- Bib ID:
- 14210
- Format:
- Map
- Author:
- De Gruchy and Leigh
- Online Version:
- National Library of Australia digitised item. MAP RM 906/2
- Scale:
- [Scale ca. 1:3,000,000] (E 138°00ʹ--E 145°00ʹ/S 17°00'--S 30°00ʹ).
- Description:
-
- [Melbourne] : De Gruchy & Leigh, 7 Flinders Lane West, [1861]
- 1 map : col. ; 47.0 x 24.1 cm.
- Partial contents:
- Inset: [Map of Australia showing the routes of Burke & Wills and the rescue party lead by Alfred Howitt]. Scale not given.
- Notes:
-
- The Burke & Wills Expedition started out from Melbourne with 16 men on Aug. 20, 1860. The goal was to cross the continent from north to south and possibly establish a railway line, a telegraph line to link city Australia with Europe via Java, and determine if there was an inland sea. They established base camp at Coopers Creek on Nov. 11 but things began to go wrong. Burke, the leader, was impatient to wait for further supplies and decided to take Wills (the surveyor), Gray and King. The map shows their northerly time-dated route from Coopers Creek and that they eventually reached the Gulf of Carpentaria on Feb. 11, 1861. However, due to lack of supplies, they were plagued with intense summer heat and dysentry, from which Gray died on their return leg. Returning to the base camp on April 21, 1861, they found it had just been deserted the day before. They recovered the buried supplies at the site but Burke and Wills survived only two more months at the site. King had wandered off delirious but was eventually found on Sept. 18, 1861 by a search party lead by Alfred Howitt (& later the bodies of Burke and Wills), as shown on the map, and returned to Melbourne, dying some years later in 1872.
- Includes explanatory note: The longitudes having been omitted in the diaries they have been computed by dead reckoning. In the last letter of Mr Burke he says "We have discovered a practicable route to Carpentaria the chief portion of which lies on the 140th Meridian of east longitude."
- Also available online http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-231340044
- Subject:
-
- Time Coverage:
- 1861
- Copyright:
-
Out of Copyright
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- Reason for copyright status:
- Since 1931 [Created/Published Date + 70 Years]
Copyright status was determined using the following information:
- Material type:
- Artistic
- Published status:
- Published
- Publication date:
- 1861
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