B&W (T) Wills' Grave Innamincka, South Australia, Australia
By blossom* on 20-Aug-10. Waypoint GA2272

This is a special Burke & Wills cache listed on Geocaching Australia.

Important Information
The "Wills Grave" cache is located in Outback Australia and travel in this area can be extremely hazardous. Plan your trip with care and seek and follow local advice on what precautions to take. Do not risk your life to log this geocache.

The Cache
The cache is an ammo can located near the cairn that marks Wills Grave. Note that there is a Virtual cache nearby too GA2415 B&W (V) Wills' grave.

The Man
William John Wills was an English-born surveyor who also trained for a while as a surgeon.  In July 1860, at the age of 26, he was appointed to the Victorian Exploring Expedition as surveyor, astronomer and third-in-command on a salary of £300 a year under the leadership of Robert O'Hara Burke.
Wills' extensive correspondence shows an examining and factual mind, with an interest in natural phenomena, literature and exploration. Described as having a 'clear … complexion, an expressive eye that always outstripped his tongue … golden hair, a thick tawny beard, a smile at once intellectual and sympathising, a light, clean, agile frame', Wills had a keen sense of the ridiculous. He was a serious, intelligent and loyal man who did his job well, keeping an accurate record of the expedition and a detailed diary to which we owe much of our knowledge of what occurred.

The Story
The well-equipped expedition left Melbourne on 20 August 1860 and Wills ended up appointed second-in-command after Burke had a dispute with his original 2-I-C. With most of the party and many supplies left in Menindee, a smaller group of men pushed on to Cooper Creek and established a depot there and a month later, on 16 December, Burke, Wills, King and Gray, headed north for the Gulf of Carpentaria, the expedition’s main goal.
Except for the heat, the journey north was relatively trouble free and water was still easy to find due to recent rains.  It took them 59 days to reach their goal but as they turned back, they were desperately short of supplies with only enough food left for 27 days on a trip that was to last 70 days. Rations were reduced to quarter of a pound of flour and ten sticks of dried meat per day.
Wills' diary of this trip proves his own physical and mental toughness. It was a nightmare journey, with Gray dying and most of the pack animals too.
One camel was abandoned when it was unable to continue, three others were shot and eaten and they shot their only horse. Equipment was abandoned as the pack animals reduced, including all Wills’ surveying instruments.
To extend their food supply they ate portulaca and Gray also caught a huge Python which they ate. Burke and Gray immediately came down with dysentery which must have further reduced their strength and probably contributed to Gray’s death. Finally after 70 days, Burke, Wills and King reached their camp on Cooper Creek again on 21 April to find it had been abandoned only several hours earlier.
They were unable to carry enough water to leave Cooper Creek and make their way safely to Melbourne. Their supplies were very low, they were malnourished and exhausted. The Cooper Creek Aborigines  gave them fish, beans called 'padlu' and a type of damper made from the nardoo plant, in exchange for sugar. For two months, the three survivors lived precariously on Cooper Creek, collecting nardoo and accepting gifts of fish and baked rats from the Yandruwandha people (yummy!).

Wills Death
Towards the end of June 1861 as they were following the Cooper upstream to find the Aborigines’ campsite, Wills became too weak to continue. He was left behind at his own insistence at Breerily Waterhole with some food, water and shelter.
Wills was a man of fine character and great courage as he wrote his last letter to his father: "My dear Father, These are probably the last lines you will ever get from me. We are on the point of starvation, not so much from absolute want of food, but from the want of nutriment in what we can get ... Adieu, my dear Father. WJ Wills. I think to live about four or five days. My spirits are excellent."
Reluctantly, Burke and King continued upstream for another two days until Burke also became too weak to continue. The next morning Burke died and King stayed with his body for two days.
On a date that Wills recorded as June 26, but was more likely the 28th since his track of time had clearly slipped, he was still making notes in his journal . This is his final entry:
"I am weaker than ever although I have a good appetite and relish the nardu much, but it seems to give us no nutriment and the birds here are so shy as not to be got at. Even if we got a good supply of fish I doubt whether we could do much work on them and the nardu alone. Nothing now but the greatest good luck can now save any of us, and as for myself, I may live four or five days if the weather continues warm. My pulse is at 48 and very weak and my legs and arms are nearly skin and bone. I can only look out like Mr Micawber 'for something to turn up', but starvation on nardu is by no means very unpleasant but for the weakness one feels and the utter inability to move oneself."
King returned downstream after leaving Burke’s body, and he found that Wills had died as well. The natives had taken some of his clothes, but ritually placed boughs from his gunyah over his chest. King buried him in the sand, then again went looking for the Yandruwandha to beg for food.
The official date of Wills death adopted by the Exploration Committee was Wednesday, 28 June 1861, but Wills probably died around Friday, 30 June or Saturday, 1 July 1861 at Breerily Waterhole, Cooper Creek.
The Aftermath
When the Victorian Relief Expedition, led by Howitt, arrived almost 3 months later, they found King living with the Yandruwandha. They buried Wills’ body where it lay before returning to Melbourne. In pitiful condition, King survived the slow trip back to Melbourne, and died eleven years later, aged 33, having never recovered his health. 
Howitt returned to Cooper Creek in 1862 and disinterred Burke and Wills' bodies, taking them first to Adelaide and then by steamer to Melbourne where they were laid in state for two weeks. On 23 January 1863 Burke and Wills received a State Funeral and were buried in Melbourne General Cemetery.
The government's inquiry into the tragedy criticized Burke's leadership and decisions, the appointment and suitability of a number of the expeditions members and the errors and delays of the exploration committee; but there was little or no criticism of Wills, who was a most loyal lieutenant, subjugating personal doubts on Burke's decisions despite being a better bushman than his leader. As his father, Dr Wills stated 'he fell a victim to errors not originating with himself'.  

The Memorials
The history of the various memorials is also an interesting aspect of the story. When Howitt buried Wills’ body in 1861, he blazed a tree on the bank :
      W J WILLS
        XLV YDS
          WNW
            A H

In 1947 or 1948, Queensland grazier, Alfred Towner blazed a tree in the creek at the site of Wills' death "WILLS   1861" and also erected a pipe nearby which was inscribed…       WILLS DIED IN CREEK 1861. In 1996 Dave Phoenix placed sand and stones around the pipe to protect it from damage by tourists.

Mike Steel and Joe Mack of Rover Charter Tours built the cairn in 1973. Joe Mack had wanted to erect a cairn in 1961, one hundred years after the death of Wills, but was unable to do so due to lack of interest and funding. Mike Steel raised the idea again in 1971 and in March 1973, erected the cairn. A television crew from ADS7 joined the team and the plaque was donated by Porter and Barnett, Adelaide photo engravers.
 
 

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