B&W (T) Princes Bridge Southbank, Victoria, Australia
By caughtatwork on 20-Aug-10. Waypoint GA1721

Princes Bridge is where the camels for the Burke & Wills expedition crossed into Melbourne.

Imagine a time, 150 years ago when Melbourne was a lot less congested and the city skyline as you see it today is almost non existent. Imagine a time when the river didn't run brown and there was a distinct lack of concrete and steel surrounding you. Imagine the lifestyle using horse and cart to get around and the smell associated with that. Imagine a location where you could see into the distance without pollution interrupting your view. Imagine a time, much simpler than today where the hustle and bustle of big city life was almost non existent and people met each other on the streets and took the time to welcome a visitor to their city.

You are seeking a small (200ml) geocache which can be found at the stated co-ordinates for this cache listing.
This location is extremely popular during daylight hours and you will find yourself surrounded by many hundreds, if not thousands of Melbournians going about their daily business.
This cache is magnetically attached to its hiding place and you will need stealth in order to retrieve it. It is not too difficult to find, but how close you can get will depend on the position of the satellites. If you struggle with the satellites, do not hesitate to use the additional hint which should narrow down the final location to search.

About this location:
When the first European settlers settled the Central Melbourne area in 1835 there was no permanent crossing point of the Yarra River. The government in Sydney was unreliable in providing funds for the construction of a bridge, thus most of Melbourne’s early infrastructure was provided by private enterprise. On 22nd April 1840 a private company was set up with the intention of constructing a bridge across the Yarra. Traders in Elizabeth Street vied with those in Swanston Street to have the through traffic that would be generated by a bridge.

Lieutenant-Governor La Trobe favoured an Elizabeth Street crossing, but the private company favoured the construction conditions at Swanston Street and it was there in 1840 that they opened their wooden toll bridge. Swanston Street quickly became regarded as the main street until the construction of inner city bypasses directed through-traffic away from the city. By 1850, the government provided funds to build a single span sandstone bridge, which opened on 15 November without tolls. This bridge was the first to bear the 'Princes Bridge' name.

However, within a year, gold was discovered in country Victoria and Melbourne saw a massive increase in population. In addition to the increase in traffic crossing the bridge, there was also a need to handle increased shipping traffic on the Yarra River and the river was widened to cope with this. Construction on the new bridge began in 1886 and was completed in 1888.  As with many historic Melburnian buildings and bridges, the bridge is built on solid bluestone bulwarks with plenty of cast iron.

The present bridge was named after Edward, Prince of Wales, and was built between 1886 and 1888 by David Munro. It was designed by John Grainger (1855-1917), the father of the Australian composer Percy Grainger, and was opened on 4 October 1888.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princes_Bridge_(Melbourne)

Relationship to Burke & Wills:
The camels arrived in Hobson's Bay, Port Melbourne aboard the Chinsurah on Wednesday 13th June 1860 and the next day they were unloaded and taken along over the Princes Bridge and along Swanston and Bourke Streets to stables at Parliament House. These strange oriental beasts caused a great stir in the city and police were forced to clear a path as large crowds gathered to watch the colourful procession.

The camels imported for the expedition were not an absolute novelty to Melbournians. George Coppin, well-known actor and showman, had been displaying camels in his Cremorne Gardens pleasure-park. The expedition actually purchased ten of his beasts to supplement those brought from India by George Landells. One of these, a particularly troublesome animal, was later nicknamed 'Master Coppin' by Wills.

As the expedition's chief camel-wrangler, Landells enjoyed unusual authority, but quickly eroded his credibility by directions which his fellow explorers considered preposterous. Notably, the provision of pepper and twenty gallons of rum to be used as stimulants to revive the animals when they were tired.

The camels caused a great deal of trouble to their handlers. Ludwig Becker was lifted bodily off the ground by one which managed to get its teeth into the seat of his trousers. Even an experienced cameleer like Dost Mahomet was later permanently disabled when another camel similarly lifted and shook him. The explorers seem to have been unable to stop them from wandering at night, and on many mornings hours were wasted mustering them. Specially made camel shoes, to help the animals traverse stony ground, soon proved virtually impossible to fit.

Overall, however, the camels performed well. Burke took six camels on his dash to the Gulf of Carpentaria, but returned with only two, Rajah and Landa. Some had strayed, and the rest had been worked to exhaustion then shot and cut up for meat.

Source: http://www.burkeandwills.net.au/Brief_History/Chapter_04.htm
Source: http://victoria.slv.vic.gov.au/burkeandwills/preparations/camels.html

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