The expedition under Burke and Wills left amid great celebration; in fact, it was a gala day in Melbourne, and their journey through the settled districts one triumphant march. Their purpose was to cross to Carpentaria. Fate seemed so propitious that one would think in irony she laughed, as she thought of their return.
They accomplished their task; they reached the Gulf; but did not know their exact position; and when they turned back it became a terrible struggle for existence. In spite of the princely outfit with which they started, short rations and great hardships was their lot, and the men tried to live like the blacks, on fish and nardoo, and an occasional crow or hawk which they shot. Wills met his death alone, while Burke and King were searching for food, and to him, suffering from such extreme exhaustion, death must have come as the "comforter." He met it as a gallant man would, without fear. From his last entries he had given up hope and waited calmly. Burke died the second day; when King looked at him in the dawning light, he saw that he was really, alone. Meantime, the rest of the party were left on Cooper's Creek, and were slowly starving to death. Parties from all sides were now being equipped to go in search of them.
M'Kinlay's trip across the continent did great service. It verified Stuart's report that the country always considered as a terrible desert was not unfit for all pastoral occupation, and, being an experienced man, his report carried conviction.
One of the search parties for Burke and Wills was under William Landsborough, having, through previous explorations, good knowledge of the country; and another, in charge of Frederick Walker, composed of native troopers. Now the eastern half of Australia was nearly all known; it had been crossed and re-crossed from south to north; still, the distinctive value of the country had yet to be learned, and the delusion that the sheeps' wool would turn to hair in the torrid north to be given up. All around the coast settlement was surely and steadily creeping, and unoccupied country going further back every day.
On the north coast, Burketown, under the care of William Landsbrough, was growing up, and in the north of Arnheim's Land, M'Kinlay was looking for a suitable site to establish a port for the South Australian Government. Somerset was formed on the mainland of Cape York Peninsula, and the formation of this led to the expedition of the Jardine brothers. The successful termination of their journey, when we look at the difficulties through which they passed, and the misfortunes they had to encounter, merits our greatest admiration; and although it did not result in the discovery of good pastoral country, still they accomplished their object.
The overland telegraph line, and the small explorations made on either side of it, led greatly to our knowledge of the interior.
John Forrest made his first important journey in 1869, but found no great results in good country to the eastward of Perth. Then a journey was made from Perth to Adelaide by way of the Great Bight—never traversed since Eyre's journey. Owing to a better equipment, he was able to give a more impartial report of the country passed through; for Eyre was struggling for life, and it was natural that nature to him would then look at her blackest.
Warburton and Giles now occupied attention, and their great hope, the country between the overland telegraph line and the western settlements.
Warburton's expedition led to the western half of the continent being condemned as a hopeless desert. He no doubt got into a strip of barren country, and being so occupied in pressing straight through, devoted no time to the examination of country on either side.
Giles was twice driven back in his attempts to reach Western Australia.
Then, with an equipment of camels, made a third, and successful, attempt.
No discoveries of any importance were made; the country was suffering
from severe drought.