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The Burke, Wills, King and Yandruwandha National Heritage PlaceThe Burke, Wills, King and Yandruwandha National Heritage Place which tells the story of the ill-fated Burke and Wills Expedition, was included in the National Heritage List on 22 January 2016.

Made up of five sites and a narrow corridor along the Cooper Creek, the Burke, Wills, King and Yandruwandha National Heritage Place is of outstanding heritage value to the nation as the setting for the key events associated with the Burke and Wills Expedition.

Located over 1000 kilometres northeast of Adelaide, the five expedition sites—the Dig Tree and Fort Wills Site, Howitt’s Site, Burke’s Tree, King’s Site and Wills’ Site—are located along the course of Cooper Creek from Queensland to South Australia.

The Burke and Wills Expedition 1860–1861 The Burke and Wills expedition is one of Australia’s best known stories of exploration. On 20 August 1860, at Royal Park in Melbourne, over 15 000 spectators watched the expedition depart on the first ever overland attempt to reach the Gulf of Carpentaria. With 22 men, 26 camels, 23 horses and several supply wagons, it was the best equipped exploration party in Australia’s history. Despite its high profile, the expedition was led by Robert O’Hara Burke; a man with little experience in exploration. William John Wills was the surveyor and John King, a veteran of the British Army, was in charge of the cameleers.

On 11 November 1860 the party arrived at Fort Wills on Cooper Creek—the furthest extent of previous inland exploration. Burke established a depot and split the group in two. Burke, Wills, King and Charles Gray were to head north on 16 December while William Brahe, William Patton and Thomas McDonald were to remain at Fort Wills until Burke’s group returned or three months had passed.

Images: (top) Dig Tree (© Department of the Environment) (bottom) The Burke and Wills Australian exploring expedition, Thomas Adams Hills, (© National Library of Australia) http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an8960212

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Burke and his party reached the tidal channels of the Gulf on 10 February 1861, technically fulfilling their objective of crossing the country from south to north. With supplies running low, they quickly began their journey south. Monsoonal rains and flooding made the return journey treacherous. Just days before they were to reach Fort Wills, Charles Grey died from dysentery on 17 April 1861.

Meanwhile the group at Fort Wills had held on for four months. Running out of supplies and suffering the effects of scurvy, William Brahe decided to return south. They buried supplies by a tree now known as the Dig Tree and marked it to alert Burke’s party to the supplies buried below. William Brahe and his party set off for Melbourne on the morning of 21 April.

The arrival of Burke’s party just hours after Brahe’s departure was the first in a series of fatal errors and near misses. On arrival Burke’s group dug up the supplies and deposited their field notes at the foot of the Dig Tree but failed to change the markings on the tree. With the supplies at Fort Wills exhausted, Burke headed south along Cooper Creek. They left a note buried under the tree telling of their plans, but again failed to change the markings. Having second thoughts about Burke’s possible return Brahe went back to the Dig Tree, on 8 May, but with the markings unchanged he assumed Burke had not returned and he left. Burke and his ill-fated party were just 35 miles away.

In a few weeks it became apparent Burke, Wills and King were not able to go any further. With supplies now depleted they became increasingly dependent on the local Yandruwandha Aboriginal people for survival. The Yandruwandha provided them with fish, and processed nardoo—a native plant that is toxic in its unprocessed state. Despite the support of the Yandruwandha, the explorers’ health continued to deteriorate and by June 1861 both Wills and Burke had died.

John King was the sole survivor from the journey north. His journal, buried at the Dig Tree, tells of the kindness of the Yandruwandha people and their treatment of him as ‘one of their own’ over the next three months until Alfred Howitt found him on 15 September 1861.

Alfred Howitt and John King returned to Melbourne to a heroes’ welcome. Two years later Howitt returned to Cooper Creek to retrieve the bodies of Burke and Wills. An estimated 40 000 spectators saw their state funeral in Melbourne on 21 January 1863.

National Heritage ListingNational Heritage listing recognises the outstanding significance of the Burke and Wills expedition sites to Australia. The expedition was a defining moment in Australia’s cultural history and provides important insights into the nineteenth century attitudes towards the Australian environment. The Yandruwandha Aboriginal people, who provided vital assistance to the expedition, are an essential part of the story of the expedition.

The maps and information from the Burke and Wills expedition, and those of the relief and rescue parties, made it possible for significant areas of grazing land to be opened up throughout inland Australia. The tragic story of the expedition has captured the imagination of Australians and has become part of our nation’s story.

The Burke, Wills, King and Yandruwandha National Heritage Place is the 104th place included in the National Heritage List.

For more information go to: www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/national/burke-wills-king-yandruwandha

© Commonwealth of Australia, 2016.

This fact sheet is licensed by Commonwealth of Australia under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.

The views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Australian Government or the Minister for the Environment.

Images: (top) John King sole survivor of the Burke & Wills expedition to Carpentaria, De Gruchy & Leigh (© State Library of Victoria) http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/74162 (bottom) Departure of the Burke and Wills Expedition, J.D.;A.H. Massina & Co (© State Library of Victoria) http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/155794