B&W (V) Swan Hill Memorial Marker Swan Hill, Victoria, Australia
By Geocaching Australia on 20-Aug-10. Waypoint GA2333

This is a special Burke & Wills cache listed on Geocaching Australia.

This cache requires you to visit a Burke & Wills historical location and take a photo as described along with your GPS receiver and if possible yourself in the picture. Once you have logged this cache as a find, you are required to load your picture to your log to validate your find.

While you're here try finding http://geocaching.com.au/cache/ga2447 B&W (M) Swan Hill. It's not too far away.

Validating Your Log
Take a picture of your GPS receiver and if possible yourself in front of the memorial marker and attach it to your online log.

Important Information
The Burke Wills Historical Society notes: "The actual route Burke and Wills followed once they left Camp 78 is unknown and one of the most intensely debated issues. Wills' map and some of his journals containing astronomical observations have been lost. Because the journals have never been transcribed, it means the expedition's track north of the Diamantina, through the gibber rises, confused sand dunes and extensive claypans, is a matter for conjecture."
Travel in Outback Australia can be extremely hazardous. Plan your trip with care and seek and follow local advice on what precautions to take. Be aware of private property restrictions. Do not risk your life to log this geocache.

About This Location
Bogs and rain slowed the overloaded expedition's initial progress across the state of Victoria. It reached Swan Hill, 320 kilometres from Melbourne, on September 6. A major factor stymying their advance was Landells' decision at the outset to forego loading gear on the camels so they'd be fresh for the desert campaign ahead. Burke had hired three extra wagons in Melbourne, but the poor weather and roads obviously took their toll on the carriages.
Burke, already fretting about mounting expenses, sacked three men from the party here, lying that he'd send for them later. But he took on new hands, indicating it was more a matter of personal dislikes. As well, sepoy Esau Khan was too ill to carry on. Among those hired was Charles Gray, 52-year-old sailor who was working as an ostler at the Lower Murray Inn. Charlie Gray was an experienced bushman, having travelled with the Gregory brothers during their expeditions.

Waiting for Burke at Swan Hills was an urgent telegram - a warrant for his arrest, threatening him with imprisonment because one of his personal cheques had bounced, a serious offence in those days. Burke telegraphed friends back home to sort it out on his behalf.
Swan Hill got its name in 1838 from a surveyor who couldn't get a decent sleep while camped here because the waterfowl, primarily black swans, never shut up. In 1853 Francis Cadell sailed his paddle steamer, Lady Augusta, up the Murray this far. The whole town came out to welcome him - all 12 of them. Their numbers swelled when a punt crossing was established, the only one on the Murray within 70 miles. The punt operated until 1896, when a bridge was built, about the time the photo below was taken.

Today visitors to the town of less than 10,000 enjoy the Swan Hill Pioneer Settlement, an vast open-air historical museum on the banks of the Little Murray River. It's a reconstruction of a 19th-century river port where the staff wear period attire and kangaroos and peacocks stroll about. With a more genuine story to tell is the Burke and Wills Tree, an enormous Moreton Bay fig, the seed of which was planted by the explorers' local host in 1860, one Dr Gummow. The tree, arguably the largest of its kind in the country, is marked here on Curlewis Street.
The Burke party crossed the Murray on September 11, 1860, and set off into New South Wales.

 

Additonal Information
Source: Paul Dorsey Used with Permission