On This Day - June 4th 1861
Explorer William Wills heads for the camp of local Aborigines in his desperate search for survival.
The Burke and Wills expedition was supposed to mark the state of Victoria's greatest triumph: Victoria hoped to be the first state to mount an expedition to cross the continent from south to north. John King alone survived, after being taken in and nursed by the Aborigines of the Cooper Creek area. The expedition to the Gulf took longer than Burke anticipated: upon his return to Cooper Creek, he found that the relief party had left just seven hours earlier, less than the amount of time it had taken to bury Gray, who had died on the return journey. Through poor judgement, lack of observation and a series of miscommunications, Burke and Wills never met up with the relief party sent to rescue them.
In his journal which was recovered after his death, Wills wrote on Tuesday 4 June 1861: 'Started for the Blacks camp intending to test the practicability of living with them and to see what I could learn as to their ways & manners.' Wills was disappointed to find there were no Aborigines at the camp at that time - yet another fact that led to the men's premature death. Burke's continued suspicion of the Aborigines had driven them from the area. Ultimately, only John King survived, after he was taken in and nursed by another group of Aborigines of the Cooper Creek area, after Burke and Wills had perished.