SOMEWHERE, A KILOMETRE BENEATH MY plane, Burke and Wills perished while traversing the dry red earth. They’d planned to cross Australia from south to north in 1860, a depot party waiting as they set their sights on the Gulf of Carpentaria. After four months, the entourage gave up hope, and left just a few hours before the explorers returned to camp. Burke and Wills died soon after, the first Europeans (of many) to succumb to these remote parts of the Queensland outback.
From where I sit – on lamb’s wool seat covers as one of 12
