Burke+and+Wills

Burke and Wills ........................................................^
By Sam Nikcevich, Kenny Cheng and Aleksander Corera ......................................................................................................^ media type="custom" key="19243062" = Biography =

1)Full Names – ** Robert O’Hara Burke, William John Wills. **

2)Date and Place of Birth- Burke: 6th of May 1820 County Galway Ireland Wills: 5th of January 1834 in Devon England UK

3)Education and Previous Employment- Burke: Burke was a Irish army officer before he came to Australia to work as a policeman. Wills: William was a practicing surgeon, he later became a surveyor

4)Skills and Characteristics- <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #0000ff; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Burke: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Burke was a terrible leader, he had no bush survival skills and was terrible on making decisions. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #0000ff; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wills: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Wills would have <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">been a great leader because of his intelligents was very high he had lots of bush survival skills and because he was intelligent he could make wise decisions.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #ff0000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">5)Migration to Australia- <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #0000ff; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Burke: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Burke arrived in Melbourne from Ireland in 1853. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #0000ff; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wills: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">William was born in Devon at the of nineteen he arrived in south Melbourne on the 3rd of January 1853.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #ff0000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">6)Any Information about Family- <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #0000ff; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wills: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wills was the second child of a family of seven, his father was a doctor which led him to medical school later on in his life. He had three sisters and three brothers. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #0000ff; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Burke: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Burke was also a son of seven he had two brothers and four sisters, his father James Hardiman Burke was a British officer.

=<span style="background-color: #00ff00; color: #ff7b00; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">The Expedition = 6) Burke and Will’s started their expedition on the 20 th of August 1860 – 1861. 9) The duo set out with 18 men and wanted to be the first to cross the continent from south to north. 8 ) They started their expedition in Melbourne (Royal Park) and their expectation was to arrive at The Gulf of Carpentaria and return back to Melbourne . Their journey consisted of crossing rivers such as the Murray river, Darling river, Fort Wills and Cooper Creek.

7) Burke had 25 camels, 22 horses, and some wagons as a means of transportation. This was the first expedition where camels were a means of transportation. For their Journey, they had taken two years of supplies, 80 pairs of shoes, beds, hats, buckets and some firewood.

10) Burke and Will actually did not discover anything during their journey. They did not find any new pasture or rivers, but they embarked on the most expensive and longest journey in Australian History. 11) Burke <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> and Wills <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> had encountered Aboriginal populations. During their Journey to Mount Hopeless, Burke’s <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">party was helped by local Aboriginal people who had told them to eat Nardoo. With the help of the Aboriginal people, it satisfied the groups hunger. But unfortunately the group lost the Aboriginal people who had helped them, and then Burke <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> and Wills <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> died of Starvation.

= Significance of the Expedition =

The significance of this expedition by Burke and Wills was that this supposed ‘race’ south to north was that this was the first time that anyone had crossed Australia horizontally. 12) After the expedition to the Gulf of Carpentaria, the three men, Burke, Will and King returned to Cooper Creek only to find there was no sign of Brahe’s group so they went towards Mount Hopeless. On the way, they found their saviours in the local Aboriginal people of Cooper Creek.They were given the Aboriginal food nardoo. This satisfied their hunger but they remained thirsty. In an unfortunate incident of bad luck, Burke accidentally fired his gun when he saw one of the Aborigines. This was the beginning of the end for two of the men, they began to die from starvation. Wills died towards the end of June and Burke two days later. King survived for 3 months cared by a local Aboriginal group before a rescue party found him. Burke and Will’s remains were found near Cooper Creek. A huge public funeral was held for the 2 explorers in Melbourne after they were dug up. 13) This event was important because it was the first time someone had gone from south to north, but due to bad luck and ill planning by Burke, many of the men did not return (6 did not return, 3 men died). 14) We are studying this expedition today because it shows how even though these men had so much public attention, however due to foolish and ignorant decisions, this expedition did not result in nothing that was of too much advantage.

= = <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><Route, n.d., map, Enchanted Learning, accessed 07 June 2012, []> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><Illustrated Australian MailNd, State Library of NSW, accessed 07 June 2012, []> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><Burke and Wills Expedition 22nd May 2012,, accessed 07 June 2012, []>
 * Bibliography- **