B&W (V) The rescue efforts Burketown, Queensland, Australia
By Geocaching Australia on 20-Aug-10. Waypoint GA2407

Cache Details

Difficulty:
Terrain:
Type: Burke and Wills
Container: Virtual
Coordinates: S17° 37.354' E139° 51.170' (WGS 84)
  54K 378295E 8051202N (UTM)
Elevation: 1 m
Local Government Area: Carpentaria

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Description

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.


Validating Your Log
Take a picture of your GPS receiver showing the same co-ordinates as the cache page (plus or minus 100 meters) 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
In early 1861, with the fate of the expedition being hotly debated across the country, several rescue efforts were mounted. Frederick Walker was in charge of the Victorian Relief Expedition, which headed westward from Rockhampton.

William Landsborough led the £2,500 Queensland Relief Expedition, which sailed aboard the Firefly to the Gulf of Carpentaria and then rode south. Along the way Landsborough heard of the expedition's fate, but made exploratory contributions of his own by naming the Barkly Tablelands and the Georgina and Gregory Rivers. He returned safely to Melbourne in October 1862.

Captain William Henry Norman sailed the HMCS Victoria to the Albert River on the gulf. The 166-foot twin-engine sloop, launched in 1855, had ferried colonial troops to New Zealand the year before to quell a Maori uprising.

John McKinley led the South Australian Burke Relief Expedition (SABRE) out of Adelaide, which on October 20 at Polygonum Swamp found the remains of a white man believed to be Charley Gray. McKinly also uncovered another partially empty grave and suspected the entire Burke party had been killed, so he called the site Lake Massacre. The identity of the remains is still a mystery. McKinley blazed a tree on the spot and sent word home, then on December 2 went to the Cooper to see if Howitt had arrived.
On the 6th they found Burke's and Wills' graves - and Howitt's abandoned camp. McKinley carried on regardless, following Burke's track to the gulf and discovering on the way the bones and saddle of Burke's horse Billy. When McKinley reached the gulf he found that Norman and the Victoria had already been and gone, so he walked across Queensland to the east coast at Bowen, covering 4,500 kilometres in just over a year.

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Additonal Information
Source: Paul Dorsey Used with Permission

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Carpentaria (S) - dragonZone
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