Burke and Wills: The Scientific Legacy of the Victorian Exploring Expedition

By CSIRO PUBLISHING

This book challenges the common assumption that little or nothing of scientific value was achieved during the Burke and Wills expedition.

The Royal Society of Victoria initiated the Victorian Exploring Expedition as a serious scientific exploration of hitherto unexplored regions of inland and northern Australia. Members of the expedition were issued with detailed instructions on scientific measurements and observations to be carried out, covering about a dozen areas of science. The tragic ending of the expedition meant that most of the results of the scientific investigations were not reported or published. Burke and Wills: The Scientific Legacy of the Victorian Exploring Expedition rectifies this historic omission.

It includes the original instructions as well as numerous paintings and drawings, documents the actual science undertaken as recorded in notebooks and diaries, and analyses the outcomes. It reveals for the first time the true extent and limits of the scientific achievements of both the Burke and Wills expedition and the various relief expeditions which followed.

Importantly, this new book has led to a re-appraisal of the shortcomings and the successes of the journey. It will be a compelling read for all those interested in the history of exploration, science and natural history, as well as Australian history and heritage.

• Language: English
• Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
• Release date: Nov 2, 2011
• ISBN: 9780643103344

Book preview

Burke & Wills

THE SCIENTIFIC LEGACY OF THE VICTORIAN EXPLORING EXPEDITION

Edited by E. B. Joyce and D. A. McCann

© The Royal Society of Victoria 2011

All rights reserved. Except under the conditions described in the Australian Copyright Act 1968 and subsequent amendments, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, duplicating or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Contact CSIRO PUBLISHING for all permission requests.

National Library of Australia

Cataloguing-in-Publication entry

Burke & Wills : the scientific legacy of the Victorian exploring expedition / edited by E.B. Joyce and D.A. McCann

9780643103320 (hbk.)

9780643103337 (epdf)

9780643103344 (epub)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Burke and Wills Expedition (1860–1861) – Influence.

Australia – Discovery and exploration.

Joyce, Edmund Bernard, 1934–

McCann, Douglas Andrew, 1948–

994.03

Published by

CSIRO PUBLISHING

150 Oxford Street (PO Box 1139)

Collingwood VIC 3066

Australia

Published in association with the

State Library of Victoria

328 Swanston Street

Melbourne Victoria 3000 Australia

slv.vic.gov.au

Front cover: Collage of expedition illustrations by Ludwig Becker. Clockwise from top: ‘Gullomalla pigeon’ (Diamond Dove) Geopelia cuneata; freshwater snail Vivipara (Notopala) sublineata; beetle Dicranolaius bellulus; lizard Ctenotus shomburgkii; map showing the country around Menindee, the depot and the Darling River. Images State Library of Victoria Australian Manuscripts Collection.

Back cover: Illustration of the white-footed rabbit-rat (artist Frank Knight) reproduced from A Field Guide to the Mammals of Australia by Peter Menkhorst and Frank Knight, with permission from the artist and Oxford University Press.

Title page: ‘Goningberri Ranges Feb.13.61’ Ludwig Becker. 13 February 1861. State Library of Victoria Australian Manuscripts Collection. Accession no. H16486. Ludwig Becker painted this iconic image of Koonenberry Mountain, north-western New South Wales (see pp. 80 and 111), while a member of the supply party of the Burke and Wills Expedition only 11 weeks before his death on 29 April 1861 at Bulla Camp (Koorliatto Waterhole), Bulloo River, southwestern Queensland.

Front endpaper: Illustration by Kellee Frith from map drafted by Frank Leahy (after Valmai Hankel and The Friends of the State Library of South Australia 2007 Finding Burke and Wills).

Back endpaper: Illustration by Kellee Frith from map drafted by Frank Leahy (after Bonyhady 1991).

Set in Adobe Lucida 8/12 and Minion Pro Edited by Elaine Cochrane Cover and text design by Andrew Weatherill Typeset by Andrew Weatherill Index by Russell Brooks Printed in China by 1010 Printing International Ltd

CSIRO PUBLISHING publishes and distributes scientific, technical and health science books, magazines and journals from Australia to a worldwide audience and conducts these activities autonomously from the research activities of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of, and should not be attributed to, the publisher or CSIRO.

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Foreword

Melbourne in the 1850s, after the gold rush and separation of Victoria from New South Wales, was flush with success and awash with money. In the two decades since the arrival of white settlers the institutions of a great and permanent city had been established – a university, a museum, a library, an observatory, botanic gardens, a philharmonic society.

The migrants who had flocked to the gold-rich colony had already established clubs and societies to promote the arts and sciences. Two such societies, the Victorian Institute for the Advancement of Science and the Philosophical Society, merged to become the Philosophical Institute, which in turn applied for a Royal Charter. In 1859 this became the Royal Society of Victoria with its own new, purpose-built building.

By 1857 the Philosophical Institute had already formed an Exploration Committee to consider a proposal to send a Victorian expedition north across the centre of Australia. The expedition was to serve several purposes: to seek grazing land, and to pre-empt similar endeavours, particularly those of John McDouall Stuart, sponsored by the rival, neighbouring, colony of South Australia.

Historians seem to have largely overlooked another purpose of the expedition – this was to be a scientific expedition. The Exploration Committee included leading scientists of the colony: Government Palaeontologist Professor Frederick McCoy, Government Botanist Ferdinand Mueller, zoologist William Blandowski, geophysicist and meteorologist Professor Georg (George) Neumayer, and chemist and assayer John Macadam. This group set the scientific goals for the expedition and oversaw the appointment of three officers who combined qualifications and expertise in various branches of science with the desire to go out and find out what was in the ‘ghastly blank’ in the middle of the maps of Australia.

Two of the men they chose were Germans: medical doctor and botanist Hermann Beckler, and artist and naturalist Ludwig Becker. Like Neumayer and Mueller, they were members of a group of educated German immigrants who played a large part in the cultural and scientific life of the new colony. Neumayer himself accompanied the expedition as far as the Darling. The third scientist was William John Wills, whose expertise in surveying and astronomy was critical to the success of the venture.

John Macadam summarised the requirements of the Committee in a dozen hand-written pages of instructions sent to Burke, who was requested ‘to hand each gentleman a copy of the part more particularly relating to his department’.

The first and most important scientific activity to be pursued was surveying and navigational astronomy. The explorers needed to know their geographic position as closely as possible at all times, and to chart their progress, filling in the blanks on the map. This involved taking constant sightings and observing ‘all astronomical phenomena of particular interest’. This task fell to Wills, the navigator, who continued to make and record the observations as specified by the Committee until he was forced to abandon his navigational equipment at the ‘Plant Camp’. His field books provide the basis from which it is possible to reconstruct his navigation and the meticulous and onerous calculations that were necessary to establish the expedition’s position by sextant observations. Dr Frank Leahy’s chapter in this book is the result of a lifetime of research into determining where the expedition went, and how accurate Wills was in his navigation.

One year after the publication of Darwin’s Origin of Species, Victorian scientists were still gripped with enthusiasm for gathering specimens of flora and fauna in the new world, identifying new species, and placing them in the context of those already known. Beckler gathered hundreds of plant specimens as he travelled with the complete party as far as Menindee, and then with the supply party as far as the Koorliatto Waterhole. These specimens were brought back to Melbourne and are preserved in the Herbarium at the Royal Botanic Gardens. Dr Linden Gillbank analyses the importance of this collection and the accompanying sketches done by both botanist Beckler and the ‘artist and naturalist’ Becker.

Becker and Beckler also observed, sketched and collected specimens of small animals, fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds and insects. Although a small number of zoological specimens are recorded as having been sent back, none has been located; however an historically valuable collection of several dozen specimens brought back by a relief party under Alfred Howitt is now held at Museum Victoria. Their drawings, paintings and written records are held at the State Library of Victoria. Bernard Mace, Dr Peter Menkhorst, Rory O’Brien, Craig Robertson and Dr Alan Yen have collaborated in a chapter that investigates the biodiversity observed 150 years ago along the expedition route.

For the Royal Society’s Exploration Committee, the main purpose of exploration was to find new land that could be exploited for gain. They were seeking new pastures for sheep and cattle, but they were also hoping for more of the mineral finds that had already made the colony of Victoria rich. The scientific instructions placed emphasis on examining the ‘geological, physical and mineral character’ of the country traversed, and the nature of the watercourses that the expedition would follow. These observations were made and recorded by all three scientists in their writings and drawings, providing enough material for Professor Bernie Joyce and Dr Doug McCann to assemble and analyse in their chapter on geology and geomorphology.

At the time of the expedition, Europeans had been settled in Australia long enough to understand the vital importance of water, especially in the inland. The recording of the location, quality and content of the river systems was given great importance in the instructions to the scientists. Becker drew and painted the larger river systems in the Murray–Darling basin. Wills recorded the location and nature of the water found by the lead party all the way to the Gulf and back. He also recorded the weather throughout the journey, including temperature, wind direction and rainfall. His observations in particular provide a baseline for comparison between the current state of stream, lake and groundwater levels, and climate. These data had not been analysed scientifically until now, and this important task fell to Dr Charles Lawrence, who researched the hitherto neglected hydrological observations, and Dr John Bye, who studied the observations of meteorology and climatology in the records maintained by Wills and then by Brahe in Central Australia throughout the long wait for the return of Burke and Wills’ party. Until now the meteorological records from the Burke and Wills expedition had not been collated and published.

The area of least interest to the Committee in Melbourne was anthropology, and the instructions make sparing mention of any interest in the Aboriginal people, their way of life, or their tools and artefacts. Despite this, Becker and Wills both took an interest, as did Welch and Howitt in the relief expeditions. Becker made a number of sketches of both people and artefacts. Wills made notes about the way the Aboriginal people lived, particularly when learning food-gathering techniques from them became critical for survival. He is probably the first person to record any words of the language of the Yandruwandha people. The records of Becker and Wills provide the base data for Professor Harry Allen’s chapter on anthropology and material culture.

The authors of the various chapters of this book have completed a long overdue task, that of collating, publishing and analysing the legacy of documents, images and specimens that came back, not only from the Burke and Wills expedition, but also from some of the six relief expeditions that were sent out in search of the missing men, principally those of Alfred Howitt.

Although seven members of the expedition died on the journey, most of the scientific data gathered, in whatever form, returned to Melbourne. As a result of Burke’s decisions to divide his party, much of the documentation of the expedition was provided by Wills. North of Cooper Creek, Wills was the only member of the four-man party who recorded his observations in a systematic manner. His field books provide us with a stream of information and observation, from descriptions of the landscape to the description of the symptoms experienced by Wills in his final days. Wills died at the Cooper, but his diaries and field books were retrieved from their cache there. His diaries were subsequently published by his father and the field books are in the State Library of Victoria.

Photography was in its infancy in 1860, but a few photographic images of the expedition have survived. The main method of recording flora, fauna, landscape, indigenous people or meteorological phenomena was by sketching and painting. All of these scientific data were recorded by Ludwig Becker. His remarkable paintings and sketches provide records for scientific as well as artistic purposes. The pictorial records of the expedition both as scientific data and as objects of art are the topic of Elizabeth Ninnis’s discerning analysis, ‘The art of the Victorian Exploring Expedition’, which forms Appendix E of this book. The instructions generated for the expedition explicitly required paintings to be numbered and the location and aspect to be recorded. Despite the arduous journey and the disdain with which he was treated by Burke, Ludwig Becker fulfilled these obligations until his death in April 1861. His paintings and drawings are now readily available in digital form.

Beckler was the only one of the three scientists to survive the expedition, and he wrote the only substantial account of the expedition prepared by one of its members. It remained in the possession of his family until it was deposited in a local museum in southern Germany in 1967. It has since been translated and published. His collections of specimens held in the Herbarium in Melbourne also provide rich material for the modern researcher.

The background to the scientific story is provided in this book by the authoritative Introduction prepared by Dave Phoenix, President of the Burke & Wills Historical Society. This sets the scene in which we are now, at last, able to examine in detail the scientific legacy of the Victorian Exploring Expedition.

The concept of such a book was originally that of Doug McCann, who in late 2009 joined with Bernie Joyce in the planning and management of the project. Specialist authors were invited to contribute on specific topics and disciplines. With the support of the Council of the Royal Society of Victoria, the project was included as part of the 150th anniversary commemoration of the Burke and Wills expedition.

It is remarkable that the scientific observations and findings of the expedition were not published at the time. It is even more remarkable that, despite the extensive literature on Burke and Wills, the scientific intent and achievements of the expedition seem to have been largely overlooked in the ensuing 150 years.

We are indebted to the authors of this book, especially the editors Professor Bernie Joyce and Dr Doug McCann. Professor Joyce and Dr McCann also wrote the introductory and concluding chapters and the chapter on Geology and Geomorphology. By their efforts they have remedied this deficiency in the history of Australian science and have cast new light on the purposes and outcomes of the original expedition.

Dr Peter Thorne

Vice-President, Royal Society of Victoria Chair, Burke and Wills Commemoration Committee

2010

Contents

Foreword Peter Thorne

List of contributors

Acknowledgements

Introduction Dave Phoenix

CHAPTER 1    Conflicting priorities: exploration, science, politics and personal ambition

Doug McCann and Bernie Joyce

CHAPTER 2    William John Wills as scientist

Frank Leahy

CHAPTER 3    Geology, soils and landscapes of the expedition route

Bernie Joyce and Doug McCann

CHAPTER 4    The botanical legacy of Ferdinand Mueller and

Hermann Beckler

Linden Gillbank

CHAPTER 5    Zoology: an encounter with the fauna of Australia’s unique arid environmen

Introduction Bernard Mace

Mammals Peter W. Menkhorst

Birds Rory O’Brien and Craig Robertson

Reptiles Bernard Mace

Fishes Bernard Mace

Insects and other invertebrates Alan L. Yen

CHAPTER 6    Hydrologic insights of inland Australia

C. R. Lawrence

CHAPTER 7    Meteorology: a remarkable set of early inland observation

John A.T. Bye

CHAPTER 8    The space between: Aboriginal people, the Victorian Exploring

Expedition and the relief parties

Harry Allen

CHAPTER 9    Conclusion: rewriting history

Doug McCann and Bernie Joyce

APPENDIXES:    Timeline of principal events Doug McCann

Expedition personnel Doug McCann

Biographies of the principal scientists Dave Phoenix

Instructions to the leader and scientific officers

The art of the Victorian Exploring Expedition Elizabeth Ninnis

Index

List of contributors

Associate Professor Harry Allen

Department of Anthropology

University of Auckland

Associate Professor John Bye

Honorary Principal Fellow

School of Earth Sciences

University of Melbourne

Dr Linden Gillbank

Honorary Fellow

School of Historical and Philosophical Studies

University of Melbourne

Associate Professor Bernie Joyce

Honorary Principal Fellow

School of Earth Sciences

University of Melbourne

Dr Charles Lawrence

Honorary Senior Fellow

School of Earth Sciences

University of Melbourne

Associate Professor Frank Leahy

Honorary Principal Fellow

Department of Geomatics

University of Melbourne

Bernard Mace

Member

Royal Society of Victoria

Dr Doug McCann

Honorary Fellow

School of Earth Sciences

University of Melbourne

Dr Peter Menkhorst

Arthur Rylah Institute for

Environmental Research

Department of Sustainability

and Environment

Melbourne

Elizabeth Ninnis

Art and Design Historian

Faculty of Design

Swinburne University of Technology

Rory O’Brien

Collection Manager

Sciences Department

Museum Victoria

Dave Phoenix

History Department

School of Arts and Social Sciences

James Cook University

Craig Robertson

Member

Royal Society of Victoria

Dr Peter Thorne

Vice-President

Royal Society of Victoria

Associate Professor Alan Yen

Department of Primary Industries Victoria

and

La Trobe University

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the following people for their generous assistance, without which this book would not have been possible:

Jim Bowler, David Branagan, Andrew Brooks, Shane Carmody, Heather Catchpole, Michael Cathcart, Justin Costelloe, Matt Cupper, Tom Darragh, Paul Dettman, Russel Drysdale, Sue Fletcher, David Gibson, Phil Gilmore, Ken Grimes, Gerard Hayes, Steve Hill, Margot Jones, Josh Larsen, Wayne Longmore, John Macadam, John Magee, Martin McKenna, Camilla van Megen, Gerald Nanson, Roger Pierson, Shelley Roberts, Neville Rosengren, Judith Scurfield, Lynne Selwood, Jeffrey Shellberg, Robb Stanley, Walter Struve, Lindsay Thomas, Peter Thorne, Helen Vorrath, Bob Wasson, Pera Wells, Clive Willman.

In addition, we would like to express our appreciation to consulting editor Elaine Cochrane who helped sort ‘order out of chaos’, to Russell Brooks for producing a comprehensive index, and to graphic artist Kellee Frith. We would like to thank the dedicated (and patient) staff at CSIRO Publishing including Tracey Millen who oversaw the copy-editing, Pilar Aguilera the production and Andrew Weatherill the typesetting and cover and text design. Finally, we would especially like to thank CSIRO Books Publishing Director John Manger for having the foresight and courage to take on the project in the first place.

We are truly delighted with the outcome, and believe we have created a book which presents substantial new information which will challenge much of the long accepted opinion concerning the success or otherwise of one of Australia’s grandest and most intriguing exploring expeditions and contribute towards a reassessment and a deeper understanding of its historical, cultural and scientific significance.

Introduction

Dave Phoenix

Victoria’s desire to become involved in inland exploration was an unusual one, and were it not for the unique set of circumstances that occurred as a result of separation from New South Wales, the discovery of gold, and a desire to advance scientific enquiry, the colony may have never been involved in the remarkable venture that has now become a legendary part of Australian history.

The gold rush turned Melbourne into one of the richest cities in the world. During the 1850s the city established a host of public institutions, including a university, public library, museum, and herbarium, as well as installing gas lighting in the streets and building its first telegraph and railway lines. This decade was a time of confidence, and many educated and intelligent people were attracted to the colony.

Until this point scientific societies had not flourished in Australia. It is said that pioneer communities have little time for culture, and professional science was still very much on the periphery in Australia in the 1850s. However the combination of wealth, cultural institutions and intelligentsia allowed Victoria the luxury of pursuing scientific enquiry. In 1854 this interest was formalised with the founding of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria, later to become the Royal Society of Victoria (Pescott 1961). From the very outset the Institute’s president, Captain Andrew Clarke (1855), declared an interest in exploration when he proposed outfitting an expedition to survey Victoria. By 1857 Vice-President Dr David Wilkie (1858) had his sights set on a much grander venture when he proposed an expedition to cross Australia from east to west, and an Exploration Committee (EC) was appointed to investigate the feasibility of the proposal.

This Committee sat for sixteen years from 1857 to 1873, during which time nearly 50 different members discussed the various proposals and voted on the motions that determined every aspect of the expedition’s progress. These members represented not just the developing scientific community, but also included powerful and influential men from Melbourne’s religious, medical, academic, merchant and legal communities. The German community was also well represented, as was the legislature, with the membership including two Chief Secretaries, numerous members of the Legislative Council and Assembly, and two Mayors of Melbourne. It is worth noting that the average age of the members was just 37; this Committee was not the domain of retired veterans, but was populated by enthusiastic middle-aged British, Irish and German migrants who were eager to make their mark on the development of the young colony. While many Committee members were irregular or infrequent attendees, three members stand out as having been particularly influential during the debates: Government Analytical Chemist and Committee Secretary Dr John Macadam, Chief Justice of Victoria and Committee Chairman Sir William Stawell, and physician and Committee Treasurer Dr David Wilkie (Exploration Committee 1858–1873a).

After Melbourne merchant Ambrose Kyte anonymously offered £1000 towards exploration in 1858, a Fund Raising Committee was established with the task of raising an additional £2000 by public subscription (Argus 19 August 1858, p. 4; 4 September 1858, p. 4). The Institute, keen to maintain control of any potential developments, ensured that the Fund Raising Committee was dominated by members of the Exploration Committee. Six of the seven Fund Raising Committee members were members of the Exploration Committee, and all seven were members of the Institute. The Victorian colonists, however, were reluctant to fund inland exploration, and despite the enthusiasm displayed by the two ostensibly separate committees, it took over two years to raise the money. During this time the expedition was promoted in various guises, the advancement of scientific knowledge being one aspect particularly well received by Melbourne’s German community. By the end of 1859 the funds had been raised, and when Chief Secretary John O’Shanassy agreed to place £6000 for exploration on the estimates for 1860, the Royal Society of Victoria, now in its new premises at La Trobe Street, was able to release their Fourth Progress Report (1863) stating the Exploration Committee was in a position ‘to take all the preliminary steps, and to make all the necessary preparations for the immediate equipment of an exploring party on the arrival of the camels’.

While the Committee had been busy raising funds and promoting the benefits of a Victorian sponsored expedition, a separate but concurrent debate had been running on the potential benefits of importing camels. The idea of introducing camels into Australia was not new, having already been suggested by Malte-Brun in 1822 (p. 568) and Maslen in 1830 (p. 214). Several colonies had even offered bounties on any camels landed here to encourage private speculators to import the animals; however by 1860 less than a dozen camels had reached Australian shores. Six of these had been imported from Aden on speculation and were already in Melbourne, where they were an attraction at George Coppin’s Cremorne Gardens menagerie (Argus 15 November 1859, p. 5). Melburnians were therefore no strangers to dromedaries, but as these imports had not been tested in the arid Australian inland, they were perceived merely as novelties. While the main proponents in the debate certainly suggested that camels would be of invaluable benefit to the proposed expedition, their main area of interest was using the imports in a breeding stud that would supply animals for a variety of uses as part of the increasingly popular acclimatisation movement. Dr Thomas Embling MLA persuaded the government’s Zoological Gardens Committee to purchase 24 camels, and George James Landells, who was about to depart for India with a shipment of cavalry horses, was assured he would be contracted to purchase camels and return them to Australia (Committee for the Zoological Gardens 1858). Delays in sending Landells’ commission to India and transport difficulties as a result of the Indian Rebellion meant the camels’ arrival in Melbourne was delayed by more than six months. The camels cost considerably more than originally estimated, but Landells (1860) made every effort to find the best animals possible, purchasing 12 of the finest riding dromedaries at the Bikaner markets in Rajasthan and 12 sturdy pack camels near the Bolan Pass in the Toba Kakar Range in Baluchistan. Although Government Botanist Ferdinand Mueller still held out hopes of starting a breeding stud, and had even began constructing camel stables in the Botanical Gardens, by the time the animals were unloaded at Sandridge in June 1860, the imminent departure of the expedition fuelled the growing public interest in exploration and it was generally assumed that the camels would be placed at the disposal of the Exploration Committee.

Although the Committee cited the camels’ late arrival as the cause of the delayed departure, it was the lack of a suitable candidate for the position of expedition leader that had dominated the Committee’s meetings during the first half of 1860. A fortnight after the camels arrived, Robert O’Hara Burke was selected as leader, and a week later an ‘Employment Sub-Committee’ was nominated to select the four subordinate officers and confer on the remaining vacancies (Exploration Committee 1858–1873b, p. 48). The Sub-Committee consisted of Burke, Wilkie, Mueller, Government Astronomer Professor Georg Neumayer, Government Palaeontologist Professor Frederick McCoy, river-boat pioneer Captain Frances Cadell, and Melbourne publican John Watson (Exploration Committee 1858–1873b, p. 51).

Landells was chosen as second-in-command based on his knowledge of camels and his understanding of the sepoy camel-handlers. He had received favourable reports in the Melbourne press praising the quality of the animals he had selected and the care he had shown during the long trek across India and difficult voyage from Karachi, and Burke was suitably impressed and pressured the Committee to secure his services (Robbins 1860).

Neumayer proposed William John Wills as Surveyor, Astronomical and Meteorological Observer. Wills had worked for Neumayer since 1858 and was now Senior Assistant at the Magnetic Observatory on Flagstaff Hill. He had been carefully watching the Committee’s progress and as early as November 1859 had expressed his confidence in being selected to go on the expedition (Wills 1863, p. 64). Neumayer hoped Wills would find time among his many duties to continue the magnetic survey that he had started in 1858, and to this extent he asked Burke to take either an additional surveyor or an assistant to Wills (Exploration Committee 1858–1873b, p. 77). This did not eventuate, and although Neumayer was resigned to the fact that the collection of magnetic data would have to wait, the absence of a second surveyor attached to William Wright’s supply party would have serious implications later in the expedition.

Ludwig Becker was the oldest member of the expedition party and the only one who was a member of the Royal Society of Victoria. He was well known among Melbourne’s scientific and German communities, and as he had worked with Mueller, Neumayer and McCoy, he too felt confident in his chances of being appointed. Although Burke opposed Becker’s selection, most members of the Exploration Committee supported his appointment and he was selected as Artist and Naturalist (Exploration Committee 1858–1873b, p. 55; Tipping 1979).

Dr Hermann Beckler, on the other hand, had not spent much time in the colony before the expedition’s departure and therefore was not as well known as Becker. He had been employed by Mueller at the Botanical Gardens in Melbourne and had also collected botanical specimens for the Herbarium. In September 1859 Mueller suggested he should apply for the position of botanical collector and expedition surgeon, and Beckler saw this as an opportunity of making a name for himself as a botanist. While Burke was happy with the appointment, his German medical qualifications were not recognised in Victoria and the Committee ordered McCoy and Dr William Gilbee to subject Beckler to further assessment before he was finally accepted (Beckler and Jeffries 1993).

A month before the expedition was due to depart, the Committee met to discuss the route it should take. Wilkie had abandoned his idea of an east–west crossing, but several other ambitious options were proposed, including a suggestion to despatch the expedition by ship to Kings Sound or Joseph Bonaparte Gulf, from where they would travel in a south-easterly direction back to Melbourne. After much deliberation the Committee decided the expedition should travel via the Darling River and Cooper Creek, and thence north to the Gulf of Carpentaria (Exploration Committee 1858–1873b, p. 63). Ten days before departure the Exploration Committee met to appoint subcommittees to draw up instructions for Burke and the three scientific officers. These subcommittees consisted of Gillbee, Wilkie, Macadam, Mueller, Neumayer, McCoy and Government Geologist Alfred Selwyn (Exploration Committee 1858–1873b, p. 69). The instructions given to Burke were lengthy and ambiguous. Although he was given the opportunity to read though the five-page document before leaving Melbourne, the instructions to the scientific officers were still being formally drafted as the heavily laden cavalcade travelled slowly along the wet, muddy roads of central Victoria, and they did not reach the expedition until it was just about to leave the colony.

The Committee had stated that the scientific function of the expedition would begin at the Darling. However, the officers were keen to begin their tasks and they began making scientific observations almost immediately after departing Royal Park. On the second morning out of Melbourne, Wills unpacked the aneroid barometers and thermometers and recorded the change in atmospheric pressure and temperature during the descent to the wooden bridge over Deep Creek at Bulla (Wills 1860a).

A week later Wills reported the benefits of riding on a camel where he could sit behind the hump and mount his instruments in front, thereby enabling him to make observations as he went along (Wills 1863, p. 102). During the expedition’s second day off, while Becker sketched the scenery and made geological observations, Wills organised the first series of experiments when he climbed the granite outcrop at Mount Terrick-Terrick and made simultaneous barometric observations with Beckler, who was two miles away on the lowest part of the Terrick-Terrick plains. Buoyed by easy travel and improving weather, the following day the officers climbed another granite outcrop, Mount Hope; while Beckler collected specimens, Becker made further sketches and Wills recorded meteorological observations and took bearings to the surrounding features (Wills 1860b; Becker 1860a; Beckler 1993, p. 21).

When the scientific officers were finally handed their written instructions at Swan Hill, Becker had already completed his First Report (1860b) and five sketches (1860–1861a), and had three snakes preserved in a bottle. Neumayer (1869) joined the party there with the aim of accompanying the expedition as far as Bilbarka on the Darling River so he could calibrate the instruments and assist Wills establish a routine of systematic recordings. Wills had been anticipating Neumayer’s arrival for some time, and he was looking forward to starting the astronomical observations. However Neumayer typically became preoccupied with his own magnetic observations and allowed the expedition to get ahead of him. When he caught up with Wills again at Balranald, the two men began the process of formally recording their progress. Under Neumayer’s close supervision, Wills began the first of 19 field books (Wills 1860c) and 12 maps that would chart the expedition’s route across the continent (Figure I.1). Each day Wills would record the bearing and time taken for each leg of their daily traverse, and record notable topography and terrain along with meteorological notes. In the evening the two men made the most of the clear winter skies to take astronomical observations, sometimes staying up until nearly 3 a.m. in temperatures well below freezing to make circum-meridian altitude and lunar distance observations. When Neumayer returned to Melbourne he took with him Wills’ first map (Figure I.2) and two field books, which he presented to the Committee. This map (Wills 1860d), which charts the expedition’s progress from the Murrumbidgee to the Darling, is the most detailed and well constructed of all the maps Wills drafted on the expedition. When Wills’ first notebook of astronomical observations arrived in the mail shortly after, the Committee thought it was important enough that they assigned funds for Neumayer to have the observations reduced at the Flagstaff Observatory. This task was given to Edwin Welch (n.d. c.1860), who submitted his calculations in a 120 page report. Welch would later be appointed surveyor to Alfred Howitt’s relief expedition to Cooper Creek.

As soon as Neumayer left the expedition Wills took a break from the rigorous schedule of nightly observations, and over the next three weeks he made only one set of observations. The expedition did not travel far during this period as the camels went missing, the wagons were abandoned, and dissent within the party reached a critical level. The tensions between Burke and Landells resulted in the resignation of not only Landells, but also Beckler. At Menindee Burke split the party, leaving Becker behind with the supply party and Beckler awaiting a replacement before his resignation would be effective.

Figure I.1: Torowoto to Cooper Creek Field notes No. 4, 14 to 20 November 1860, William John Wills, Box 2082, Folder 6, Item h, MS 13071, State Library of Victoria.

This new arrangement suited Becker, as he had struggled with the manual labour Burke had forced him to undertake and he had been injured when a horse stood on his foot. With the prospect of an extended period in the Menindee depot camp at Pamamaroo he set about finishing more sketches (for example Figure I.3), as well as recording details of Barkindji life (Becker 1861). In addition to his five written reports, Becker completed 70 superb water-colours and sketches before the harsh conditions and privations resulted in his death at the Bulloo River in south-west Queensland. These sketches are an eclectic mix of landscapes, maps, observations of Aboriginal life and studies of natural history. They are wonderful works of art as well as a record of the expedition’s progress. His impeccable attention to detail under even the most trying circumstances means they are also a significant scientific record of flora, fauna, anthropology, geology, geography, hydrology and astronomy. When one stands in the places where Becker drew his landscape sketches and compares them to today’s topography, they prove to be remarkably accurate despite a certain degree of vertical exaggeration that highlights distant mountains and enhances the effect of the mirage or heat haze.

In addition to the sketches and written reports, Becker also made five observations a day of pressure, temperature, cloud type and cover, and wind speed and direction (1860–1861b), in accordance with Neumayer’s instructions that ‘whenever a permanent camp is to be erected, a systematic registration on meteorology should at once be carried on’ (Exploration Committee 1860). When he sent the carefully recorded data to Melbourne he proudly announced that his figures contained over ‘2,000 single observations, of which not a few are rare or new’ (Tipping, p. 191). Neumayer expressed his satisfaction in ‘the manner in which the journals have been kept under such trying circumstances’ (1861a) and unsuccessfully moved that the Committee should have the data ‘copied in a form suitable for future publication’ (1861b).

Becker remarked on the difficulties of carrying out scientific observations in the camp at Menindee:

Hard work in the camp, want of vegetables and of fresh meat, great heat with flies and moskitos, are not apt to support one whose greatest desire is to try to unveil some of the mysteries of this country (Tipping 1979, p. 191).

Figure I.2: Plan showing the route of the Victorian Exploring Expedition from Balranald to the Darling, William John Wills, MS 13071, Map Case 1, drawer 7 (c), State Library of Victoria. (See also Figure 2.3.)

His situation was not improved by a lack of scientific equipment. Despite having sent several letters to the Committee requesting the ‘things required for collecting and preserving objects of natural history’, the Committee were preoccupied with Burke’s progress and the financial obligations of running the expedition. Assuming that the well-equipped expedition had departed with everything it required, they did not respond to the requests. Becker (1861a) lamented:

I am extremely sorry not having received even a single line from you especially in regard to the few things so much wanted by an observer in nat. history … I fear I shall leave for the Interior with only an outfit consisting of a few colors & sketchbooks, and two small geological hammers.

Beckler was more ambivalent about remaining in Menindee. He realised that the rapid pace Burke had set would not afford him the opportunity of fulfilling his ambitions as a botanist, and therefore his resignation meant he now had the time to devote to botany. He began collecting in earnest at Menindee, gathering over 100 specimens in the local area and then making two excursions into the Scropes Range (Figure I.4) and northern New South Wales, where he collected several hundred more. He subsequently sent over 900 specimens to Mueller, which are now housed at the National Herbarium of Victoria. Mueller gave instructions that the ‘Botanist attached to the Caravan should keep a diary in which the principal botanical features of the country should be noted’ (Exploration Committee 1860). Beckler did keep a comprehensive diary (n.d.), but surprisingly only submitted sections to the Exploration Committee (1860; 1861b). When Beckler returned to Germany in 1862 he took the larger manuscript with him with the intention of using it as the basis for a German language publication (Beckler 1993; Beckler 2000).

Figure I.3: ‘Map showing the country between Minindie & the Depôt with the Darling as boundary. Decbr. 15 1860.’ Ludwig Becker. State Library of Victoria Australian Manuscripts Collection. Accession no. H16486.

Having greatly reduced the expedition’s baggage and the size of the party, Burke made good time north of Menindee. As they were being guided by William Wright and two Aboriginal guides who were familiar with this part of northern New South Wales, Wills had few navigational responsibilities. Ignoring the fact that Wright and several other Europeans had passed over this country previously, Burke reported ‘what we have done up to this will cause a great sensation as we have passed some very fine sheep grazing country not before known’ (Burke 1860a). Despite this burst of enthusiasm, Burke was content just to continue to make good progress. He was not interested in ascribing European names to any of the features and left Wills to record their traverse in his field book (Wills 1860e). While Wills did not completely trust the Aboriginal guides’ abilities, he recognised they had an intimate knowledge of the country, and rather than overwrite the existing indigenous landscape he chose to use the Barkindji and Bandjigali names for the mountains and creeks on his maps.

After travelling through remote country together for three weeks, Burke regarded Wright as a competent bushman and placed him in charge of bringing up the remainder of the party to Cooper Creek. Before returning to Menindee, Wright arranged for additional Aboriginal guides to take Burke on to Cooper Creek. These guides escorted the party well to the north of the Bulloo River, but their reluctance to enter the rugged and waterless Gray Range meant that Wills was required to navigate the party from Camp 54 to Cooper Creek. The only other European to have ventured into this area was Sturt, who crossed the Macleay Plains in November 1845. Wills led the party to the Wilson River (which both he and Sturt believed to be Cooper Creek), striking water within 30 km of Sturt’s furthest camp.

Figure I.4: ‘View of distant range of mountains, seen from Gogirga hills.’ Hermann Beckler, November 1860, Image H16486, State Library of Victoria.

Although they were now at permanent water and could expect to rest the animals and prepare for the next stage of the journey to Carpentaria, Wills struggled to find the main channel of the Cooper among the myriad of watercourses in the dissected black soil flood plains. It took a further nine days of frustrating reconnaissance trips and slow advances across the difficult terrain before they reached the main river channel, with Wills describing this section of the journey as the worst travel they had met with so far (Wills 1860f). The horses and camels were in constant danger of tripping and falling in the deep cracks and chasms and one camel was abandoned, presumably as a result of just such an accident (Victoria: Parliament 1862. Q. 663).

Once at the Cooper, Burke established a depot camp. Wills, in accordance with their instructions, began reconnaissance trips to the north to identify a suitable route to the Gulf of Carpentaria. When they could not find water in that direction, Burke decided to make the most of the surface water from recent rains, cross Sturt Stony Desert and make for known water at Eyre Creek, which had been identified by Sturt in 1845 (Burke 1860b). Burke placed William Brahe in charge of the depot party, and before they left for the Gulf Wills gave him instructions on how to take regular meteorological observations. Brahe took his new responsibilities seriously and made between ten and seventeen observations a day for the entire period he was at the depot camp. However, Brahe’s contribution is not recognised as these observations are incorrectly attributed to Wills (Wills 1860–1861).

Burke, Wills, John King and Charles Gray left the Cooper Creek depot on 16 December 1860, heading for the Gulf of Carpentaria. They found the travelling in Sturt Stony Desert much easier than anticipated, and also much quicker. On Christmas Eve they reached the Diamantina River, which was then unknown to Europeans as it had not been identified by Sturt. Although they did not name the river, they followed it for nearly a week before striking off to the north to face some of the driest sections of their journey. On 8 January 1861 they crossed the Tropic of Capricorn (just south of today’s town of Boulia) and then tackled the difficult crossing of the Selwyn Range. By 9 February they were close to the Gulf, where the heavy monsoonal rain made travel increasingly difficult, and King, Gray and the camels were left at Camp 119 on the Bynoe River. Burke and Wills pushed north for another day and a half, but could not negotiate the flooded tidal salt-flats and returned to Camp 119 without having sighted the open ocean.

The four men then retraced their route (see Figure I.5), but conditions deteriorated and their progress was slowed by the persistent wet season rains. They become progressively weaker as their supplies diminished and the exhausted camels began to die or be abandoned. On 3 April, the collapse of yet another camel meant Wills was forced to leave his navigational instruments buried at Return Camp 46, the ‘Plant Camp’ (Wills 1861). Although Wills continued writing his daily diary, he was no longer able to make meteorological and astronomical observations. Gray died at Polygonum Swamp on 17 April and Burke insisted on burying him, which took a day. Four days later, just after sunset on Sunday, 21 April, Burke, Wills and King reached the depot at Cooper Creek, only to discover that Brahe and the depot party had left that morning, after waiting more than four months for Burke’s return.

Brahe had left the Cooper Creek depot camp to return to Menindee because his party were beginning to suffer from scurvy and beriberi. Before leaving he buried a camel-box of supplies and a note beneath a tree that he marked ‘Dig’. On the return journey Brahe’s group fortuitously met Wright and the supply party at the Bulloo River. Wright had been delayed in Menindee while waiting for funds from the Exploration Committee to purchase the additional pack animals he needed to bring up the remainder of the stores to Cooper Creek (Bergin 1982). Now the supply party, which included Becker and Beckler, was struggling to reach the Cooper; many of the men were ill, water was in short supply, and the Aborigines were hostile towards the party. Becker described the conditions they faced in northern New South Wales during the summer months of 1861 as a ‘very hell’ (Becker 1860–1861b). Despite devoting much of their time to finding water, Wright collected a few botanical specimens on this trip. Beckler too continued to add to his collection (Willis 1962), but once they met with the depot party his work as a scientist took second place to tending to the sick and seriously ill men in both parties. Ludwig Becker and two other men died at Koorliatto Waterhole, and the blacksmith, William Patten, died at Rat Point. Beckler detailed the terrible conditions the men endured in the 75 pages of medical reports he submitted to the Committee (1861a).

Figure I.5: Astronomical observations made on return of expedition from Carpentaria to Cooper’s Creek, William John Wills, Box 2083, Folder 1, Item d, MS 13071, State Library of Victoria.

Meanwhile, after retrieving the supplies Brahe had left at the Dig Tree, Burke, Wills and King decided not to follow their outward track to Menindee, but instead attempted to reach the outlying settlements of South Australia at Mt Hopeless. Their two remaining camels died before they were able to leave Cooper Creek, but the three men still attempted to cross the Strzelecki Desert. However, without pack animals they were unable to carry sufficient water and they were forced to return to the Cooper. Back at the creek they supplemented their dwindling supplies with nardoo (ngardu; Marsilea drummondii), a food source to which they had been introduced by the Yandruwandha. Once their other supplies ran out, they lived on nardoo exclusively; however they did not supplement this diet with fish as the Aborigines did, nor did they cook the nardoo to remove the poisonous enzyme thiaminase (Earl and McCleary 1994; Earl 1996). By early July both Burke and Wills were dead and John King was alone at Cooper Creek. He was eventually taken in and cared for by the Yandruwandha.

In Melbourne the absence of news from Burke was causing concern and there were many calls for the Exploration Committee to mount a contingent exploratory party to travel to Cooper Creek and ascertain whether Burke needed additional help. Alfred Howitt was appointed leader of this contingent party, but just two days after leaving the city he met Brahe on his way down to Melbourne to report that Burke had failed to return to the Cooper (Argus 1 July 1861, p. 6). The Exploration Committee increased the size of Howitt’s Victorian Relief Expedition and appointed Brahe to guide them to the Cooper (Exploration Committee 1858–1873b, p. 111). The Committee also organised the Victorian Relief Expedition under Frederick Walker to travel to the Gulf from Rockhampton, and three maritime expeditions in the SS Orkney, HCMSS Victoria, and SS Firefly. Overland expeditions were also organised by Queensland under William Landsborough and South Australia under John McKinlay (Exploration Committee 1861).

Howitt’s party reached the Dig Tree depot on the Cooper on 13 September, and two days later the party’s surveyor, Edwin Welch, found King living with the Yandruwandha. King (n.d. [1861]) related the details of the trip to the Gulf and the subsequent deaths of Burke, Wills and Gray. Howitt buried Wills on 18 September and buried Burke three days later, handed out gifts to the Yandruwandha to thank them for caring for King, and then began the journey back to Menindee. All of these events were captured on camera, as Committee chairman Stawell had arranged for Welch to be trained in the use of the photographic equipment. Forty-eight images were taken on a stereoscopic camera using modified wet glass plates. The plates were returned to Melbourne intact, but were unfortunately exposed to light before they could be developed (Welch n.d.).

King was so frail that he was unable to travel quickly, so Howitt sent Brahe on ahead with the news. Brahe took Burke’s notebook and Wills’s field books and maps, arriving at the telegram office in Bendigo late in the afternoon of Saturday 2 November 1861. The shocking news reached Melbourne that evening (see Figure I.6). Chief Secretary Richard Heales appointed a Commission of Enquiry to sit in the chambers in Parliament House and investigate the deaths of Burke and Wills. Hearings began on 18 November and continued until the end of December; the findings were handed down at the end of January 1862.

Landsborough and McKinlay were still in the interior and the Committee thought they might be heading to Cooper Creek, so they arranged for Howitt to return there with provisions. He was also requested to exhume the remains of Burke and Wills and return them to Melbourne for re-burial. When Howitt arrived back at the Cooper he found that McKinlay had already been to the area, had visited Burke’s and Wills’ graves, and had discovered human remains that were believed to be those of Gray (South Australian Register 22 November 1861, p. 2). McKinlay (1861–1862) headed north to the tidal waters of the Albert River in the Gulf of Carpentaria, becoming the second party to cross the continent from south to north. Landsborough (1861–1862) also crossed the continent while searching for Burke and Wills, collecting over 50 botanical specimens on the way from the Albert River to Melbourne. Diedrich Henne (1861–1862), Mueller’s assistant at the Botanical Gardens in Melbourne, was attached to HCMSS Victoria and travelled to the Gulf of Carpentaria, returning to Melbourne with six cases containing 425 plant specimens.

Howitt spent eight months at the Cooper and made several exploratory trips into the Strzelecki, Tirari and Sturt Stony deserts, collecting ornithological and botanical specimens as well as making many anthropological observations and collections. The surgeons on Howitt’s two trips, doctors Wheeler and Murray, also made botanical collections and collected over 200 different species between them. Mueller (1863) described Murray’s collection in his annual report for 1863. Murray also collected geological specimens and samples of wood from seventeen different species of tree (Argus 31 December 1862, p. 5). Howitt finally left Cooper Creek in October 1862 and travelled to Melbourne via Adelaide. He arrived at the end of December, when Burke and Wills’ remains were laid in state at the Royal Society of Victoria’s building. On 21 January 1863 Australia’s first state funeral was held, and Burke and Wills’ remains were finally laid to rest at Melbourne General Cemetery.

Figure I.6: Galley proof from the Melbourne Argus of the first press news of the death of Burke and Wills. 3 November 1861, Image ms000051, MS 13071, State Library of Victoria.

It was usual practice in Australia for expedition leaders to publish their diaries, and many previous explorers constructed entries in their journals specifically with publication in mind. The Royal Society of Victoria, however, faced a dilemma, as Burke’s diary was so brief. Wills’ diary was more extensive, but it too was incomplete. The Society decided to collate the various diaries and journals in order to write an official history ‘of Victorian exploration published in two or three volumes, and illustrated with the aid of the magnificent materials which the committee had at hand’ (Argus 1 September 1863, p. 6). The task of compiling the book was given to committee member and journalist James Smith, who decided to fill the gaps by visiting John King at his home in St Kilda to obtain a ‘true and faithful account’ of proceedings (Exploration Committee 1858–1873b, p. 160). After the official history had been published the

Reviews for Burke and Wills

[untraveller · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very interesting for the scientific minded. I thought their most interesting and best written chapters dealt with the physical rather than the biological sciences.