Following Burke and Wills Across Australia: A Touring Guide

1

Melbourne

In 1860

Background to the Victorian Exploring Expedition

In the 1850s the gold rush in the newly formed colony of Victoria turned Melbourne into one of the richest cities in the world. The population exploded with an influx of migrants and the harbour bristled with ships. By 1860 Melbourne’s population had grown to 125 000, making it the largest city in Australia. It was a time of confidence and growth and Melbourne acquired a host of grand buildings, including Parliament House, Treasury and the Public Library. There was also a surge of interest in science and discovery which saw the establishment of the University, Museum, Observatory and Herbarium.

In 1854 the Philosophical Institute of Victoria was founded. Three years later they decided to organise an expedition to cross Australia, and in November 1857 they appointed an Exploration Committee to investigate the feasibility of the proposal. The Institute’s plans were boosted in August 1858 when a Melbourne merchant (later identified as Ambrose Kyte) made an anonymous offer of £1000 towards the expedition, providing the public donated an additional sum of £2000. An Exploration Fund Raising Committee was established to raise the money. At the same time, the Victorian government sent George James Landells to India to purchase camels.

The Institute received a Royal Charter in 1859 and became the Royal Society of Victoria.

In January 1860 the Exploration Committee published its Fourth Progress Report, announcing they had raised £2184 and thereby securing Kyte’s offer. They were now ready ‘to make all the necessary preparations for the immediate equipment of an exploring party on the arrival of the camels’. The Victorian government had already paid £5497 to purchase and transport the camels and it voted an additional £6000 grant be made available for the purposes of exploration.

The camels arrived in Port Phillip Bay aboard the SS Chinsurah in June 1860. After being unloaded they were exercised along the beach and then paraded through the city. Huge crowds gathered and the Age remarked ‘it seemed as though all Melbourne had turned out to gaze upon … the novel importations’. Melburnians suddenly became excited about their upcoming expedition.

Preparations for departure

A few days after the camels arrived, the Exploration Committee met and selected Robert O’Hara Burke as Expedition leader. As this was the first Australian expedition to use camels, the Committee thought it was necessary to secure Landells’ services and he was appointed second in command.

One of the Exploration Committee’s many aims was a scientific investigation of the hitherto unexplored centre of Australia. Consequently, three additional officers were appointed to scientific roles. William John Wills was third in command and ‘Surveyor, Astronomical and Meteorological Observer’, Dr Ludwig Becker was the ‘Geological, Mineralogical and Natural History Observer’ and Dr Hermann Beckler was the surgeon and ‘Botanical Observer’. Georg Neumayer, another prominent scientist, joined the VEE at Swan Hill and travelled with them as far as the Darling. Each of the scientific officers was given very detailed instructions on what observations to take, what data to record and what specimens to collect.

The Exploration Committee advertised in the Argus for ‘persons desirous to join the expedition’, and received 700 responses. Burke interviewed 300 people in a day, but most of the nine ‘Expedition assistants’ appointed were men he was already acquainted with. Four of the eight sepoys who had come from India with the camels were also selected to accompany the Expedition.

The camels and sepoys moved from their temporary home at the Parliament House stables to Royal Park on Saturday 7 July, and a week later three Expedition assistants – Henry Creber, Patrick Langan and William Patten – were employed to start assembling the stores. On Thursday 2 August six Expedition assistants moved into tents at the park and five days later, all nine assistants were camped out under the supervision of the foreman, Charles Darius Ferguson.

Beckler and Dr William Gillbee of the Melbourne Hospital subjected the men to a medical. The Argus reported:

On the 9th August, all the men engaged for the expedition underwent a strict examination at the hands of Dr Beckler and another medical gentleman, and were found to be perfectly sound and in good health.

Farewell celebrations

The first formal farewell was held on Friday 17 August when the Governor, Sir Henry Barkly, visited the Expedition’s camp:

His Excellency and Lady Barkly, and a large number of visitors, were present, including several members of Parliament, the Exploration Committee, and other leading members of the Royal Society. The camels were, several of them, loaded, and wore the shoes which have been constructed for the protection of their feet. A sort of déjeûnir was held, at which His Excellency proposed the ‘health of Mr Burke, leader of the expedition,’ and Mr Archer (the Registrar-General) that of Mr Landells.

The following day a special meeting of the Royal Society of Victoria was held, when the men came down to the Society’s hall to sign the Memorandum of Agreement. Burke ordered the men fall in and they were addressed by the Society’s president, Sir William Stawell, about

Memorandum of Agreement, 18 August 1860.

Map Case 5 Drawer 6a, MS 13071, Records of the Burke and Wills Expedition,

Australian Manuscripts Collection, State Library of Victoria.

the necessity of ‘cheerfully and unhesitatingly’ giving ‘the most implicit and absolute obedience’ to Burke.

That evening the Melbourne Deutscher Verein held a ‘conversazione’ (a farewell dinner) which was attended by Burke, Wills, Neumayer, Becker and Beckler. The packed room drank toasts and commemorated the German involvement in the exploration of Australia, and ‘the meeting did not separate until a late hour’.

On Sunday Burke attended St James Cathedral when the Dean of Melbourne, Reverend Hussey Burgh McCartney, held a special service to ‘implore the Divine blessing’. While McCartney was entreating Burke ‘to seek Divine Protection, and pray that they, like Hagar, might find a well of water in the wilderness’, there was conflict back at Royal Park. Landells accused Creber of drunkenness. Creber protested his innocence and one of the other men, Fletcher, supported him. Burke dismissed both men.

Burke made numerous personnel changes during the course of the expedition, hiring new men and dismissing members of the initial party. Biographies of all the explorers involved in the Expedition can be found at followingburkeandwills.com.

Now

Burke and Wills Monument

The Burke and Wills statue was Melbourne’s first public monument and was unveiled in 1865.

When news of the deaths of Burke and Wills reached Melbourne in November 1861, former Chief Secretary John O’Shanassy announced that ‘every mark of respect should be shown to their memory … by the erection of a suitable monument, commemorative of achievements so well calculated to advance the cause of science and civilization’. Richard

Monument of Burke and Wills, Melbourne, c. 1870–80.

H31510/16, State Library of Victoria.

One of the four bas-reliefs depicting scenes from the Expedition: ‘Howitt’s Rescue of King’.

Heales, Premier of Victoria at the time, agreed that there should be ‘a permanent memorial to the leader of the expedition and his fallen comrades’.

Sculptor Charles Summers wrote to O’Shanassy explaining he had prepared a design for the monument, and a preliminary drawing of his design was printed on the front page of the Illustrated Australian Mail on Christmas Day 1861.

In February 1862 the government placed £4000 on the estimates ‘to finance the construction of a monument’. In November 1862 the Victorian Government Gazette announced the commission of the sculpture would be decided by a Board of Design. The Board requested that clay or plaster models of ‘a Group of Statuary on a Pedestal’ be submitted within two weeks. Five entries were received and Charles Summers’ design was chosen unanimously. Summers’ winning design was described as ‘Wills (modelled after Michelangelo’s Giuliano de Medici in Florence) seated beside a standing Burke, whose cloak linked the two figures’.

The statue was placed on two blocks of Harcourt granite at Collins and Russell Streets on 29 March 1865. On 21 April 1865, the fourth anniversary of Burke and Wills’ return to the Dig Tree, the monument was unveiled to great acclaim. The floral moulding of passionflowers and ngardu was added in January 1866 and the four bas-reliefs around the base depicting ‘The Departure from Melbourne’, ‘Return to the Dig Tree’, ‘The Death of Burke’ and ‘Howitt’s Rescue of King’ were added in August and September 1866.

The sculpture remained in Collins Street until 1886 when it was removed to make way for cable-trams and was placed instead in the Gillott Reserve in Spring Street near the Princess Theatre. In 1973 it was moved again to make way for the construction of Parliament Station and the underground railway loop and was re-erected in the south-east corner of Carlton Gardens near Victoria Street.

In 1979 it was moved to the new Melbourne City Square and was erected above a waterfall, without the floral coping and with the four bas-reliefs placed on two sides of the base. The chlorinated water caused corrosion of the bronze statue and the floral coping was badly damaged while in storage at Melbourne City Council’s workshop.

In 1993 the statue was restored and the following year it was placed in its current position at the corner of Collins and Swanston Streets. A plaque set into the pavement at the foot of the statue tells the stories of both the Expedition and the statue.

Royal Society of Victoria

On 8 November 1859, the Philosophical Institute of Victoria received a Royal Charter and became the Royal Society of Victoria. A month later, the Society moved into a new, purpose-built hall at 8 La Trobe Street. It has been operating from this building ever since, promoting science and science education.

Although it is not a museum, the heritage-listed building is generally open to members of the public during office hours. The Royal Society hires its historic building as a venue, but if the rooms are not occupied someone will give you a conducted tour. Of interest is the ‘Burke and Wills’ room, where the bodies of the explorers lay in state prior to their funeral in 1863. This room also contains a range of memorabilia and artefacts associated with the

Expedition, including a maquette of Charles Summers’ statue. Upstairs you can see the historic library, containing many volumes which date back to 1860, including copies of the Society’s Transactions and Proceedings which report on the Expedition.

State Library of Victoria

The State Library of Victoria holds the largest collection of Burke and Wills archives. Some of Becker’s sketches and other Expedition artefacts are part of ‘The Changing Face of Victoria’ display in the Dome Gallery. Several other artworks are on display in the Cowen Gallery.

Melbourne General Cemetery

Burke and Wills’ grave

In November 1861, the Exploration Committee called for designs for the grave of Burke and Wills. It offered a £10 prize for the best design, which it awarded to the firm of Huxley and Parker which had submitted two designs.

In April 1863, three months after the funeral and the closing of the vault containing the remains of Burke and Wills, Huxley and Parker submitted a third plan, a granite block, 12 feet high and six feet square weighing 36 tons and costing £1500. The granite block came from Harcourt quarry in mid-1864 and was the largest block ever quarried in Victoria. It took several weeks to get the block from the quarry to the nearest railway station and then it took 250 men and 40 horses two days to drag it from Spencer Street railway station up the hill to the cemetery. Huxley and Parker dressed the stone and erected it over the vault, but the government did not pay them until late in 1869.

The grave still had no inscription or railing and it was December 1870 before the Committee agreed on a 56-word inscription drafted by Stawell. In November 1872 this was changed to a 19-word inscription, then in February 1873 the Committee was divided over two further suggested inscriptions. In March 1873 the Committee agreed on the short inscription that the monument bears today – 10 years to agree on 51 words!

John King’s grave

John King survived the Expedition, but never recovered from the privations he suffered. He died of tuberculosis at his home in St Kilda in 1872. He asked to be buried in Melbourne General Cemetery near his friend, the Reverend William Hill, at the northern end of the cemetery.

Melbourne General Cemetery showing Burke and Wills’ grave and John King’s grave.

2

Leaving Melbourne

In 1860

The Expedition’s track

The VEE left Melbourne’s Royal Park late in the afternoon of Monday 20 August 1860 and headed along Mount Alexander Road, the well-travelled path out of town toward the goldfields. They only made 6 km on the first day, and the winter sun had set by the time they set up camp at Moonee Ponds (Camp 1). The next day they reached Bulla (Camp 2), just north of what is now Melbourne’s international airport at Tullamarine.

The Expedition’s journey

When the Expedition departed, it was probably the biggest public event Melbourne had ever seen.

Even though it was winter, the sun shone through breaks in the cloud, and with a top of 17°C it was the warmest day for several weeks. Thousands of spectators thronged to the park.

Nicholas Chevalier, Memorandum of the Start of the Exploring Expedition, 1860.

937P74, MJM Carter AO Collection 1993. Given in memory of Bill Williams (1925–91), Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.

The Royal Park presented a scene of unwonted bustle yesterday. Long before noon, hundreds of persons flocked thither, and, as the day advanced, the assemblage gradually increased until it numbered several thousands. The usually quiet umbrageous retreat was consequently all animation. The cause of the gathering was the departure of the exploring expedition, an event which, as might naturally be expected, a large portion of the Melbourne public would not allow to occur without taking the opportunity of wishing the party ‘God speed’ on their way.

The Expedition had amassed around 20 tons of stores and supplies, which would not fit on the three wagons that the Exploration Committee had supplied. Landells was reluctant to load the camels up at this early stage as he wanted them fresh for the desert stages later. In order to move the mountain of stores, Burke hired an additional three wagons and drivers, intending to use them only as far as Swan Hill. Packing the wagons and other preparations went on all day, delaying the expected 1 pm departure.

Just before 4 pm Burke mounted his gallant grey charger, Billy, and announced ‘Now Mister Mayor, we are ready to start!’ The Mayor mounted a dray and made a farewell speech, and after a short response from Burke, the horses and camels filed out of Royal Park by the south gate. Passing the hay and cattle-yards, the camels’ manure pile and the swamp (near present-day Park Drive, Parkville), they turned north along Flemington Road where they crossed Main’s Bridge over the Moonee Ponds Creek. The wagons were still not ready to depart, so Wills, Beckler and Ferguson remained in Royal Park with the wagon-drivers to finish packing the stores.

William Strutt, The Start of the Burke and Wills Exploring Expedition from Royal Park, 1861.

Image a928762, ML 373, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.

Just over Main’s Bridge on the right-hand side of the road, the Expedition passed the Flemington Hotel, one of many such establishments lining the rutted dirt track which led to the Moonee Moonee Ponds in 1860 (Moonee Moonee was the Wurundjeri-willam name for the ponds).

The start of the Victorian gold rushes in 1851 had seen unprecedented numbers of travellers pass along the Mount Alexander Road, making it one of the busiest thoroughfares in the Australian colonies. Large trees alive with cockatoos and colourful parrots lined the route, which passed a chain of waterholes at the Moonee Ponds water reserve. Blacksmiths and wheelwrights, hay and corn stores, butchers, general dealers and numerous other businesses vied for trade along this thriving and chaotic road out of Melbourne. Farms and the occasional vineyard occupied most of the rich agricultural land along the Moonee Ponds Creek. But by 1860 the goldfields had begun to peter out and the chaotic scenes of the 1850s had gradually diminished.

The VEE made their first camp at a waterhole in the Moonee Ponds water reserve, a favourite hunting and camping place for the local Wurundjeri-willam people. The camels and horses arrived just on dusk and three of the six wagons arrived later in the evening. The other three wagons broke down on the road and did not arrive until the following day.

That evening, Burke rode back in to town. He is said to have gone to the Princess Theatre in Spring Street to attend a performance by Julia Matthews, a young light opera star with whom he was infatuated. He is also reputed to have asked Julia to marry him. The Argus reported the next morning that ‘Mr Burke was in town, it is believed, on important business’.

The following morning, Tuesday 21 August, several visitors came from town, including Wills’ father who, with tears in his eyes, bid an emotional farewell to his son. The artist William Strutt arrived and made numerous sketches of the Expedition. He also took the only known photographs of the VEE. Fixing the wagons and organising the stores took all morning and the Expedition did not get underway until 2.30 pm. They left as a group, the first time they had all been together on the road. Strutt later painted the scene of the impressive cavalcade wending its way north. The Expedition now comprised 19 men, 26 camels, 23 horses and three wagons, plus the three hired wagons, their drivers and horses.

From Moonee Ponds the VEE travelled northwards along the Mount Alexander Road. At the Lincolnshire Arms Hotel the road continued on to Bulla and another road turned westwards to Keilor. The Expedition chose the Bulla Road, passing by the Beech Tree Hotel and Tullamarine village, where a small number of businesses lined the road with scattered farms beyond. They travelled across the extensive plains and at sunset arrived at George Melville’s Inverness Hotel, where they made Camp 2. The timber hotel with a shingle roof was described at the time of its construction in 1853 as ‘decidedly the finest house which has been erected for a licensed house in the colony’.

The following morning Samla, one of the sepoys, requested that he be allowed to resign. As a Hindu he was unable to eat the meat provisions supplied and he was feeling the effects of ‘having had nothing for the last three days but bread and plenty of work’. Landells granted his wish and paid his wages. Samla blessed ‘Mr Landells and the men near him’ and then ‘went on his way towards Melbourne his eyes full of tears’. The other three sepoys were Muslim or Parsee and were ‘not so particular about their food’. Beckler described them as ‘willing, steady and good working fellows’.

This photograph is an albumen print taken from a glass plate and purports to show Burke delivering his farewell speech in Royal Park. However, it does not show the crowds or preparation for departure, and as Strutt mentioned taking photographs only at Moonee Ponds, this image was most likely taken on the morning of 21 August 1860 as the Expedition was preparing to depart from Camp 1. William Strutt, ‘Encampment of the Exploring Party’, c. August 1860.

A Collection of Drawings … Illustrating the Burke and Wills Exploring Expedition. Image a1485010, 1ff 9, DL PXX 3, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.

After leaving camp at 10 am, their earliest start so far, the Expedition continued towards Bulla, which had a post office, store, church, school and hotel and was described as a ‘thriving township’. They then made their way slowly down the steep incline to the bridge across Deep Creek.

Although the officers on the VEE had not yet received their formal instructions and the Expedition was not expected to start its scientific investigations until they reached the Darling River, Wills made the most of the delay to unpack his scientific instruments and make meteorological observations. He recorded a midday temperature of 17°C and noted the change in barometric pressure between the top of the hill at Bulla and the bottom of the gorge as the Expedition crossed the creek.

Strutt sketched the Expedition heading north from their first camp at Essendon. William Strutt, The Burke and Wills Expedition: the first day’s order of march, 1862.

H5107, State Library of Victoria.

Now

Royal Park, Parkville: Departure Camp

The VEE began to assemble at Royal Park from early July 1860 when the imported camels and attendants moved into wooden stables here. The Expedition assistants set up their tents here in early August and training sessions were held in camel management and rifle shooting. On 17 August 1860 Governor Barkly inspected the camp and enjoyed a special luncheon. On 20 August 1860, 15 000 Melburnians gathered at the park to witness the departure and hear Burke’s farewell speech.

Soon after the tragic news of the deaths of Burke and Wills reached Melbourne, a fence was placed around a tree near their departure point. In 1890 the fence was removed and a cairn built about 180 m to the east to mark the place where the temporary wooden camel stables had been erected.

On 18 August 2010 a ceremony was held in Royal Park to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the departure of the Expedition. A new plaque was laid in the ground, just inside the path around the cairn.

Queens Park, Moonee Ponds: Camp 1

Originally used as a water reserve for travelling stock, Moonee Ponds was the first camping ground for many diggers on their way to the goldfields. In 1863, 8 hectares were set aside as Moonee Ponds Reserve. In 1897 Essendon Council renamed the Reserve ‘Queen’s Park’.

The Expedition’s campsite was originally marked by a large gum tree in Mount Alexander Road ‘near the entrance to the bowling green’. In 1896 the Ascotvale People’s Association petitioned Essendon Council to fence the tree. The tree died around 1906, but was ‘spared the axe’ and a wooden tablet commemorating the Expedition was placed on it. By 1927 the ‘old ivy-covered trunk and branches’ had rotted and it was cut to a stump.

The old gum; Burke and Wills’ first camping place, n.d.

H36145/32, State Library of Victoria.

The butt of the tree was removed in 1938 when Mount Alexander Road was widened, and ‘the historic spot was commemorated in a more lasting way’ when the Mayor of Essendon unveiled a cairn in its place.

The camel sculpture was commissioned by Moonee Valley Council and built by Big Fish Workshops in 2002.

The large brass plaque was designed by Dr Ross Bastiaan and unveiled on Australia Day 2012 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Expedition.

Essendon Historical Society Museum

Opposite Queens Park is the Moonee Ponds Courthouse, which now houses a museum run by the Essendon Historical Society. It contains a shaving mirror which was found hanging on a tree in the campsite, and is reputed to have been used by Burke.

Bulla: Camp 2

In the early 1960s the land around the Inverness Hotel was acquired for Tullamarine Airport. The hotel was situated near the northern end of the north-south runway and was demolished in the 1970s. Currently there is nothing to mark the site of Camp 2.

Deep Creek bridge

The Expedition crossed Deep Creek on an old bridge. The current heritage-listed bluestone bridge was constructed in 1869.

3

Crossing the mountains: Bulla to Knowsley

In 1860

The Expedition’s track

From Bulla the party of 18 men, horses, camels and wagons took a northerly route over the Great Dividing Range, avoiding the gold mining towns of McIvor (Heathcote), Mount Alexander (Castlemaine) and Sandhurst (Bendigo). As they headed over the hills the winter weather worsened, wagons became bogged and the camels found the muddy ground difficult to walk on.

The land north of Melbourne had already been settled for some time, and the Expedition spent three nights camped at stations or near a settlement: Bolinda (Camp 3), Lancefield (Camp 4) and Darlington (Camp 5). On the north side of the range they camped at inns, Mia Mia (Camp 6) and Matheson’s (Camp 7). Each night the men braved the weather and slept in tents, while the five officers found accommodation in inns and homesteads whenever possible.

When the Expedition reached Mia Mia on the northern side of the range, they had been on the road for a week and were ready for a rest. They took a day off to repack the wagons and repair their equipment.

The Expedition’s journey

After crossing Deep Creek at Bulla, the VEE began the long steep climb out of the gorge. The six wagons struggled with the incline and two of the hired wagons became bogged. Burke decided to leave them behind and they did not rejoin the Expedition until Swan Hill, more than two weeks later. Burke explained to the Exploration Committee that these wagons took ‘the highroads’, suggesting they may have followed the main road through Castlemaine, but he did not give any further details.

The other four wagons stayed with the Expedition. One was a hired wagon, the other three had been provided by the Exploration Committee – two were ‘large American wagons’ and the third, the ‘punt-wagon’, had been built at Pentridge Gaol and was designed so the wheels could be removed and the body used to cross rivers. Although several members of the Exploration Committee had told Burke not to use heavy cumbersome wagons, he ignored their advice; that decision was already hampering their progress and would continue to frustrate Burke for the next two months until he finally abandoned the wheeled transport.

The Expedition followed the road north, along the side of Emu Creek to Bolinda Vale, owned by wealthy landowner William John Turner Clarke who had leased part of the property to Captain Robert Gardiner. The sky had been overcast all day and as they approached Bolinda Vale it began to rain. As they set up camp the rain came down in torrents, and the Expedition spent a miserable night. Becker recorded ruefully, ‘No tea, no fire; we slept in the wet’. Gardiner kindly offered the bedraggled explorers and their animals his hospitality the following morning prior to them setting off on the next leg of their journey. He also provided hay for the animals and refused payment.

Strutt wrote in his diary that the Expedition camped ‘a few miles out of town’. The next morning, 21 August 1860, he ‘proceeded to the camp & had some photographs taken’. This photograph is a salted paper print of a glass plate negative and is one of only two surviving photographs of the Expedition. It shows Burke, Landells, Becker and Beckler in camp. William Strutt, ‘The exploring party encamped’, c. 21 August 1860.

A Collection of Drawings … Illustrating the Burke and Wills Exploring Expedition. Image a1485007, 1ff 6b, DL PXX 3, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.

It was a cold and damp morning and the road was wet. Becker described the gradually rising basalt plains between Bolinda Vale and Lancefield:

The black soil, the result of decomposed basalt or lava, was in consequence of the heavy fall of rain last night turned into a sort of mud, resembling black soft-soap, dangerous and difficult for a camels foot and a great hindrance to our waggons. It is a very tedious and tiring work to lead on foot a camel through such ground and at the same time taking good care that no branch over head or on the ground interfere with walking or rather skating.

Wills was still making meteorological observations along the way and he noted the time and weather as the Expedition passed Mueller and Gibbons’ Duck Holes Hotel at Monegeetta North, Five Mile Creek (Romsey) and The Drovers and Carriers Arms (later the Royal Mail Hotel at Romsey). The temperature was dropping and the sun had dipped behind the hills when the VEE arrived at Deep Creek.

The township of Deep Creek was near Mustey’s Bridge, 2 km north of today’s town of Lancefield, and the Expedition crossed Deep Creek on an old wooden bridge which had been built in 1857. (Deep Creek takes a very circuitous route north from Bulla to Lancefield – the VEE crossed it here for the second time). In 1860 Deep Creek township consisted of a brewery, blacksmith, general store, brick works, flour mill, market garden and Charles Mustey’s butcher shop. The Expedition purchased £5 of hay from Mr Mackay; local legend has it that the VEE bought meat from Mustey and didn’t pay the bill. However, Becker reported this oversight happened the following day with provisions purchased from Dr Baynton.

The VEE established Camp 4 at William Henry Dunsford’s place, having travelled 24 km that day. They had another wet and windy night and it was 8.45 am before they struck their tents the next morning. They left Dunsford’s and headed over the ‘Big Hill’ (Benloch), climbing to 700 m to cross the Great Dividing Range. As they left the lowlands of the Victorian volcanic plain for the central Victorian uplands, Becker commented on the geology:

About a mile after quitting Lancefield a sandstone formation, NW of the township, offered a fair road for our poor beasts; soon after the sandstone we met with Granite, which again was exchanged for sandstone.

The steep grades slowed the wagons considerably and the camels and horses waited at the foot of the range. Becker wrote:

After crossing the ‘Big Hill’ the ascent and descent of which caused some delay, we were most heartily received by a poor family living in a hut at the ‘Accommodation Paddock’ in front of which we awaited the arrival of our waggons. The housewife offering us tea and milk, which was gladly accepted, refused at the same time to take payment for it, however, her rosy cheeked children at the door of the hut differed from their mothers view and shaking hands with us strangers accepted a few shillings, which they were told by the good woman to keep it as a ‘memento cameli’ which I think is the proper translation for a ‘camel token’ as she called it.

Once the wagons caught up, the Expedition continued on until they made Camp 5 in a paddock near Dr Thomas Baynton’s homestead at Darlington station. As soon as they arrived they were greeted by ‘a cloud discharging a deluge, followed by a shower of hail’. Becker noted:

At the Doctors place unfortunately there was no hay nor any other feed for the Animals, so we cut wattles down which were not refused by them.

Beckler also commented that this ‘soft-leaved species of Acacia was in full bloom’ and was very common, but he did not collect a specimen of it. At this stage he was content just to observe the flora.

The following morning, Burke replenished their supplies, purchasing 203 lb of beef, 32 lb of chaff and four bags of oats from Baynton. Shortly after leaving Darlington the party was held up through:

a butcher who run after us with a bill for £3 16s for some beef and chaff and as the bill was written with pencil on a minute piece of dirty paper without Dr Baynton’s signature, we were obliged to wait till everything was properly done.

It was a foggy morning and the Expedition was under way before the gloom lifted. When it did, Becker was surprised to note they were crossing:

an ancient crater of about one half or three-quarters of a mile diameter, near the centre of which a cone rose, covered with blocks of basalt; the whole of the rim and the plaines beyond it belong to the same formation. The outlet of this crater is towards the North, through which at present a current of water runs with a marshy, rich soil on both sides.

The next day he sketched the scene – the first of 68 sketches, paintings and drawings he would complete on the Expedition before his death.

Ludwig Becker, Crossing an ancient crater from near Dr. Baynton’s, 25 August 1860.

Image b36031, H16486, State Library of Victoria.

It took an hour and a half to get the wagons down and then up the steep sides of the crater, after which the road was good. However, once they reached the ‘basaltic formations which … formed the main feature of the Spring Plains’, the road deteriorated:

In the afternoon [we] travelled with the utmost difficulty on account of the slippery ground and great number of crab-holes.

The Spring Plains were not only ‘desolate’ but so wet from the recent rain that some of the wagons became hopelessly bogged. As the daylight was fading it was decided to leave the wagons on the plains and bring them on the next day. The Expedition continued on, descending ‘a steep hill composed of quartz’ into Mia Mia. They set up Camp 6 on the flat near the creek, not far from Lars Westblade’s Mia Mia Hotel. The officers engaged most of the limited accommodation at the hotel and Burke bought hay and provisions to the value of £9 19s. The men pitched their tents as the rain continued to fall.

The next day was Sunday and the Expedition rested at Mia Mia while the wagons caught up. When they finally arrived, there were many tasks to attend to, as Beckler reported:

We had to unload all the wagons and pack them afresh; our ‘punt-wagon’ already showed a considerable lean to the right-hand side.

Becker finished his sketch of the crater then wrote up the Expedition’s accounts. Burke sent a telegram to the Exploration Committee, forwarding the accounts along with a report on their progress. Wills took the opportunity to write to his father. Burke hired an additional man, Jean Prolongeau, a Frenchman who had been working on the diggings.

The Expedition was still generating a great deal of interest and the local press in Bendigo and Castlemaine reported their daily movements. Although the journalists could only speculate on which route Burke would take, people set out in search of the Expedition nevertheless. Becker wrote:

A great many visitors are coming in from McIvor [Heathcote] and other places to look at the caravan; the Landlord of the Inn had a good day and behaved well towards the Exploring party, his charges were very moderate.

A letter to the Bendigo Advertiser from one of the visitors described their first view of the camels:

As we approached the Mia Mia Hotel we saw a long line of strange looking animals squatting alongside a fence, with their legs doubled up under them, like immense fowls trussed up for cooking.

Becker noted the camels’ health was deteriorating:

They were beginning to show the effects of the continual rain, the gradual change of feed and the camping in the open … They developed catarrhs and diarrhoea and their faeces contained their hitherto customary feed, gram [chickpeas], in an undigested state.

One of the camels showed its displeasure by biting a sepoy ‘through the finger’.

Some visitors stayed overnight and were there to witness the Expedition’s departure on Monday morning:

About six this morning the clanging tones of a gong aroused us from slumber. Outside the associates and their native assistants were busily engaged in preparing for a march. Camels were in all directions, some still on the ground receiving their burdens, others towering up to a tremendous height, made still larger by the large packages they carry. Under the able superintendence of Mr Landells, the work was soon completed and the party was ready to start.

The Expedition left Mia Mia on Monday morning. They headed north, leaving the road to McIvor (Heathcote) on their right. For the first time since leaving Melbourne, they had fine weather and fair roads, which Beckler noted was a welcome change:

We were thus more than a little happy to find ourselves on a good, hard road soon after setting off on the following day through attractive countryside … the morning passed very quickly.

Around midday they passed the small settlement of Wild Duck Creek, which had been the site of a gold strike. The Expedition had to cross Mount Ida Creek, which Becker explained was the first water of any depth that they crossed without a bridge:

With some difficulty we got the Camels through the Creek, they never before went through water worth mentioning.

In the afternoon the road was ‘good and level’ and after covering 14 miles they halted. Beckler noted their camp was:

a truly delightful place, Matheson’s Hotel. Here we found calm, congenial scenery without any particular charms and a well-built, roomy guest-house with adequate accommodation for travellers.

Burke bought hay and beef from Matheson and stabled the camels. He sent to Bendigo for several things and sent the Exploration Committee another telegram updating them on the Expedition’s progress.

Now

Bolinda Vale: Camp 3

Camp 3 was near Bolinda Creek Bridge on the Lancefield Road. The heritage-listed Bolinda Vale homestead is not open to the public. The Coach and Horses Inn in nearby Station Street, Clarkefield, was a staging post for Cobb and Co. coaches when Burke and Wills passed by in 1860.

Duck Holes Hotel

The rusty corrugated iron building on the corner of Melbourne–Lancefield Road and Duckholes Road, Monegeetta North, is the former Duck Holes Hotel that the Expedition passed on their fourth day out of Melbourne.

Drovers and Carriers Arms

Five Mile Creek, a short distance north of the centre of Romsey, was the original settlement and the post office was here from 1858 to 1864. The Drovers and Carriers Arms, a little over 1 km further north, has been restored and is