B&W (T) Kings Rescue Innamincka, South Australia, Australia
By Shifter Brains on 20-Aug-10. Waypoint GA2292

Cache Details

Difficulty:
Terrain:
Type:	Burke and Wills
Container:	Regular
Coordinates:	S27° 46.990' E140° 40.268' (WGS 84)
	54J 467600E 6926773N (UTM)
Elevation:	51 m
Local Government Area:	Pastoral Unincorporated Area

Map

Whodunit State

ZONE CAUTION:
This cache is in an area marked as a warning area.

Zone Name: Innamincka (RR) (Click here for zone Details)

This may mean the cache is placed in an area where geocaching is not allowed by the land manager.
Please review the details for this zone and act accordingly.
If it is in a geocaching banned area please consider whether you wish to seek this cache.
Geocaching Australia support responsible Geocaching, including the Geocachers' Creed

Please note that any cache you seek is your legal responsibility.

It may also mean that this cache resides near the zone boundary, but is showing as within the zone boundary due to the resolution of our data. If this is the case, then please disregard this warning

Show / Hide Geocache Details

Description

Burke and Wills 150th Anniversary Cache

Important Information
The "King’s Rescue" 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.

Burke and Wills Expedition
In 1860-61 Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills led an expedition of 19 men with the intention of crossing Australia from Melbourne in the south to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north, a distance of around 3,250 kilometres (2,000 miles). At that time most of the inland of Australia had not been explored by non-indigenous people and was completely unknown to the European settlers.

The south-north leg was successfully completed (except they were stopped by swampland 5 kilometres (3 miles) from the northern coastline) but owing to poor leadership and bad luck, both of the expedition's leaders died on the return journey. Altogether, seven men lost their lives, and only one man, John King, travelled the entire expedition and returned alive to Melbourne.

The Man

John King (15 December 1838 – 15 January 1872) was an Irish soldier who achieved fame the sole survivor of the four men from the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition who reached the Gulf of Carpentaria.

The Story

John King, along with Robert O’Hara Burke, William Wills and Charley Gray, left Camp 65 (The Dig Tree) and headed for Gulf of Carpentaria on 16th December 1860.

They returned to Camp 65 on 21^st April 1861, only to find that the rest of the party left that morning to return to Menindee. Prior to reaching Camp 65 Gray died, and they stopped for a day to bury him. How would history have changed if they had not taken a day to bury Gray?

Burke, Wills and King decided to follow Cooper Creek and Strzelecki Creek to the cattle station at Mt Hopeless, rather than their outward route. The men had difficulty locating the Strzelecki Creek branching off Cooper Creek. With the loss of their two remaining camels they were unable to leave the vicinity of Cooper Creek as they were unable to carry sufficient water.

The men were helped by the Yandruwandha Aborigines, who provided them with food. Wills became too weak to move so Burke and King left him and moved further down the Cooper. Two days later Burke became too weak to move and died the next morning, requesting not to be buried. King then returned to where Wills was left, only to find him dead. King then buried Wills.

King was then alone hundreds of miles from the nearest white man. He went in search of the local Yandruwandha Aborigines for help.

On 15^th September 1861, the relief party’s surveyor saw some Aboriginals on the opposite bank of the creek. When he approached the Aborigines departed, leaving a white man, who identified himself as King, the last man of the Exploring Expedition.

King to the relief party to Burke’s and Wills’ bodies, who then buried Burke.

King and the Relief party, led by Alfred Howitt, returned to Menindee and then Melbourne.

The cache

The cache is an ammo tin located near the camping area, not far from the site of King’s Rescue.

While in the area think about what Wills would have gone through here, effectively alone.

Hints

onfr bs gerr pbirerq ol onex naq snyyra oenapurf

ROT 13:	ABCDEFGHIJKLM
	NOPQRSTUVWXYZ

Decode

Logs

23-Jul-18

FelixII

On our trip from Birdsville to Broken Hill with our caravan on tow.

The track was very rocky and bumpy after having had so much Big Red Bash traffic. We parked the caravan on Innamincka Town common
then headed out to explore and find these caches. That is after realising how we had misloaded the GPSr and didnt have any caches at
the dig tree. Think

Great to now be finding some caches and exploring the history of the area. Clapping

Oh how tough it would have been in 1860! Shocked

TFTC

23-May-18

Tassie Trekkers

Whilst staying at Innamincka and following in the footsteps of Burke & Wills this was one of the B&W caches we found. Cache and content are in excellent condition.

Many thanks Shifter Brains for publishing this cache for our enjoyment and adding to our geocaching experience.

Tassie Trekkers are now a locationless geocache we have published a 'Geocacher cache' - Travelling Trekkers GA10932 - so if you spot us in your area sign our log book and receive a code word to earn yourself a Very Happy

Have you joined a clan? Enhance your geocaching experience by joining a clan and being a part of the Dragon Zone. Choose a team Clan Griffin

Gold - Griffin, Clan Phoenix

Green - Phoenix, Clan Cerberus

Blue - Cerberus or Clan Minotaur

Orange - Minotaur. Earn trophies and rise through the ranks from Dragon Fodder to Ruler of the Universe.

Clan Minotaur

Rated: for Overall Experience

23-Aug-14

albida33

On the way back from Coongie lake I passed fairly close to a few of these B&W caches. Another physical cache and all in great condition. Thanks

Albida

21-Aug-14

campo4

Found it 14/7/14. Absolutely love this area of our beautiful country.

Rated: for Overall Experience

05-Jul-13

Walw

Out here with my youngest son Jeremy to explore the area and see some history away from the books and computer. A quick find in a seldom visited location.

Rated: for Overall Experience

27-Sep-12

Otannoean

Found on our trip to Innamincka. Better than any history lesson learnt in the classroom. Much more fascinating being here where it all happened. Hot and Windy today, and the flies are incredibly annoying.Logged at 4pm. Took mosquito net + pathtag left jockey strap. TFTC

Rated: for Overall Experience

29-Jul-11

Posspet Boys

Went into the scrub for this FTF on a holiday to Innaminka.
Reading about the history pf the area this cache at the moment would be closest to the conditions that the Explorers faced.
Cheers from the Posspet Boys

Rated: for Overall Experience

20-Aug-10

Shifter Brains

Enjoy the area.