The Victorian Exploring Expedition spent its first night camped at Moonee Ponds on 20 August 1860. Camp I was celebrated with "An Evening with Jack Thompson" on Saturday night 21 August and a community day in Queen's Park on Sunday 22 August.

The Saturday evening event was held in the historic Moonee Ponds Courthouse, home to the Essendon Historical Society. Jack gave a talk about his experiences in making the 1985 film Burke and Wills, which was then shown, courtesy of the Royal Society of Victoria.

As we now know, there was no election outcome news to rush home to, but organiser Chris Laskowski was very pleased to find that the audience lingered on after the film for a supper of sandwiches and beautiful cakes courtesy of Ferguson Plarre.  The donation from Plarre's was so generous that one of the helpers, suitably clad in a Victorian maid's outfit, popped into the Police Station next door with a spare chocolate cake. The somewhat bemused policeman on night shift said he thought she was an apparition from another age, but gratefully accepted her offering.

On Sunday, there were events in Queen's Park where the Expedition camped so long ago. The Mayor and Kelvin Thomson were escorted into the park by the 1st Moonee Ponds Scouts to the tune of the Birdcage Walk. The Mayor spoke first, after which Kelvin Thomson gave a very interesting speech about the history, degradation and rehabilitation of Moonee Ponds Creek. Organiser Christine Laskowski acknowledged the sponsors and introduced Pera Wells who spoke about 'what it means to be an explorer' which was very entertaining. Colin Carrington read a poem from the Bush Poets new anthology.

Pera spoke again and introduced Dr Jonathan King who gave an overview of the Burke and Wills Environment Expedition, its purposes and its proposed schedule. This was followed by a fascinating historical re-enactment by members of the Strathmore Theatre Arts Group and the Essendon Historical Society. They read out a selection of the letters of application which were sent to the Victorian Exploration Committee from men who wished to join the Expedition. The letters had been cleverly selected to give a range of insights into the Expedition: the writers ranged from George Landells (the original second-in-command) to William Wills (explorer Wills' father) offering to join at Menindee, through to ordinary chaps in search of adventure. Certain themes recurred: several mentioned some skill in science, and several cited an ability to swim - clearly they still thought the inland sea was a possibility.

Ceremonies wound up with a quiz for children and the presentation of books to the scouts by Dr Peter Thorne, Vice-President of the Royal Society of Victoria.