Burke and Wills Expedition - Cooper Creek Summary

Cooper Creek Summary

  • 11 November 1860. Burke, Wills, King, Gray, Brahe, Mahomet, Patton and McDonough made their first camp on what they thought was Cooper Creek, but which was actually the Wilson River. This was Camp LVII (Camp 57).
  • 20 November 1860. The first Depôt Camp was established at Camp LXIII (Camp 63).
  • 6 December 1860. The Depôt Camp was moved downstream to Camp LXV - The Dig Tree (Camp 65).
  • 16 December 1860. Burke, Wills, King and Gray left the Depôt for the Gulf of Carpentaria.
  • 16 December 1860 – 21 April 1861. Brahe is left in charge of the Depôt at Cooper Creek.
  • 21 April 1861. Brahe buried a cache of supplies, carved a message in the Dig Tree and headed back to Menindee. Later that day, Burke, Wills and King returned from the Gulf to find the Depôt deserted.
  • 23 April 1861. Burke, Wills and King followed the Cooper downstream heading towards Mount Hopeless in South Australia.
  • 7 May 1861. The last camel, Rajah, died. The men cannot carry enough supplies to leave the creek.
  • 8 May 1861. Brahe and Wright return to the Dig Tree. They stayed only 15 minutes and did not dig up Burke's note in the cache.
  • 30 May 1861. Wills, having failed to reach Mount Hopeless, returned to the Dig Tree to bury his notebooks in the cache for safe-keeping.
  • End of June/ early July 1861. Burke and Wills died.
  • 11 September 1861. Howitt, leader of the Burke Relief Expedition arrived at the Dig Tree.
  • 15 September 1861. Howitt found King the only survivor of the four men who reached the Gulf.
  • 28 September 1861. Howitt dug up the cache at the 'Dig Tree' and recovered Wills' notebooks.

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