Burke and Wills

There's a statue in the centre of Melbourne of Burke and Wills - the iconic explorers who set out to blaze a path from the sothern shore of Australia to the northern sea. Nobody had done it before, and it turned out to be a return journey of 6,500 kms on foot crossing some of the most arid deserts in the world. They left the main party and supplies near current day Innamincka thinking that the northern sea was close, and four of them continued north, but in reality they were only half way there.

They reached their target, but then had to travel on foot about 1500 kms back to the main camp. Burke had instructed the main camp to wait for them for 13 weeks before heading south, and in actual fact they waited 18 weeks before lack of supplies forced them to turn for home. Burke, Wills and King stumbled into the abandoned camp four hours later. Without supplies, two perished and only one was bright enough to accept help from the aborigines, and survived to be rescued three months later by a search party.

On the banks of the Diamantina River in Birdsville is one of the trees emblazoned with the names of the explorers as they moved north across the river.