Robert O’Hara Burke

Robert O’Hara Burke (born May 6?, 1820/21, St. Clerah’s, County Galway, Ireland—died June 28?, 1861, Australia) was an explorer who led the first expedition known to attempt the crossing of Australia from south to north.

Sponsored by the Royal Society of Victoria, Burke left Melbourne with a party of 18 in August 1860. The plan was to establish bases from which an advance party would leave to prepare for those with bulkier supplies. But about midway, at the Barcoo River (Coopers Creek), the impatient Burke decided to make the rest of the trip accompanied only by his second in command, William John Wills, and by Charles Gray and John King. The four reached northern Australia in February 1861 but could not penetrate the swamps and jungle scrub that lay between them and the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Gray died of exhaustion on the return trip. On arriving at the Barcoo camp, Burke found it deserted. The rear party, instructed to remain three months, had waited for more than four, but it had left the morning of the same day on which Burke, Wills, and King returned. Food sufficient to get them to the nearest town was left at a marked spot, but Burke and King imprudently decided to head for Adelaide on the southern coast. Burke died two days later of exhaustion. King, who returned to camp and found Wills dead, was eventually rescued by a search party. A statue to Burke and King was erected in Melbourne. Wills’s journal, found with his body, is an account of the venture.