B&W (V) The death of Burke Innamincka, South Australia, Australia
By Geocaching Australia on 20-Aug-10. Waypoint GA2410

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.

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
Burke and King headed up the creek hoping to find Aboriginals and get some food, reluctantly leaving Wills in his gunyah. By the second day out, Burke was too fatigued to continue, so he and King camped here near the Mulkonbar Waterhole. By the next morning Burke was unable to rise at all.

King testified later: "From the time we halted, Mr Burke seemed to be getting worse, although he ate his supper. He said he felt convinced he could not last many hours, and gave me his watch, which he said belonged to the committee, and a pocketbook to give to Sir William Stawell, in which he wrote some notes. He then said to me, 'I hope you will remain with me here till I am quite dead - it is a comfort to know that someone is by. But when I am dying, it is my wish that you should place the pistol in my right hand, and that you leave me unburied as I lie.'
"That night he spoke very little, and the following morning I found him speechless, or nearly so, and about 8 o'clock he expired. I remained a few hours there, but as I saw there was no use remaining longer I went up the creek in search of the natives. I felt very lonely, and at night usually slept in deserted wurleys belonging to the natives. Two days after leaving the spot where Mr Burke died, I found some gunyahs where the natives had deposited a bag of nardoo, sufficient to last me a fortnight, and three bundles containing various articles. I also shot a crow that evening; but was in great dread that the natives would come and deprive me of the nardoo."
The note that Burke wrote and gave to King to deliver explained the circumstances and indemnified King in case there were any suspicions. "I hope that we shall be done justice to. We have fulfilled our task, but we have been abandoned. We have not been followed up as we expected, and the depot party abandoned their post."

The site of Burke's death - on June 28 by best estimate - is today a peaceful, picturesque, sandy stretch of the riverbank marked by a monument.

Additonal Information
Source: Paul Dorsey Used with Permission