B&W (V) Balranald Balranald, New South Wales, Australia
By Geocaching Australia on 20-Aug-10. Waypoint GA2335

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

This cache requires you to visit a Burke & Wills historical location and take a photo as described along with your GPS receiver and if possible yourself in the picture. Once you have logged this cache as a find, you are required to load your picture to your log to validate your find.

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Validating Your Log
Take a picture of your GPS receiver showing the same co-ordinates as the cache page (plus or minus 100 meters) and attach it to your online log.

Important Information
The Burke Wills Historical Society notes: "The actual route Burke and Wills followed once they left Camp 78 is unknown and one of the most intensely debated issues. Wills' map and some of his journals containing astronomical observations have been lost. Because the journals have never been transcribed, it means the expedition's track north of the Diamantina, through the gibber rises, confused sand dunes and extensive claypans, is a matter for conjecture."
Travel in Outback Australia can be extremely hazardous. Plan your trip with care and seek and follow local advice on what precautions to take. Be aware of private property restrictions. Do not risk your life to log this geocache.

About This Location
The expedition left Swan Hill after being feted like heroes, and arrived here on September 17. Its leaders had by now recognised the wisdom in proceeding more lightly, so the party dumped containers of lime juice, bags of sugar and rice and heavy tools. Burke also discharged a number of men, among them the foreman Ferguson, although not as many as he would have liked.
"Our journey so far has been very satisfactory," Wills wrote to his mother. "We are most fortunate as regards the season, for there has been more rain this winter than has been known for the last four or five years. In fact, it seems probable that we shall finish our work in a much shorter period than was anticipated, very likely in 10 or 12 months."

Balranald dates back to the late 1840s, when the area's Commissioner for Crown Lands, George James McDonald, arrived at what was then just a tiny outpost and named it after his hometown in Scotland's Outer Hebrides.

Additonal Information
Source: Paul Dorsey Used with Permission