Innamincka Travel Dog Tag

To travel to as many interesting and out of the way places in Australia or around the world.

This is an Innamincka Key Tag picked on our travels in the remote area of NE South Australia. Innamincka is a tiny settlement in north-east South Australia. It is 1065 km northeast of Adelaideand 459 km from Lyndhurst up the Strzelecki Track. It is situated on the banks of Cooper Creekin the state's Channel Country, and surrounded by the Strzelecki, Tirari and Sturt Stony Deserts. It is situated within Innamincka Regional Reserve.The area was the traditional home of the Yandruwandha, Dieri and Yarrawarrka Aborigines. The first European to visit the area was Charles Sturtin 1845. He was followed by A C Gregory in 1858 and then Burke and Wills. A monument to Sturt and Burke and Wills was erected in Innamincka in 1944.The Burke and Wills expedition passed through this area on their journey across Australia from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria. They established a Depot Camp on Cooper Creek at Camp LXV, (their sixty-fifth camp since leaving Melbourne), at a place now called The Dig Tree. There was a depot at the Dig Tree from 6 December 1860 to 21 April 1861.
The Victorian Contingent Party under Alfred Howitt was sent by the Victorian government to establish the fate of the expedition. Howitt found the remains of both leaders, Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills and buried them close to where the town is located today. He also found the sole survivor, John King, and returned him to Melbourne.
Howitt returned to the area in 1862 as leader of the Victorian Exploring Party. He established a depot camp at Cullyamurra Waterhole before exhuming the bodies of Burke and Wills and transporting them to Melbourne for a State Funeral.
Today it is possible to visit the locations of Wills' grave and King's site on Cooper Creek downstream of Innamincka, and Burke's grave, Howitt's camp and the Dig Tree on Cooper Creek upstream of Innamincka.
Information coutesy Wikipedia.