In August 1858, The Argus newspaper reported that “a gentleman of Melbourne proposes to give the sum of £1,000 towards the promotion of a judicious scheme of Australian exploration”. At the time £1,000 would have funded the building of a post office or modest church, and is equivalent to at least $400,000 today.

The offer was conditional on the public raising a matching £2,000, which was achieved within a little over a year through the efforts of the Exploration Fund Raising Committee.

The anonymous donor was later found to be a self-made wealthy Irishman, Mr Ambrose Kyte. Without his offer, which stimulated donations from the wider public, the Burke and Wills Expedition would not have taken place.

Now, in 2010, we need to find the modern equivalent of Ambrose Kyte and the Victorians who were encouraged to donate to match his offer. Of course, 1859 was just after the Gold Rush and Melbourne was one of the richest cities in the world, whereas in 2010 we are still wondering whether the Global Financial Crisis is really over. But it seems that we have weathered the GFC better in Australia than in most other countries, so we can hope that there will be as much generosity displayed today as there was 150 years ago, and that we can raise comparable funds to support the Commemoration Program.

In 1862, the Exploration Committee of the Royal Society of Victoria published an Address to Mr. Ambrose Kyte in which they describe the outcome of his generosity as follows:

“The subscribers are proud to acknowledge that it is to your unostentatious munificence the people of Australia and the cause of science must attribute the initiation of a project the execution of which, if unhappily darkened by disasters, has nevertheless been productive of great and glorious results. To your offer—so generously conceived and so modestly concealed—of £1,000 for the purpose of exploring the interior of this continent, we owe the equipment of the Burke and Wills Expedition, and the important discoveries which ensued. The public spirit of a private citizen has rarely been exerted more beneficially for the interests of mankind, or with so admirable an indifference to popularity or praise on the part of the donor. In later years, when settlement shall have spread over the whole of that portion of this continent which lies to the eastward of Burke and Wills' track … it will be your enviable privilege to reflect, with a pardonable pride, that you gave the first impulse to the great movement, and that your wise liberality stimulated the bounty of the public and excited the generosity of the Victorian Parliament in aid of an enterprise which has satisfactorily solved a difficult problem, and has virtually enlarged the habitable area of the globe.”

Supporters of the Burke and Wills 150th Commemoration Program may not be able to congratulate themselves on “enlarging the habitable area of the globe”, but will be able to derive satisfaction from having supported a wide range of community, scientific and cultural events. To ensure that all these events take place, we need help from modern-day donors.