The Burke and Wills Expedition and the Paroo River Flowing
Hello again! What a busy month or so we have had! It started with our last trip to Cobar. At homeschool group the children acted out the story of Burke and Wills. If your memory of primary school history lessons is good, you'll remember that in 1860 there was a race, with a grand prize for the south to north crossing of Australia. Well, the Burke and Wills Expedition was one of the teams that started (and the only one that actually completed the crossing) but all but 1 member of that Northward Party perished somewhere around present Innaminka on the Cooper Creek. There is a famous tree - The Dig Tree, where the waiting party buried supplies then left on the same morning that the northward party returned. They had carved the tree with instructions to find the supplies, and they did dig them up, but then stumbled around a bit more before dying a few days/weeks later, or in the case of Mr King, being rescued and cared for by local Aboriginal people until the search party located him