B&W (V) Burke's grave Innamincka, South Australia, Australia
By Geocaching Australia on 20-Aug-10. Waypoint GA2417

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 if possible yourself showing Burke's grave 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
Howitt's September 21 diary entry: "Finding that it would not be prudent for King to go out for two or three days, I could no longer defer making a search for the spot where Mr Burke died, and with such directions as King could give, I went up to the creek this morning with Messrs Brahe, Welsh, Wheeler and Aitkin. We searched the creek upwards for eight miles, and at length, strange to say, found the remains of Mr Burke lying among tall plants under a clump of box trees, within 200 yards of our last camp, and not 30 paces from our track.

"The bones were entire, with the exception of the hands and feet [evidently eaten by dingoes]; and the body had been removed from the spot where it first lay, and where the natives had placed branches over it, to about five paces' distance. I found the revolver, which Mr Burke held in his hand when he expired, partly covered with leaves and earth, and corroded with rust. It was loaded and capped. We dug a grave close to the spot and interred the remains wrapped in the Union Jack - the most fitting covering in which the bones of a brave but unfortunate man could take their last rest. On a box tree at the head of the grave the following inscription is cut in a similar manner to the above, R O'H B 21/9/61 A.H."

The carving below is at the Dig Tree Depot site, done by a later craftsman.

Additonal Information
Source: Paul Dorsey Used with Permission