Burke and Wills story to appear in The Age

The Age


Dushka Silichhi: Insight

EXPLORERS STILL LIVE ALONG TRACK

Although 150 years may seem like a long time to most readers it is just the blink of an eyelid out here on the 1860 Burke and Wills track where many local residents are still talking about their links with the great explorers.

It seems every town in Victoria or southern New South Wales has a local character with connections to the mythical but ill-fated anti-heroes who passed this way heading for the Gulf of Carpentaria trying to be first to cross the continent.

Inspired by the Gillard government’s $9. 9 billion offer to regional Australia we are giving a badly needed voice to the outback in the spirit of the Independents who helped form the new government in return for help for the bush. We are retracing Burke’s journey all the way from Melbourne to the Gulf for an environmental audit on film using the detailed journal of Wills to report on changes and challenges specifically for the federal environmental minister Tony Burke’s “Caring For Our Country” program, to which we have applied for financial assistance to help offset the costs of our self-funded mission.

But everywhere we go locals flock to our two colourfully decorated Pajeros (standing in for camels) and our Get Around Campers (standing in for horse-drawn wagons) with stories some taller than others. It actually started in Melbourne where the book keeper at the Melbourne Club claimed Burke set off on the expedition without paying his drinking bills but conceding those responsible did cough up although many decades later. There are similar clams in Essendon Burke’s first camp where the local historical society claims he left his shaving mirror behind hanging from a tree (now in their museum). Locals in Lancefield proudly pointed out the large rock memorial beside the road but said Burke ‘did a runner’ from the local butcher after getting as much meat as he could carry for his hungry explorers. The angry butcher proved faster than the great caravan of 24 camels, 23 horses, 19 men and a long string of wagons and got his money.

Further up the track near the fabled crater painted by Burke’s artist Ludwig Becker, Paul Dettmann of Baynton, near Mia Mia appeared out of nowhere s pointed to the crater and claimed, “My great great grandfather fell in with Burke’s party, showed them this local crater and walked with them from here up towards the New South Wales border, planning to walk to the Gulf”. Says Dettmann, “But even before they reached the border he worked out that Burke was not a qualified bushman, so he dropped out of the party”.

It was just as well because the incompetent Burke lost seven brave explorers who died unnecessarily on that badly planned and executed race to the Gulf, including himself. Yet according to local farmer Paul Haw of Boort, the trip north in 1860 should not have been too difficult as Burke actually followed the Aboriginal tracks and had he listened would have been guided by Aboriginals all the way to the Gulf. “But he was not the sort of bloke who listened to locals let alone to Aborigines” said Haw.

At Mt. Hope station near Boort, where Ludwig Becker painted Pyramid Hill local grazier Peter Barker took me into the darkened bedroom of the great leader and in hushed tones pointed to the old brass bed in which the slumbering Burke had snored, the blind that had not been raised since for fear of waking his sleeping ghost, and the bullet holes in a window from shots fired by his angry men fighting over rum rations which Barker said may have explained why Burke left Mt. Hope in a hurry.

Nevertheless any connection with the ill-starred Burke seems worth boasting about and Ron Duryea a shearer of Balranald rode up on his bike at a great speed to our parked convoy and blurted out, “My great great grandmother cooked for Burke here at the old Wharf Hotel, down by the Darling River – come and I’ll show you where” he said leading us off on his trusty two wheeled steed.

Right or wrong – and Buke stories are a bit like Ned Kelly’s suit of armour as everyone seems to have an original one – Duryea showed us the old hotel site, described the menu on offer, Burke’s culinary preferences and the spot where – to save weight Burke had auctioned such vital supplies as lime juice and fish hooks; the lack of which would claim lives including his own.

Just past Turlee Station heading north where locals claimed Burke had dumped one of his wagons which had disappeared in the Mallee scrub, Patty Byrnes at Wamberra Station revealed how her great great grandmother had fed the hungry Burke cooking on Arumpo Station which her family owned in 1860 . Her generous great great grandfather also carted some of Burke’s excess baggage up to Menindee to hep the overloaded explorer whose vision splendid had inspired him to leave Melbourne with a piano and oak dining room table.

At the tiny hamlet of Pooncarie local publican Trevor Bigg who said Burke had actually paid his drinking bills at the pub showed us the old wharf site by the Darling River where Burke’s entourage had camped.

But it was in Menindee – the last great base camp in 1860 - that Burke burst back into life because Tom Paine’s hotel is still there – more or less. It has had the odd fire like most bush pubs but owner Wayne “Bungy” Williams showed us Burke’s bed room “where he actually slept for the last time in a bed before he died in the desert” and also a disparaging convict arrow he had carved in a moment of protest on a beam. Burke is everywhere in Menindee, the riverside camp site is still there, the gum trees on the river bank which Ludwig Becker had painted and which Ballarat artist and Becker expert Leslie Sprague had driven up especially to photograph proving the trees are still there from Becker’s painting with. There is the grave of the Moslem cameleer from Burke’s party Dost Mahomet’s who settled in Menindee then died there and Ah Chung’s bakery where Mahomet had worked.

But the last word – and perhaps the most accurate now we were closer to the front line - really went to Noeline Ratcliff whose ancestors have owned the pub, since Burke was still known in the town. Asked what she thought of the great explorer she said “Do you want the truth ? I think he was an idiot. Anybody who sets off north from the last outpost of civilization into the scorching desert in the summer would have to be a total idiot . No wonder he died a terrible death out there”.

But now it was time for us to go north where we believe the stories will become even taller as we enter the deserts where visitors can only expect to encounter regular doses of bulldust.
Jonathan King is leading the 150th anniversary Burke & Wills Environmental Expedition, supported by The Age.