcell, died. Toward the end of the month, a large group of Galali tried to take down the stockade, with Wright's group firing upon and dispersing them. A member of Wright's party, William Hodgkinson , later produced
957-603: A week, Wills lived with them, sharing a gunyah with a man named Poko Tinnamira and learning some of their language. He became friends with another man called Pitchery, and was supplied with ample water and food. They even de-boned the fish for him before he ate it. By 5 June, Wills left this group to reunite with Burke and King. While Wills was away, Burke and King had also been well cared for by another group of Yandruwandha. However, when one of them took Burke's oilcloth after giving him some fish, Burke ran after him and shot over his head. King had also lined some Yandruwandha up outside
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#17328019125701044-593: Is a major component of national tourism incomes. Tourism Australia explicitly markets nature-based and Indigenous-led experiences to tourists. In the 2015–2016 financial year, 815,000 visitors spent $ 988 million while on holidays in the Northern Territory alone. There are many popular tourist attractions in the Outback. Some of the well known destinations include Devils Marbles , Kakadu National Park , Kata Tjuta (The Olgas), MacDonnell Ranges and Uluru (Ayers Rock) . Other than agriculture and tourism,
1131-452: Is claimed that the saloon, named after the nearby Black Stump Run and Black Stump Creek, was an important staging post for traffic to north-west New South Wales and it became a marker by which people gauged their journeys. "The Never-Never " is a term referring to remoter parts of the Outback. The Outback can also be referred to as "back of beyond" or "back o' Bourke ", although these terms are more frequently used when referring to something
1218-622: Is considerable. Major mines and mining areas in the Outback include opals at Coober Pedy , Lightning Ridge and White Cliffs , metals at Broken Hill , Tennant Creek , Olympic Dam and the remote Challenger Mine . Oil and gas are extracted in the Cooper Basin around Moomba . In Western Australia the Argyle diamond mine in the Kimberley was once the world's biggest producer of natural diamonds and contributed approximately one-third of
1305-430: Is full of very important well-adapted wildlife, although much of it may not be immediately visible to the casual observer. Many animals, such as red kangaroos and dingoes , hide in bushes to rest and keep cool during the heat of the day. Birdlife is prolific, most often seen at waterholes at dawn and dusk. Huge flocks of budgerigars , cockatoos , corellas and galahs are often sighted. On bare ground or roads during
1392-513: Is in Outback Australia, was fully certified as organic farm production, making Australia the largest certified organic production area in the world. Tourism is a major industry across the Outback, and commonwealth and state tourism agencies explicitly target Outback Australia as a desirable destination for domestic and international travellers. There is no breakdown of tourism revenues for the "Outback" per se . However, regional tourism
1479-464: Is now the town of Boulia ), Gray was caught stealing skilligolee (a type of watery porridge) and Burke beat him. By 8 April, Gray could not walk; he died on 17 April of dysentery at a place they called Polygonum Swamp. The location of his death is unknown, although it is generally believed to be Lake Massacre in South Australia . While the possibility that Burke killed Gray has been discounted,
1566-615: Is relied on for mail delivery in some areas, owing to sparse settlement and wet-season road closures. Most outback mines have an airstrip and many have a fly-in fly-out workforce. Most outback sheep stations and cattle stations have an airstrip and quite a few have their own light plane. Medical and ambulance services are provided by the Royal Flying Doctor Service . In 2024 two Regional, Rural and Remote air lines collapsed, namely Bonza and REX . Burke and Wills expedition The Burke and Wills expedition
1653-720: The Caryapundy floodplains to the Bulloo River , which was also known as Wright's Creek. At the Bulloo, they encountered around 120 Aboriginal residents and at times used their pathways to make their way to Cooper Creek, which they arrived at on 11 November. In 1860, Cooper Creek was the outer limit of the land that had been explored by Europeans, the river having been visited by Captain Charles Sturt in 1845 and Augustus Charles Gregory in 1858. Burke's party arrived at
1740-651: The Q150 celebrations, the Queensland Outback was announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for its role as a "natural attraction". Aboriginal peoples have lived in the Outback for at least 50,000 years and occupied all Outback regions, including the driest deserts, when Europeans first entered central Australia in the 1800s. Many Aboriginal Australians retain strong physical and cultural links to their traditional country and are legally recognised as
1827-543: The South Australian government offered a reward of £2,000 (about A$ 289,000 in 2011 dollars) for the first successful south–north crossing of the continent west of the 143rd line of longitude . The experienced explorer John McDouall Stuart had taken up the challenge. Burke was concerned Stuart might beat him to the north coast and he soon grew impatient with the expedition's slow progress, often averaging only 2 mi (3.2 km) an hour. Burke therefore split
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#17328019125701914-557: The Woomera Prohibited Area . Mineral exploration continues as new mineral deposits are identified and developed. 2002 was declared the Year of the Outback. While the early explorers used horses to cross the Outback, the first woman to make the journey riding a horse was Anna Hingley , who rode from Broome to Cairns in 2006. The paucity of industrial land use has led to the Outback being recognised globally as one of
2001-498: The Cooper Creek depot deserted after Brahe's group had left earlier that day. They found the "Dig Tree" and dug up the cache of supplies together with Brahe's letter explaining that the party had given up waiting and left. Burke's party had missed them by only nine hours. The three men and two remaining camels were exhausted; they had no hope of catching up to Brahe's party. Burke's party rested at Camp 65 for two days, living off
2088-427: The Cooper Creek depot was again deserted. Burke and Wills were 35 miles (56 km) away by this point. As the mark and date on the tree were unaltered, Brahe and Wright assumed that Burke had not returned, and did not think to check whether the supplies were still buried. They left to rejoin the main party and return to Menindee. Burke, Wills and King arrived at Camp 65 in the evening of Sunday, 21 April 1861, finding
2175-468: The Cooper on 11 November and they formed a depot at Camp LXIII (Camp 63). While conducting a ninety-mile reconnaissance to the north of this camp, Wills lost three camels and had to walk back to the depot. A plague of rats forced the men to move camp, so they formed a second depot further downstream at a waterhole. This was Camp LXV (Camp 65), where they erected a stockade which they named Fort Wills. It
2262-556: The Darling, Landells resigned from the expedition, followed by the expedition's surgeon , Dr Hermann Beckler . Third-in-command Wills was promoted to second-in-command. They reached Menindee on 12 October, having taken two months to travel 750 km (470 mi) from Melbourne—the regular mail coach did the journey in little more than a week. By this time two of the expedition's five officers had resigned, thirteen members had been fired and eight new men had been hired. In July 1859
2349-616: The Exploration Committee purchased an additional six from George Coppin's Cremorne Gardens . The camels were initially housed in the stables at Parliament House and later moved to Royal Park . Twenty-six camels were taken on the expedition, with six (two females with their two young calves and two males) being left in Royal Park. The Burke and Wills expedition set off from Royal Park at about 4pm on 20 August 1860, watched by around 15,000 spectators. The nineteen men of
2436-563: The Federal Government. While small areas of the outback consist of clay soils the majority has exceedingly infertile palaeosols . Riversleigh , in Queensland, is one of Australia's most renowned fossil sites and was recorded as a World Heritage site in 1994. The 100 km (39 sq mi) area contains fossil remains of ancient mammals, birds and reptiles of Oligocene and Miocene age. The largest industry across
2523-529: The Gulf with six camels, one horse and enough food for just three months. By now it was mid-summer and the daily temperature often reached 122 °F (50 °C) in the shade, and in the Strzelecki and Sturt Stony Deserts there was very little shade to be found. Brahe was ordered by Burke to wait for three months; however, the more conservative Wills had reviewed the maps and developed a more realistic view of
2610-533: The Irish soldier John King , crossed the continent with the expedition and returned alive to Melbourne. 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
2697-416: The Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass a number of climatic zones, including tropical and monsoonal climates in northern areas, arid areas in the "red centre" and semi-arid and temperate climates in southerly regions. The total population is estimated at 607,000 people. Geographically, the Outback is unified by a combination of factors, most notably
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2784-401: The Outback, culminating in successfully reaching the north coast of Australia and returning without the loss of any of the party's members' lives. This contrasts with the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition in 1860–61 which was much better funded, but resulted in the deaths of three of the members of the transcontinental party. The Overland Telegraph line was constructed in the 1870s along
2871-675: The Outback, in terms of the area occupied, is pastoralism , in which cattle, sheep, and sometimes goats are grazed in mostly intact, natural ecosystems. Widespread use of bore water, obtained from underground aquifers, including the Great Artesian Basin , has enabled livestock to be grazed across vast areas in which no permanent surface water exists naturally. Capitalising on the lack of pasture improvement and absence of fertiliser and pesticide use, many Outback pastoral properties are certified as organic livestock producers. In 2014, 17,000,000 hectares (42,000,000 acres), most of which
2958-648: The Traditional Owners of large parts of the Outback under Commonwealth Native Title legislation. Early European exploration of inland Australia was sporadic. More focus was on the more accessible and fertile coastal areas. The first party to successfully cross the Blue Mountains just outside Sydney was led by Gregory Blaxland in 1813, 25 years after the colony was established. People, starting with John Oxley in 1817, 1818 and 1821, followed by Charles Sturt from 1829 to 1830, attempted to follow
3045-416: The adverbial phrase referring to the back yard of a house , and came to be used meiotically in the late 1800s to describe the vast sparsely settled regions of Australia behind the cities and towns. The earliest known use of the term in this context in print was in 1869, when the writer clearly meant the area west of Wagga Wagga , New South Wales . Over time, the adverbial use of the phrase was replaced with
3132-482: The cache under the marked tree in case a rescue party visited the area. Unfortunately, they did not change the mark on the tree or alter the date. On 23 April they set off, following Cooper Creek downstream and then heading out into the Strzelecki Desert towards Mount Hopeless. After leaving the "Dig Tree", Burke's party rarely travelled more than 5 mi (8.0 km) a day, mostly following paths used by
3219-443: The camp on the Cooper for thirteen weeks. The party had actually waited for eighteen weeks and was running low on supplies and starting to feel the effects of scurvy; they had come to believe that Burke would never return from the Gulf. After one of the men at the depot, Patton, had injured his leg from being thrown off a horse, Brahe decided to return to Menindee. Before leaving he buried some provisions in case Burke did return, carving
3306-524: The centre of the continent, roughly paralleled by the Adelaide–Darwin railway . There is a proposal to develop some of the roads running from the south-west to the north-east to create an all-weather road named the Outback Highway , crossing the continent diagonally from Laverton, Western Australia (north of Kalgoorlie , through the Northern Territory to Winton , in Queensland. Air transport
3393-404: The cold. Wills' last entry in his journal was on 29 June, when King and Burke had decided to leave him to look for an Aboriginal camp. Wills had become too weak to continue. At his own insistence he was left behind at Breerily waterhole with some food, water and shelter. Burke and King continued upstream for another two days until Burke became too weak to continue. He died the following morning at
3480-552: The date of arrival and the date of departure "DEC-6-60" carved over "APR-21-61" and the other showing the initial "B" (for Burke) carved over the Roman numerals for (camp) 65; "B" over "LXV". The date blaze has grown closed and only the camp number blaze remains visible today. On an adjacent smaller tree, Brahe carved the instruction to "DIG". The exact inscription is not known, but is variously recalled to be "DIG", "DIG under", "DIG 3 FT N.W.", "DIG 3FT N.E." or "DIG 21 APR 61". Initially
3567-411: The deaths of Burke and Wills, King found a two-week supply of nardoo flour at an abandoned Aboriginal camp. He then came across a group of Yandruwandha willing to give him food and shelter, and in return he shot birds to contribute to their supplies. He became more closely united with this clan after he attempted to heal a skin sore on a woman named Carrawaw, and lived with them for around a month until he
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3654-489: The discovery of camel bones in 2005. To extend their food supply, Burke's party ate portulaca , a flowering plant. Gray also caught an 11 lb (5.0 kg) python (probably Aspidites melanocephalus , a black-headed python), which they ate. Both Burke and Gray immediately came down with dysentery . Gray was ill, but Burke thought he was "gammoning" (pretending). On 25 March on the Burke River (just south of what
3741-579: 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
3828-520: The environment, so time and money is spent eradicating them in an attempt to help protect fragile rangelands. The Outback is home to a diverse set of animal species, such as the kangaroo, emu and dingo. The Dingo Fence was built to restrict movements of dingoes and wild dogs into agricultural areas towards the south east of the continent. The marginally fertile parts are primarily utilised as rangelands and have been traditionally used for sheep or cattle grazing, on cattle stations which are leased from
3915-470: The expedition included six Irishmen, five Englishmen, three Germans, an American, and four camel drivers from South Asia . They took twenty-three horses, six wagons and twenty-six camels. The members of the expedition at the time of departure were: The expedition took a large amount of equipment, including enough food to last two years, a cedar-topped oak camp table with two chairs, pocket charcoal water filters, rifles , revolvers , rockets, flags and
4002-593: 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
4089-512: The explorers wouldn't get cold. However, by 10 May these Yandruwandha moved elsewhere, forcing the three men to fend for themselves. They were unable to locate other Aboriginal camps and had to make do for the next two weeks camping next to a nardoo patch, preparing this food themselves. At the end of May 1861, Burke ordered Wills to return to the "Dig Tree" to deposit some items for safekeeping. During this trip, Wills met with two more Yandruwandha clans who offered their hospitality to him. For about
4176-502: The following days trying to find another Aboriginal camp, but unsurprisingly the Yandruwandha had cleared out from the area. Over the next few weeks, the three men subsisted on leftover camel meat and nardoo they prepared themselves. The weather became rainy and cold, and they had little to protect themselves from exposure to the elements. Wills recorded that the nardoo agreed with King more, while he and Burke were starving and feeling
4263-443: The group, taking fifteen horses, sixteen camels and the seven fittest men; Wills, Brahe, Patton, McDonough, King, Gray and Dost Mahomet. He also reduced the amount of equipment, with plans to push on quickly to Cooper Creek (then known as Cooper's Creek) and then wait for the others left behind at Menindee to catch up. They departed Menindee on 19 October, guided by a Paakantyi man named Dick Barkinji , William Wright (the manager of
4350-548: The gunyah they were staying in and fired over their heads after he felt threatened by their approach. Burke then went up to another group who had arrived with nets full of fish. He knocked the nets out of their hands and ordered King to fire over them. They ran away and Burke collected the fish left behind. While cooking this fish, Burke accidentally set fire to the gunyah they were in, destroying most of their remaining belongings except for Burke's pistol and another firearm. On 6 June, Wills had returned to Burke and King. They spent
4437-427: 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
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#17328019125704524-555: The lack of proper medical facilities and trained personnel. In many outback communities, the number of children is too small for a conventional school to operate. Children are educated at home by the School of the Air . Originally the teachers communicated with the children via radio, but now satellite telecommunication is used instead. Some children attend boarding school, mostly only those in secondary school. The term "outback" derives from
4611-718: The largest discretion as regards the forming of depots, and your movements generally…. The Exploration Committee of the Royal Society of Victoria included: Camels had been used successfully in desert exploration in other parts of the world, but by 1859 only seven camels had been imported into Australia . The Victorian government appointed George James Landells to purchase twenty-four camels in India for use in desert exploration. The animals arrived in Melbourne in June 1860, and
4698-631: The largest remaining intact natural areas on Earth. Global " Human Footprint " and wilderness reviews highlight the importance of Outback Australia as one of the world's large natural areas, along with the Boreal forests and Tundra regions in North America, the Sahara and Gobi deserts and the tropical forests of the Amazon and Congo Basins. The savanna (or grassy woodlands) of northern Australia are
4785-508: The largest, intact savanna regions in the world. In the south, the Great Western Woodlands , which occupy 16,000,000 hectares (40,000,000 acres), an area larger than all of England and Wales, are the largest remaining temperate woodland left on Earth. Reflecting the wide climatic and geological variation, the Outback contains a wealth of distinctive and ecologically rich ecosystems. Major land types include: The Outback
4872-468: The local Aboriginal residents. The region was well populated with Yandruwandha people and they were very courteous to the three explorers, giving them fish, beans called padlu and a type of damper made from the ground sporocarps of the ngardu (nardoo) plant ( Marsilea drummondii ) in exchange for sugar. One of the two remaining camels, Landa , was shot when he became bogged in Minkie waterhole and
4959-532: The main economic activity in this vast and sparsely settled area is mining. Owing to the almost complete absence of mountain building and glaciation since the Permian (in many areas since the Cambrian ) ages, the outback is extremely rich in iron, aluminium, manganese and uranium ores, and also contains major deposits of gold, nickel, copper, lead and zinc ores. Because of its size, the value of grazing and mining
5046-470: The nearby Kinchega sheep station ) and another local Aboriginal man. Wright was appointed third-in-command and travel was relatively easy because recent rain made water abundant, and the unusually mild weather temperatures exceeded 90 °F (32 °C) only twice. Wright and Barkinji had also travelled the same way near to Cooper Creek a few months beforehand. Burke's party journeyed via waterholes at Bilpa, Langawirra, Mutawintiji and Wannaminta to
5133-483: The other, Rajah , later collapsed on 7 May. Without pack animals, it became impossible for Burke, Wills and King to leave Cooper Creek and cross the Strzelecki Desert. Over the next few days, the party encountered several Yandruwandha communities who gave them a variety of cooked foods, including fish, nardoo, native rats and padlu. They were also given gunyahs to sleep in and the stimulant pituri to chew. Some Yandruwandha even stayed attentive to their fire at night so
5220-496: 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
5307-610: The present day noun form. It is colloquially said that "the outback" is located "beyond the Black Stump ". The location of the black stump may be some hypothetical location or may vary depending on local custom and folklore. It has been suggested that the term comes from the Black Stump Wine Saloon that once stood about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) out of Coolah, New South Wales on the Gunnedah Road. It
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#17328019125705394-451: The provisions onto the camels for the first time, and to lessen the burden on the horses he ordered the men to walk. He also ordered that personal luggage be restricted to 30 lb (14 kg). At Bilbarka on the Darling, Burke and his second-in-command, Landells, argued after Burke decided to dump the 60 gallons (≈270 litres) of rum that Landells had brought to feed to the camels in the belief that it prevented scurvy . At Kinchega on
5481-469: The road, at a cost of $ 4.5 million, was due to commence in October 2021. From east to west: Vincent James Dowling This Australian road or road transport-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Outback The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia . The Outback is more remote than the bush . While often envisaged as being arid ,
5568-500: The route identified by Stuart. In 1865, the surveyor George Goyder , using changes in vegetation patterns, mapped a line in South Australia , north of which he considered rainfall to be too unreliable to support agriculture. Exploration of the Outback continued in the 1950s when Len Beadell explored, surveyed and built many roads in support of the nuclear weapons tests at Emu Field and Maralinga and rocket testing on
5655-420: The sea must be close, but with the ground being boggy, Burke and Wills decided to leave the camels behind with King and Gray at Camp 119 and set off through the swamps to the coast. They followed a path which led to an Aboriginal community with a yam-field and a very large hut. Some of the resident Kukatj men pointed them in the best direction. It is assumed that on 11 February 1861 they may have reached or viewed
5742-561: 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
5829-406: The severity of the beating Burke gave has been widely debated. The three surviving men stopped for a day to bury Gray, and to recover their strength – they were by this stage very weak from hunger and exhaustion. They finally reached Cooper Creek on 21 April, only to find that the depot in charge of Brahe had been abandoned several hours earlier. Burke had asked Brahe and the depot party to remain at
5916-448: The shores of the Gulf, but there is no documentary evidence of this. By this stage, they were desperately short of supplies. They had food left for twenty-seven days, but it had already taken them fifty-nine days to travel from Cooper Creek. Burke and Wills rejoined the others at Camp 119 and started the return journey on 13 February. On the way back, the wet season broke and the tropical monsoonal rains began. A camel named Golah Sing
6003-521: The supplies and men up to Camp 65 was having terrible problems. Wright's group had only departed Menindee at the end of January 1861 and made very slow progress due to hot weather and a lack of water availability. They arrived at the Bulloo River in early April with several men in poor health. Wright camped at a large lagoon populated with Galali people , who had made several 'ingeniously constructed fishing dams' nearby. The Galali made demonstrations for Wright's group to get off their campsite, and Wright built
6090-419: The supplies left in the cache. Wills and King wanted to follow their outward track back to Menindee, but Burke overruled them and decided to attempt to reach the furthest outpost of pastoral settlement in South Australia, a cattle station near Mount Hopeless. This would mean travelling southwest through the desert for 240 kilometres (150 mi). They wrote a letter explaining their intentions and reburied it in
6177-419: The supplies were loaded onto six wagons. One wagon broke down before it had even left Royal Park and by midnight of the first day the expedition had reached only Essendon , on the edge of Melbourne. There, two more wagons broke down. Heavy rains and bad roads made travelling through Victoria difficult and time-consuming. The party arrived at Lancefield on 23 August and set up their fourth camp. The first day off
6264-444: The swamp at Torowotto . At Torowotto, Wright, Barkinji and the other Aboriginal guide were sent back to Menindee to bring up the remainder of the men and supplies, while Burke's party continued on to Cooper Creek. Aborigines living at Torowotto told them they would meet with opposition from the inhabitants further north. Guided by another two Aboriginal men, Burke's party soon reached Lake Altiboulka (Altoka) and then travelled through
6351-617: The task ahead, and secretly instructed Brahe to wait for four months. The journey north to the Gulf of Carpentaria went smoothly, with recent rains making water easy to find and the Aborigines, contrary to expectations, being peaceful. Around 2 February 1861, the group formed Camp CXIX (Camp 119) on the banks of the Bynoe River , an arm of the Flinders River delta, which Wills had noticed to be salty and tidal. Knowing that
6438-479: The tree with the Date and Camp Number blaze was known as "Brahe's Tree" or the "Depot Tree", and the tree under which Burke died attracted most attention and interest. However, the tree at Camp 65 became known as the "Dig Tree" from at least 1912. In 1899, John Dick carved a likeness of Burke's face in a nearby tree along with his initials, his wife's initials and the date. Meanwhile, the mission led by Wright to bring
6525-680: 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. The Committee entrusts you with
6612-432: The westward-flowing rivers to find an "inland sea", but these were found to all flow into the Murray River and Darling River , which turn south. From 1858 onwards, the so-called "Afghan" cameleers and their beasts played an instrumental role in opening up the Outback and helping to build infrastructure. Over the period 1858 to 1861, John McDouall Stuart led six expeditions north from Adelaide, South Australia into
6699-446: The winter, various species of snakes and lizards bask in the sun, but they are rarely seen during the summer months. Feral animals such as camels thrive in central Australia, brought to Australia by pastoralists and explorers, along with the early Afghan drivers . Feral horses known as ' brumbies ' are station horses that have run wild. Feral pigs , foxes , cats , goats and rabbits and other imported animals are also degrading
6786-554: The world's major manganese mines. Aboriginal communities in outback regions, such as the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands in northern South Australia, have not been displaced as they have been in areas of intensive agriculture and large cities, in coastal areas. The total population of the Outback in Australia declined from 700,000 in 1996 to 690,000 in 2006. The largest decline
6873-516: The world's natural supply, but was closed down in 2020 due to financial reasons. The Pilbara region's economy is dominated by mining and petroleum industries. The Pilbara's oil and gas industry is the region's largest export industry, earning $ 5.0 billion in 2004/05 and accounting for over 96% of the State's production. Most of Australia's iron ore is also mined in the Pilbara and it also has one of
6960-533: Was abandoned on 4 March when it was unable to continue. Three other camels were shot and eaten along the way and they shot their only horse, Billy , on 10 April on the Diamantina River , south of what is today the town of Birdsville . Equipment was abandoned at a number of locations as the number of pack animals was reduced. One of these locations, Return Camp 32, was relocated in 1994; the Burke and Wills Historical Society mounted an expedition to verify
7047-704: 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
7134-544: Was in the Outback Northern Territory , while the Kimberley and Pilbara showed population increases during the same period. The sex ratio is 1040 males for 1000 females and 17% of the total population is indigenous. The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) started service in 1928 and helps people who live in the outback of Australia. Previously, serious injuries or illnesses often meant death owing to
7221-760: 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
7308-459: Was more adept than Burke at living in the wilderness, but it was Burke's leadership skills (or lack thereof) that was 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. The Exploration Committee gave Burke written instructions. These included suggestions for
7395-456: Was organised by the Royal Society of Victoria (RSV) in Australia in 1860–61. It 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
7482-661: Was taken on Sunday 26 August at Camp VI in Mia Mia . The expedition reached Swan Hill on 6 September, where Charles Gray joined the expedition. They arrived in Balranald on 15 September. There, to lighten the load, the expedition left behind their sugar, lime juice and some of their guns and ammunition . Burke also dismissed several members of the expedition here, including the foreman Charles Ferguson, citing lack of funds. Ferguson later successfully sued for unfair dismissal. At Gambala on 24 September, Burke decided to load some of
7569-414: Was thought that Burke would wait at Cooper Creek until autumn (March the next year) so that they would avoid having to travel during the hot Australian summer. However, Burke waited only until 16 December before deciding to make a dash for the Gulf of Carpentaria . He split the group again, leaving Brahe in charge of the depot, with Dost Mahomet, Patton and McDonough. Burke, Wills, King and Gray set off for
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