ACROSS AL'STF.

Robert
Irishman Robert
OHara Burke and William Wills
OHara Burke was European to cross Austi
the
from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentana. He was more of an
first
—
adventurer than an explorer and may have taken the job of leading the
1860 expedition because of a failed love affair, or perhaps for the mor
rather than the challenge of the race. Burke's expedition was the largest
and most expensive ever organized in Australia. He
took 15 men with him: his second-in-command.
GULF OF William Wills, a 26-year-old Englishman, was the
most loyal. Both men died before they could
ARPENTARlA
claim their prize for crossing the continent.

Wills 1834-1861

Burke and Wills's party

reaches the tidal waters
of the Flinders River and
O R A
realize they are near the
coast, Feb. 1861.
s E A
Sturt tries to reach the
Tragedy at Cooper's Creek
hi ,
ut of Australia, but the Cooper's Creek, more a waterhole than a stream, was the
IfCat an^i harsh terrain meeting poini for Burke's expedition and the place where
force him to turn hack the expedition met its end Burke. WiDs, Gray, and
tragic
155 miles from the tenter. King went north, leaving a support party at the creek
They returned later, exhausted and half-starved, only to
M P S O N find that the support party had just left Burke and V.

E S E R T died beside the creek. Gray had died on

the trip back, only King survived.
Cooper's Creek
Gray dies on Aboriginal spears
A^ * the way. The huge spears
earned by Aborigines
were more frequently
used as tools than as
weapons. They were
traditionally made
d, tipped with
bone or stone Some
and
ijrb attached

ieek urt to them, or pn

Burke and wills' s party
for fishing

\ '
^ splits up. Gray and King
go on with them, the test from
to find a note
the support party on a
irei
;
Charles Sturt
stay at Cooper's Creek. I

hut (III !,•:>!• Like many Australian explorers. Captain

King survives. Charles Sturt had an army background
He worked for the governor ol New
I
South Wales In 1828 he was sent to
explore the rivers in the region and look
I.AM
4M'DNI K for new grazing land He mapped
J
Australia's two major rivers the Murray,
with us tributaries, and the Darling
EVR/
MINSCI A Later, in 1844, he made expeditions into
central Australia, proving thai there was
sail up the
no inland sea there, just desert

SIDNEY

Australian Aborigines
1 be Aborigines were the first

people to live in Australia

When Europeans arrived, there

were $00,000 Aborigines - aboul 500
tribes, each with its own language Most

European settlers considered them

primitive savages and treated them
poorly Man) Aborigines died of diseases
introduced b) Europeans the Aborigines
gathered plants and hunted anim
lood he\ made Stone took and luull
I

huts oui ol branches and grasses Tribes

moved constant!) in search oi lood