B&W (V) Supreme Court Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
By Geocaching Australia on 20-Aug-10. Waypoint GA2412

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 and preferably yourself in front of the Supreme Court building 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
On July 1, The Age newspaper reported that the Royal Society had received a telegram from Alfred Howitt saying he had already found Brahe, but learned that Burke and three others had pushed on to the north coast on December 16 and not been seen since. Sir William Stawell summoned an urgent meeting here at the Supreme Court to discuss the information: William Wright had returned to Menindee; Becker, Stone, Purcell and Patton were dead; Burke was lost somewhere with the barest provisions.

Wright had informed Howitt that he'd arrived in Menindee on June 17 with Beckler, Brahe, Hodgkinson, McDonough, Smith and Belooch, plus 13 camels and 23 horses, many from Burke’s original allotment. In a lengthy chronicle he said he'd set out on January 20 en route to the Cooper and struggled against water deprivation, disease, exhaustion, attacks from Aboriginals and "a marsupial rat" before falling back. On April 29 he encountered Brahe, Patton and McDonough on their return to the Darling from Cooper’s Creek.
They then set out together for Cooper's Creek, which came to nought, and the return "was tedious in the extreme from the difficulty of moving men so extremely weak as were our sick. Patton died five miles south of the point, on the 30th of May, and the whole party were saved by a providential fall of rain about this period, as no other water than surface water was found from Purria Creek to Wannawinta, a distance of upwards of 150 miles, Kerriapundi, Duruoto, and Purlprumatte Creeks being dry." His camels succumbed one by one to "scab" and other woes.

Sir William, the newspaper reported, immediately wanted to know why Brahe left Cooper’s Creek when he did, since "so far as he could gather from the despatches, Mr Burke expected Mr Brahe would remain at the depot until he returned, or the provisions had been exhausted. Now it seemed that neither of these events had occurred, and that Mr Brahe had recrossed the country at the time most dangerous to the camels." Brahe said he was compelled to leave "principally on account of [Patton] being so very ill. The blacks annoyed us and tried to rob us."

Additonal Information
Source: Paul Dorsey Used with Permission