Burke’s farewell speech from the Burke & Wills Web website …

The Victorian Exploring Expedition left Royal Park, Melbourne on Monday 20th August 1860. Originally intending to leave at 1.00 pm, it was 4.00 pm before the party got away. Dr Eades, Mayor of Melbourne, mounted one of the drays and made a speech.

“Mr Burke, I am fully aware that the grand assemblage, this day, while it has impeded your movements in starting, is at the same time a source of much gratification to you. It assures you of the most sincere sympathy of the citizens. (Hear hear), I will not detain you; but for this great crowd, and on behalf of the colony at large, I say – God speed you ! (Cheers).”
His worship the Mayor then called for three cheers for Burke, then three cheers for Mr Landells and then three cheers for the party as a whole. Mr Eades then said ;

“God speed and bless you !”
…to which Burke replied;

“Mr Mayor, On behalf of myself and the expedition, I beg to return to you my most sincere thanks. No expedition has ever started under such favourable circumstances as this. The people, the Government, the Committee – all have done heartily what they could do. It is now our turn, and we shall never do well until we entirely justify what you have done in showing what we can do (Cheers).”

The band struck up “CHEER BOYS, CHEER” and the party headed northwards in the direction of the Sarah Sands Hotel before turning and traversing the whole length of the Park to the south gate and passing then round the cattle yards, the camels’ manure pile and then past the swamp and out of the South Gate onto Flemington Road then Mount Alexander Road towards Essendon.

While it is without a doubt one of the most famous and talked about expedition’s undertaken on the Australian mainland, it was also possibly one of the most badly organised expedition’s as well.

From the Burke and Wills Expedition Wikipedia entry…

In 1860-61 Robert O’Hara Burke and William John Wills led an expedition of 19 men with the intention of crossing Australia from Melbourne in the south to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north, a distance of around 2,800 kilometres (1,750 miles). At that time most of the inland of Australia had not been explored by non-indigenous people and was completely unknown to the European settlers.

The south-north leg was successfully completed (except they were stopped by swampland 5 kilometres (3 miles) from the northern coastline) but owing to poor leadership and bad luck, both of the expedition’s leaders died on the return journey. All together, seven men lost their lives, and only one man, John King, travelled the entire expedition and returned alive to Melbourne.

Along with the Wikipedia entry, you can find a heap more information, photos, maps, and other things, at the links below.

Burke & Wills Web
Lots of info over at this website, including information on some of the festivities being held to commemorate their achievement.

The Burke and Wills Historical Society
A group of Burke and Wills enthusiasts who also run the Burke & Wills Conference every two years, with the next one being held at the Dig Tree (near Coopers Creek in Queensland) in 2011.

Across Australia with Burke and Wills
A Google Earth Community complete with details Google Earth KML file and Google Maps route as well.

Memorials
A list of Burke and Wills memorials at White Hat.

In the Tracks of Burke and Wills
Follow Mike Wills (fourth cousin, four times removed of William John Wills) and friends as they trace the route of the Burke & Wills Expedition.

I would also recommend reading a book that was published in 2002 and written by Sarah Murgatroyd called, “The Dig Tree”, which is probably one of the better books about the expedition, and is available to buy online at Westprint.

Burke’s farewell speech from the Burke & Wills Web website …

The Victorian Exploring Expedition left Royal Park, Melbourne on Monday 20th August 1860. Originally intending to leave at 1.00 pm, it was 4.00 pm before the party got away. Dr Eades, Mayor of Melbourne, mounted one of the drays and made a speech.

“Mr Burke, I am fully aware that the grand assemblage, this day, while it has impeded your movements in starting, is at the same time a source of much gratification to you. It assures you of the most sincere sympathy of the citizens. (Hear hear), I will not detain you; but for this great crowd, and on behalf of the colony at large, I say – God speed you ! (Cheers).”
His worship the Mayor then called for three cheers for Burke, then three cheers for Mr Landells and then three cheers for the party as a whole. Mr Eades then said ;

“God speed and bless you !”
…to which Burke replied;

“Mr Mayor, On behalf of myself and the expedition, I beg to return to you my most sincere thanks. No expedition has ever started under such favourable circumstances as this. The people, the Government, the Committee – all have done heartily what they could do. It is now our turn, and we shall never do well until we entirely justify what you have done in showing what we can do (Cheers).”

The band struck up “CHEER BOYS, CHEER” and the party headed northwards in the direction of the Sarah Sands Hotel before turning and traversing the whole length of the Park to the south gate and passing then round the cattle yards, the camels’ manure pile and then past the swamp and out of the South Gate onto Flemington Road then Mount Alexander Road towards Essendon.

While it is without a doubt one of the most famous and talked about expedition’s undertaken on the Australian mainland, it was also possibly one of the most badly organised expedition’s as well.

From the Burke and Wills Expedition Wikipedia entry…

In 1860-61 Robert O’Hara Burke and William John Wills led an expedition of 19 men with the intention of crossing Australia from Melbourne in the south to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north, a distance of around 2,800 kilometres (1,750 miles). At that time most of the inland of Australia had not been explored by non-indigenous people and was completely unknown to the European settlers.

The south-north leg was successfully completed (except they were stopped by swampland 5 kilometres (3 miles) from the northern coastline) but owing to poor leadership and bad luck, both of the expedition’s leaders died on the return journey. All together, seven men lost their lives, and only one man, John King, travelled the entire expedition and returned alive to Melbourne.

I’ve posted most of these links before, but since it’s the 149th anniversary of the expedition starting, i thought i would post them again.

Along with the Wikipedia entry, you can find a heap more information, photos, maps, and other things, at the links below.

Burke & Wills Web
Lots of info over at this website, including the Buke & Wills Walk.

The Burke and Wills Historical Society
A group of Burke and Wills enthusiasts who also run the Burke & Wills Conference every two years, with the next one being held at the Dig Tree (near Coopers Creek in Queensland) in 2011.

The Burke & Wills Walk 2008
Dave Phoenix is retracing the route of the Burke & Wills Expedition on foot and departed from Royal Park on the 1st if August 2008. You can track his progress via his blog.

Across Australia with Burke and Wills
A Google Earth Community complete with details Google Earth KML file and Google Maps route as well.

Memorials
A list of Burke and Wills memorials at White Hat.

In the Tracks of Burke and Wills
Follow Mike Wills (fourth cousin, four times removed of William John Wills) and friends as they trace the route of the Burke & Wills Expedition.

I would also recommend reading a book that was published in 2002 and written by Sarah Murgatroyd called, “The Dig Tree”, which is probably one of the better books about the expedition, and is available to buy online at Westprint.

The site contains a great deal of information on Banjo and his work, but one area i found really interesting has all of the pieces written by both Banjo Patterson and Henry Lawson during their “Bush Controversy”.

In 1892, Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson, his friend and co-contributor to The Bulletin, decided to have a little fun, and to stir up a controversy in their poems. Henry Lawson set out to criticise the optimistic picture The Banjo painted of the Bush, and The Banjo in turn railed against the doom and gloom of Lawson’s outlook.

Some great material from an interesting period in Australian history.

Burke’s farewell speech from the Burke & Wills Web website …

The Victorian Exploring Expedition left Royal Park, Melbourne on Monday 20th August 1860. Originally intending to leave at 1.00 pm, it was 4.00 pm before the party got away. Dr Eades, Mayor of Melbourne, mounted one of the drays and made a speech.

“Mr Burke, I am fully aware that the grand assemblage, this day, while it has impeded your movements in starting, is at the same time a source of much gratification to you. It assures you of the most sincere sympathy of the citizens. (Hear hear), I will not detain you; but for this great crowd, and on behalf of the colony at large, I say – God speed you ! (Cheers).”
His worship the Mayor then called for three cheers for Burke, then three cheers for Mr Landells and then three cheers for the party as a whole. Mr Eades then said ;

“God speed and bless you !”
…to which Burke replied;

“Mr Mayor, On behalf of myself and the expedition, I beg to return to you my most sincere thanks. No expedition has ever started under such favourable circumstances as this. The people, the Government, the Committee – all have done heartily what they could do. It is now our turn, and we shall never do well until we entirely justify what you have done in showing what we can do (Cheers).”

The band struck up “CHEER BOYS, CHEER” and the party headed northwards in the direction of the Sarah Sands Hotel before turning and traversing the whole length of the Park to the south gate and passing then round the cattle yards, the camels’ manure pile and then past the swamp and out of the South Gate onto Flemington Road then Mount Alexander Road towards Essendon.

While it is without a doubt one of the most famous and talked about expedition’s undertaken on the Australian mainland, it was also possibly one of the most badly organised expedition’s as well.

From the Burke and Wills Expedition Wikipedia entry…

In 1860-61 Robert O’Hara Burke and William John Wills led an expedition of 19 men with the intention of crossing Australia from Melbourne in the south to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north, a distance of around 2,800 kilometres (1,750 miles). At that time most of the inland of Australia had not been explored by non-indigenous people and was completely unknown to the European settlers.

The south-north leg was successfully completed (except they were stopped by swampland 5 kilometres (3 miles) from the northern coastline) but owing to poor leadership and bad luck, both of the expedition’s leaders died on the return journey. All together, seven men lost their lives, and only one man, John King, travelled the entire expedition and returned alive to Melbourne.

I’ve posted most of these links before, but since it’s the 148th anniversary of the expedition starting, i thought i would post them again.

Along with the Wikipedia entry, you can find a heap more information, photos, maps, and other things, at the links below.

Burke & Wills Web
Lots of info over at this website, including the Buke & Wills Walk.

The Burke and Wills Historical Society
A group of BUrke and Wills enthusiasts who also run the Burke & Wills Conference every two years, with the next one being held in Melbourne in 2009.

The Burke & Wills Walk 2008
Dave Phoenix is retracing the route of the Burke & Wills Expedition on foot and departed from Royal Park on the 1st if August 2008. You can track his progress via his blog.

Across Australia with Burke and Wills
A Google Earth Community complete with details Google Earth KML file and Google Maps route as well.

Memorials
A list of Burke and Wills memorials at White Hat.

In the Tracks of Burke and Wills
Follow Mike Wills (fourth cousin, four times removed of William John Wills) and friends as they trace the route of the Burke & Wills Expedition.

I would also recommend reading a book that was published in 2002 and written by Sarah Murgatroyd called, “The Dig Tree”, which is probably one of the better books about the expedition, and is available to buy online at Westprint.

Coincidently I finished reading the book today :)

From the Burke and Wills Expedition Wikipedia entry…

In 1860-61 Robert O’Hara Burke and William John Wills led an expedition of 19 men with the intention of crossing Australia from Melbourne in the south to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north, a distance of around 2,800 kilometres (1,750 miles). At that time most of the inland of Australia had not been explored by non-indigenous people and was completely unknown to the European settlers.

The south-north leg was successfully completed (except they were stopped by swampland 5 kilometres (3 miles) from the northern coastline) but owing to poor leadership and bad luck, both of the expedition’s leaders died on the return journey. All together, seven men lost their lives, and only one man, John King, travelled the entire expedition and returned alive to Melbourne.

Along with the Wikipedia entry, you can find a heap more information, photos, maps, and other things, at the links below.

Burke & Wills Web
Lots of info over at this website, including the Buke & Wills Walk.

The Burke and Wills Historical Society
A group of BUrke and Wills enthusiasts who also run the Burke & Wills Conference every two years, with the next one being held in Melbourne in 2009.

Across Australia with Burke and Wills
A Google Earth Community complete with details Google Earth KML file and Google Maps route as well.

Memorials
A list of Burke and Wills memorials at White Hat.

In the Tracks of Burke and Wills
Follow Mike Wills (fourth cousin, four times removed of William John Wills) and friends as they trace the route of the Burke & Wills Expedition.

I love the shop at the National Museum of Australia as it continues an interesting mixed bag of items from aboriginal art, flags, tourist trinkets, pottery and fluffy kids toys. While in there I picked up a coffee mug for mum which is covered with the National and State Floral Emblems of Australia.

While in the shop at the National Film & Sound Archive i picked up an ABC DVD, Constructing Australia. This is a three episode DVD covering the stories behind the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the famous explorer John McDouall Stuart (who traversed the Australian mainland from south to north in 1862) and the construction of the Australian Overland Telegraph Line which followed and allowed fast communication between Australia and the rest of the world in 1872, and the design and construction of the Coolgardie Pipeline which is a 530km long pipeline suppling water to the Western Australian goldfields from Perth. This is a fascinating DVD.

A quick stop at the Old Parliament House shop, ended with me not purchasing anything…though over the years i have picked up a few interesting items there.

Final stop was the National Library of Australia. It’s been a while since visits to the National Library, so i spent quite a while in the well stocked shop and ended up getting a copy of “The Dig Tree: The Extraordinary Story of the Ill-fated Burke and Wills 1860 Expedition” by Sarah Murgatroyd.

Before leaving the National Library, i thought i should go in and see the exhibition that was on which is called, Bridging the distance, and is on between March the 6th and June the 15th 2008.

Was i glad i went in as i got to see some amazing pieces from the Library collection which don’t often come out on display including the three items below which just =blew me away :)

The first fascinating item of history was a water bottle used by Captain Charles Sturt (wikipedia) in the 1820′s – IMAGE: nla.pic-an6393462.

The second item was a huge surveying instrument used by Sir Thomas Mitchell (wikipedia) during his three expeditions between 1831 and 1846 – IMAGE: nla.pic-an6393476-1.

The final and most amazing thing i saw was the diary of William John Wills (wikipedia), which was used between the 23rd of April and the 18th of June 1861, during the ill-fated Burke & Wills expedition (wikipedia) to cross Australia. A transcript and other information on Wills Diary can be found at this NLA site.

It’s not often you get to see some major artefacts from Australia’s “white” history like the three above, so i highly recommend you drop in to the National Library of Australia and check the exhibition out.

Twenty years ago you would have had to find a facsimile¹of a journal (I have quite a few in the ExpeditionOz Library) or have some pretty darn good reason for wanting to view the original at a library or museum, but with the advent of the internet, everything is available online (well almost everything and not all of its good) and if you hunt around a bit it doesn’t take long to find a bunch of journals of famous explorers who traversed this huge continent in its early days of white history.

Below are some links to some sites which might interest you:

Project Gutenberg Australia – Journals of Australian Land and Sea Explorers and Discoverers
This site has a pretty good collection of journals from Gregory Blaxland, David Carnegie, William Carron, James Cook, William Dampier, Edward John Eyre, Matthew Flinders, John and Alexander Forrest, Ernest Giles, Frank and Augustus Gregory, George Grey, William Hovell and Hamilton Hume, Alexander and Frank Jardine, Phillip Parker King, William Landsborough, Ludwig Leichhardt, John MacGillivray, John McKinlay, Thomas Mitchell, John Oxley, John Lort Stokes, John McDouall Stuart, Charles Sturt, Able Tasman, Frederick Walker and William John Wills.

For maps and other information on a wide range of people, check out their Australian Explorers, Discoverers and Pioneers section.

Western Kentucky University – Nineteenth Century Exploration of Australia
This site is based around a map that outlines a number of explorers paths through Australia with links to other websites containing more detailed information.

Roma Reilly’s Australian Explorers (Also available at this site)
This site, which was designed for primary school aged children, has some pretty concise and basic information on John Forrest, Edmund Kennedy, Ludwig Leichardt, Thomas Mitchell, John Oxley, Edward John Eyre, Robert O’Hara Burke, Matthew Flinders, Charles Sturt and George Bass.

I’ll be the first to admit that text documents or PDF’s are no substitute for having a good old fashioned leather bound book in your hands while you are sitting at the camp fire reading about expeditions of old, but journal facsimiles aren’t the easiest things to find these days, so I guess we take what we can get our hands on…so happy reading :)

ADDITION: If you actually want to lay your hands on some good old fashioned printed material, go and check out the books available at the Early Australian Exploration Books page and some of the other book category pages that Westprint (Victorian based map makers and publishers) have listed on their site…they have a pretty good selection and i’ll certainly be adding a few to the ExpeditionOz Library from it :)

¹ – facsimile: Used to describe a copy or reproduction especially when describing a copy of a journal with regard to explorers..