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A mother's view of searches for Burke and Wills |
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Alfred Howitt led the rescue expedition sent out from Melbourne to look for Burke and Wills. When his party arrived at Cooper Creek, his surveyor, Welch, found John King. The party also buried the remains of Wills, and retrieved his diaries.
No sooner had Howitt returned to Melbourne with King than he was sent out again for a more extended journey. His mother wrote the following in a letter to a friend.
Our dear Alfred has again gone out as a leader of another Exploring Party and at the same time to collect the various parties who went out from Queensland and Adelaide in search of Burke, and to report to them the result of his former mission. He is also to send down the remains of Burke and Wills from their resting places in the wilderness where he laid them, which seems to us a pity, as a monument might as well have been erected there over them. Dear Alfred will thus I expect complete the work which these unfortunate men began and with the Divine Blessing will return safe in about seven months from the time he set out. It was a great pleasure to us to see the spirit in which he's undertaken this great and arduous enterprise. In the report of the proceedings of the Exploration Committee it is stated that he said in reply to the question as to whether he could get safely back again, "That he should do all he possibly could do, but that as to the ultimate success that did not depend upon him but upon a Higher Power." Surely going out in this spirit he will be watched over and brought safely back again.
He did indeed return safely at the end of 1862 with the remains of Burke and Wills, which then lay in state in the Royal Society Hall, prior to their burial in the first State Funeral in Victoria, in January 1863. |
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Expedition Departure got great-grandma into trouble |
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Descendants of the Yandruwandha aren't the only ones with family oral history stories of Burke and Wills. Karen Latimer, a recent donor to the program, tells us that her great-grandmother, born in 1854, was just six years old when she saw the Victorian Exploring Expedition set off from Royal Park. According to Karen, "In all the excitement of the day and the crowds of people about she lost her little brother and got into trouble." Since about 15,000 people with their horses and carriages came to see the explorers leave that day with their horses, camels and expedition baggage, it's not surprising that a small boy got lost. It's fascinating to get such personal experiences, almost at first-hand, so if there are any similar stories in your family, please let us know. |
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Yandruwandha people offer help – again! |
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These days, offers of help from the descendants of the Yandruwandha arrive by email! Aaron Paterson has sent stories of the interaction between the Yandruwandha people and the Burke and Wills Expedition that were passed down to his mother, Gloria Jean Paterson (nee Kerwin), from her grandfather and grandmother. If you have ever wondered what the indigenous people thought of these strange white folk coming through their country, read on...
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