![]() ![]() Burke had no experience in exploration and it is strange that he was chosen to lead the expedition. 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. Several people were considered for the post of leader and the Society held a range of meetings in early 1860. Only two members of the committee, Ferdinand von Mueller and Wilhelm Blandowski, had any experience in exploration but due to factionalism both were consistently outvoted. The Exploration Committee called for offers of interest for a leader for the Victorian Exploring Expedition. Even the anonymous donation of £1,000 (later discovered to be from Ambrose Kyte) to the Fund Raising Committee of the Royal Society failed to generate much interest and it was 1860 before sufficient money was raised and the expedition was assembled. While interest in inland exploration was strong in the neighbouring colonies of New South Wales and South Australia, in Victoria enthusiasm was limited. In 1857 the Philosophical Institute formed an Exploration Committee with the aim of investigating the practicability of fitting out an exploring expedition. 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. ![]() The Government of Victoria organised the Burke and Wills expedition to cross the continent in 1860. 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. There was fierce competition between the colonies over the route with governments recognising the economic benefits that would result from becoming the centre of the telegraph network. īy 1855 there was speculation about possible routes for the Australian Overland Telegraph Line to connect Australia to the new telegraph cable in Java and then Europe. The Philosophical Institute of Victoria was founded in 1854 and became the Royal Society of Victoria after receiving a Royal Charter in 1859. The University of Melbourne was founded in 1855 and the State Library of Victoria in 1856. 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 boom lasted forty years and ushered in the era known as " marvellous Melbourne". The colony became very wealthy and Melbourne grew rapidly to become Australia's largest city and the second largest city of the British Empire. Gold was discovered in Victoria in 1851 and 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). Altogether, seven men died, and only one man, the Irish soldier John King, crossed the continent with the expedition and returned alive to Melbourne. Several relief expeditions were sent out, all contributing new geographical findings. Burke and Wills died on or about 30 June 1861. The return journey was plagued by delays and monsoon rains, and when they reached the depot at Cooper Creek, they found it had been abandoned just hours earlier. The expedition established a depot camp at the Cooper, and Burke, Wills and two other men pushed on to the north coast (although swampland stopped them from reaching the northern coastline). After dividing the party at Menindee on the Darling River, Burke made good progress, reaching Cooper Creek at the beginning of summer. Very bad weather, poor roads and broken-down horse wagons meant they made slow progress at first. At that time most of the inland of Australia had not been explored by non-Indigenous people and was largely unknown to the European settlers. 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). It initially consisted of 19 men led by Robert O'Hara Burke, with William John Wills being a deputy commander. The Burke and Wills expedition was organised by the Royal Society of Victoria in Australia in 1860–61. ![]()
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