Do Go On - 5 - Burke and Wills (Australian Explorers)

Episode Date: November 25, 2015

Burke and Wills are Australia's most famous explorers, but were they any good? No... not really. We discuss their famous journey... What went right? What went wrong? And what... yeah, mainly what went wrong... Twitter: @DoGoOnPodInstagram: @DoGoOnPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/Email us: [e-mail] the show and get rewards like bonus episodes:www.patreon.com/DoGoOnPod  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey everybody, Jess and Dave, just jumping in really quickly at the top here to make sure that you are across all the details for our upcoming Christmas show. That's right, we are doing a live show in Melbourne Saturday December the 2nd, 2023, our final podcast of the year, our Christmas special. It's downstairs at Morris House, which usually be called the European beer cafe. On Saturday December the 2nd, 2023 at 4.30pm, come along, come one, come all, and get tickets at doogawonpod.com. At Nordstrom, you can shop the best holiday gifts for everyone you love.

All in one place. You'll find beauty favorites, cozy presents, fun ideas under 100 and more. Like festive dressing for you in your home. Experience the magic at your favorite store. Or order on Nordstrom.com with free shipping and returns. Need it faster? Pick up your order today in store. The best gifts are yours at Nordstrom.

Are you working way too hard for way too little? There's never been a better time to consider a career in IT. You could enjoy a recession-resistant career in a rewarding field, with plenty of growth opportunities and often flexible work environments. Go to mycomputercareer.edu and take the free career evaluation. You could start your new career in months, not years. Take classes online or on campus, and financial aid is available to qualified students, including the GI Bill. Now is the time, mycomputercareer.edu.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Do Go On The Relatively New Comedy Podcast with myself Dave Warnakie and I'm here with my charms Jess Perkins. Hello. Hello Jess and of course Matt Stewart, how are we Matt? Good thanks Dave, thanks for having me, thanks for me. Oh. Remember when you said, I think you should do the intro, you should do the intro every week day. And I was like, oh, maybe we should all have a girl doing the intro. Well, I'm glad that you convinced me that I should do the intro.

Well, you're reckon, I'm starting to feel'm starting to feel like I'm warming into it. You're really getting into this? Well this is the podcast where... We're going to keep that? Yep, alright great, it's fine. That's fun. No worries, it's great to have you on your own show. Hi Matt, I'm here too.

Hi Jess. Yeah, thanks for coming in. So, hold on. It's a happy week. Who's hosting it then? If you're a guest in so is Jess. It's a vicious cycle. We're all guests.

We are all guests. Everyone is a guest tonight. If you are listening to the show, welcome. I'm your guest. Jess is my guest. Your Jess is guest. Yeah. This is like a game of guest too.

Oh, that sucks. I am, this is the show where we take it in turns to prepare a class report to present to the other two people research one topic and sort of try and educate the others about something. And this week Matt is going to be presenting a report to Jess and I. And we have no idea what you are about to talk about Matt. So we normally start an episode with a question. That's right, and we have no idea what you're about to talk about, Matt.

So we normally start an episode with a question. That's right, because we're all big trivia peeps. That's right, that's how we got into this. World of trivia, that's right. In one way or another, we work with questions and such. Yeah. So the question I want to ask you guys, which is the answer is the topic I'm going to talk about.

My question is, what is the biggest failure in Australia's history? What's a big failure? Big Australian failure. Tiny habit. Tiny habit from just questions. That is a big failure, but I would probably say, I reckon Gallipoli, the Gallipoli campaign. Oh, right one. That absolute disaster and it was not the Australian's fault.

That's probably a better answer than what I have. What have you got? So we're not going to talk about Gallipoli. No, not Gallipoli. But it is an unhistorical failure. Is it part of the First World War, like Gallipoli? No. It's not the First World War.

It's a pre-First World War. So at the time, it was a much bigger failure than Gallipoli, because at the time, Gallipoli was just a nice coastal town. Well, there you go. Well, there you go. Foul at anything. No, that's right. Gallipoli was...

That were all success by the time. It was a jam. Yeah, a real jam. I guess it still is for them, because Australia was the ones who filed Gallipoli, but he kicked it in the deer. Sorry, I kicked it. I kicked it pretty well. Okay.

Oh, I'm going to stop guessing. I think, okay, Jess okay just night clearly wrong. What do you guys know about the Birkenwils expedition? Oh, oh I have yes, I have heard about that night. I don't know too much about it. No, it ends badly Yeah, it's not good. Well actually I know my dad always if anybody says they've walked somewhere or how you gonna get somewhere I'm just gonna walk dad always go. Oh, you know what they did to Birkenwills? Really? Yeah, it's a great joke. So in a way, they were a success.

That's how they stopped in a Perkins. Yeah, the one, it's the Perkins. Family phrase. Yeah, yeah, so there you go. Good on them. Good on them. End of episode. Come on everybody, let's go to the pub.

So I was, I looked into this a lot about a month ago, and I haven't thought about it much since then. So I'm going to hopefully give you a sweet report still. Great. I don't think in the month that the report will have been redundant, considering the events happened 150 years ago. I'm hoping no new information has come to life.

It's come to life. Oh, actually, it turns out that they had a great time. All right. So let me take you back. To what, 1850? Right, 1850s, that was when gold was found in Victoria and kicked off a big gold rush. Melbourne basically pretty much didn't exist at that time.

But by the end of 1852, there were 90,000 new people in Victoria searching for gold. So Melbourne had a big boom. It was around that time when it got the nickname Smelbin because they're... Surid, you know? That's a very good, you know? I did not know we had that nickname.

That's amazing. Yeah, there was all open Surid and a big boom in population, man, a big boom in... In Boomer's. In Boomer's. I found a quote, in the block bounded by great and little Burke streets Elizabeth Street and Swanson Street there is a space of upwards of 100 square yards Hitherrow occupied let's

tell you know what's old because I said Hitherrow occupied by green, Putrid and semi-liquid mass partly formed by the outpourings of surrounding privies oh god so that's right in the middle of the city. Do you see a hundred yards? Oh, filth. But anyway we've come a long way. That's right. At least as you just have those old horse and cats walking down the road. That's the worst thing you can get a smell and smell. What a weed. That is weird that we're piling onto that right? I think it's bad for the horse. I don't. Well I just who's who wants to go around Melbourne slowly? Like that's all you get is like a really slow trip around Melbourne. Well, I think Jess Perkins dad, because he wants to avoid walking,

because look what I did to Berk and Wheels. If only they had a horse, they probably had a horse. We'll get into that, I imagine. Anyway, spot all that, all the cash floating around from the gold made Melbourne a real destination for, you know know some of the world's biggest and brightest Yeah, great people that were cashed up and do want to spend money on plumbing the city Yeah, Melbourne for a little time there Melbourne was like one of the big cultural centers of the world It was it was a hectic hectic little time and and but it will probably when I've got the title of the world's most livable city back then because of the shit every time I did solve that

problem not too long after and and Victoria's capital was dubbed Marvelous Melbourne around that time. Ah that's better. Better than Smelbin. Cash just flowing around and they were getting stuff done. So around that time you know Melbourne was starting to think we got to let's put ourselves on the map here let's do some big we've got all this cash. We've got this cash. We've got a lot of shit. What what can we do? Let's do something with it and that's where the idea of this big expedition came about in 1858 Interesting Queen's land wasn't even a thing yet. It was still New South Wales

Do you know? New South Wales pretty much was all of Australia for a little while, and then slowly other states chipped away at it until it became the... So it became pretty small. Oh yeah, so it used to be all over the place. It was in New South Wales, South Australia, Northern Territory, that was all New South Wales. Western Australia was there pretty early on, and Van Davengland or Tasmania was. But wow, everything else was in New South Wales but wow, everything else was new South Wales.

Yeah, yeah. Big new South Wales. Cool. Yeah, anyway, was that interesting? Yeah. What I'm going to try and do is give you some real interesting tidbits. Hey, please, please. That is the point of the show. Please do go on with those tidbits. Jess, you're going to have to lower your brows because there's more coming, okay? I'll try. You can't take them any further higher You can't hold them up for now. It's it's ridiculous Jess you're being ridiculous I'm just sort of yeah trying to try to put you in the time there Queen's I wasn't ever to think this is we're going a little while back Melbourne was only 23 years old and Victoria only seven years old so Victoria was in South Wales. Melbourne was in New South Wales initially that was something I didn't

know. I had no idea like it was. Australia was still 43 years away from federating as you know in 1901. That's right good good good testing is. And the vast majority of European settlements were on the coast, which is still the truth. Still the case, yep. The philosophical institute of Victoria was keen to set up an expedition. So they were a big group of scientists and just intelligent Melbourneians, basically even Victorians who wanted to make their mark. So they set up this idea, but they didn't have the heaps of money that was needed. Heaps of money was required. Heaps. Heaps. They didn't have enough. They didn't have heaps. And in 1859,

the Institute received a royal charter and became the Royal Society of Victoria, which still exists today. It's still got a building in the city somewhere. You can go visit if you want. Oh, there you go. Royal Society of Victoria. A wealthy... RSV. Yeah. A wealthy member of the public named Ambrose Cite donated a thousand pounds. Now that is a name. Ambrose Cite. That's a real good. Bring that back. And a thousand pounds. A thousand pounds. A lot of money. Yeah, it's 150 years ago. But it's not quite the heaps they needed. After that, he said that only he would only be

able to give the thousand dollars if they were able to raise another two thousand from the public. Oh, that's like the original Kickstarter. Yeah, like if you get your stretch goal, I will contribute another thousand pounds. Yeah, that's pretty much what it was, or like the Good Friday appeal where they say, we'll give you this money as long as you can get aggro and Phelpsi to do 15 pushups like live on air Singing the national anthem backwards or something like that. I don't know if that's the thing Sorry guys, then they did 14 we're gonna keep the million dollars the hospital is going without this year But it's already playing Phelpsi. It took a year So it took a year to get that tooth out. And how were they raising them? What were they just?

took a year, so it took a year to get that two thousand. And how were they raising the money? Were they just on the tree? On the tree. So, yeah. I imagine they're rattling like coin boxes, but back in the day, people are just depositing like little golden nuggets that they just found.

Chucking in the box. So, it's two thousand pounds worth of gold, which is a lot of gold. That is a lot of gold. So, but eventually it took them a year, but they got the two thousand. Then you get the two thousand. So then Ambrose was kicked in his thousand.

They gave them three thousand altogether. And then with that that three thousand they took the kickstarter to the government and asked for an extra six thousand pounds Which was approved by a guy who in the government who was also on the committee? Oh, there you go classic government right there So that's it up to nine thousand pounds. There's a lot of of money. Yeah, so they've got the heap of cash they required. I'm using a lot of what I'm using here is Dave Phoenix's history, he wrote a brief history, which I'm leaning on pretty heavily here. I mean, it's a really entertaining story.

So I've so far. So we've been able to write both. Suck all of that bit out of it. And just give you the facts. I don't want to end it. We need a bed of facts to get going. So they've got 9,000 pounds. And what is the point of the exit?

What are they? They want to put themselves on the map in what way? Well, at this stage, no one, there's no record of anyone crossing Australia from South to North Coast. So they want to go all the way from the bottom up to the top. I want to be the first to do it. All right. Around the same time South Australia are organizing their own.

Once it becomes a bit of a race, they've got this guy who's quite experienced named John McDowell Stewart. Melosolid name. He's a South Australian Scottishman. Scottishman. And he's been around. he's he's a pretty handy explorer so he's a leader of the Adelaide party and they're trying to go from Adelaide north other yeah so there's a slightly different path but they've

still got the same goal same goal and they've probably got different challenges but anyway I've got I've got this day Phoenix gave a few different reasons for the expedition which is what you were sort of asking I was saying it's a scientific expedition that would cover that would discover new species New discoveries of golden minerals new infertile lands for grazing the extension of the boundaries of the small colony The establishment of a telegraph line to London and the pride of being the first colony to unlock the secrets of the interior. I love that, the pride. It's all about pride. I'm lucky to see that. But it's now, I think, like those other things, we're kind of just to sell it to people. That's right, the government aren't going.

Yeah, it'd be pretty great for us if we do this, the government, I'm not going to give you 6,000 pounds. Oh, how about a telegraph line to London? Yeah. So, you've got the money. We might find gold and you can have cows out here maybe. Yeah. Okay. Now we're talking. Now we're talking. You can call the queen. Oh, secrets of the interior. Now that sounds like a little bonus. And pride. And pride for you and us because we funded it. So they were good to go. Right. all good to go all they need now is

a group of people. So the people raising the money happy to get the money and plan your thing but they don't want to do with themselves. Well yeah it's not it's not that kind of thing where it's like we did it they go we organize this it's our thing you know it's still their thing to be proud of and it's for the colony it's for Victoria this brand new colony 23 years old. Yeah, not 70s old. Yeah, it's really close So really new colony and it's just something to say hey look at us Victoria with sick or some of that That is I reckon that's what yeah, definitely a direct court. Yeah Look at us. We're sick

So they put together an exploration committee and that and their main goal at the start was to find a leader for the exhibition. Pretty important role obviously. Yep sure. Their initial choice was the South Australian Peter Edgerton Warburton but they were also considering a guy called AC Gregory and another guy called William Blandowski. Oh Blandowski I wish they got Birken Blandowski. William Blandowski. Oh, Blandowski. I wish they could. Birkenblandowski is not better. Bill Blandowski. But a better ring to it.

There was a debate that went on for months over this. I want Blandowski, damn it. I wonder why. Why would you care so much who was going to not care so much. But if these people wanted to do it, why not just let them do it? I mean, like, no, I don't reckon he should. Yeah, if you go. I think it's Yeah, I mean like why like, no I don't reckon he should, yeah, I'll figure it. Well I think it's, so the leaders make in all the decisions and we'll find out as we go that it's pretty crucial who the leader is because they can make some really good decisions. They can.

Potentially. Don't like the use, you'll use the word can there. They could if they- Not promising that they're able to. Well, I'm foreshadowing. Oh fair enough. So- Not promising that they were able to. Well, I'm foreshadowing. Oh, fair enough. So, because we haven't heard of the names,

AC Gregory, Blindesky, and the Adelaide Guard before, am I to believe that they were not chosen? That's right. At some point, at a meeting, at some point, exactly on the 20th of June, 1860, they had a vote where Roboto Harrah Burke came from, the Clare's got 10 votes, Walbert and five, and yeah, no one else got any votes. Gregoried Blondowski out, so Burke, I just kicked down

the door and said, I'm here. Yeah, back in the house. Do you guys know anything about this guy? Like his history or anything? For some reason I assumed like Burke Street was named after him, but now it's... I always thought it was, wasn't it was there before him so it's disappointing all that yeah There there's been a few little things named after him, but yeah, I always thought the same little Burke maybe His Berk Street felt an alright. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, oh yeah, he's be you are Anytime we get to Melbourne specifically you should probably talk to our Interstate and international all right, so Berkshire it's the main street of pretty much the main street like the mall Where trams can go and pedestrians can go but people can't in Melbourne

So it's one of this is it's a Do I say people can't must cars? I mean to say I can't go there Animal pedestrian that's one about most famous street most of them are not many animals I mean to say But it's not good there. It's a carnival pedestrian. It's one of our most famous streets. Most of them are not many animals have their car driving licenses. Well, possums, but anyway the other one for overseas list is

and yeah, so just a big street I honestly also thought there was a named after him. Yeah, but you're right, this feeling's different. Yeah, it's with an aura. Yeah, but you're right. This feeling's different. Yeah, it's with it's with an IRL. Yeah, it is. Yeah. Um, anyway, so he he was an Irishman. He was born in Ireland is a country in the northern hemisphere for our overseas listeners. So 1821 right on in our gallway county. That's where I'm from. Are you really from? Well, part not me person, but my family. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. Well, there's a a connection cool. You got any Berks in the family

I don't think so. I think so. I've been related to yes You could have been related to the guy that Berks Street is not named after So what could have been instead I only have to claim bloody Kirin Perkins See actually a reality why claim is oh right on Right on Kirin Perkins a champion Olympic Australian swimmer Two-time gold medalist if we could go back to Roboto Sorry, sorry, not here in Perkins was not on this exhibition But Roboto Harrah Burke was

He lived quite an interesting way just see if you can spot the one thing he hadn't done Okay, okay, there's probably a few other things but one key thing he had done He never tried pineapple He never learned to walk that's a problem you know this walking experience will that be fine? yeah we're up there we went straight from crawling to sitting and then stayed in the chair just dragged himself around

it was along 6000 mile journey from Melbourne to Queensland. Robert of Haraburk crawling, refusing any help from the party. I'm sorry Matt, get it to go on. So at the age of 20 he joined the Austrian Army as an Irishman? An Irishman, fully understand that. A ride of passage maybe for that time, who knows? So, okay, so he's in the Austrian... I mean, I can accept that.

So, he's there for a few years then, he had a home to Ireland in 1848, where he joined the police force. Okay, so he's in his 20s now, yep. Yep, and then, five years later in 1853, he came over to Australia for the gold rush, but he ended up becoming a cop in the Victorian police force as well. So this stage got some good experience in the army and as a policeman, perfect good nothing about walking or exploring So he's done skills

Maybe but no exploring no exploring at all and it had had not explored at all I. He got on a boat to Australia, but he's never crossed a continent as vast as Desolites as Australia. He caught a train once across the parts of Europe. I like this. He's working as a cop in Victoria. Right. The Crimean War broke out. So he jumped on a ship. He's like I want in. I want in. I I came about the Crimea. Jumped on a ship headed back with us. I mean got there was too late. The war was over. The light brigade was charged. It was all done. So he Jumped back on a ship came back to Australia and rejoined the police for so he's just spent what I'm imagining, it takes a long time to get to try me here, then maybe he's just spent the nine months on a ship. So frustrating. Going back?

So frustrating. You didn't get to kill anyone. God, what a waste of time. What a bummer. What a bummer. No one was murdered by Robert or Harabak. So he came back to Victoria, rejoin the police force, quickly rose through the ranks.

So like Jess said, he showed some sort of leadership skills, but it was at the time, you know, it was a quickly growing population. So they just needed to, they needed to. They needed cops. And he was around the Castleaine District Country Victoria. And then in 1860, he was when he took leave to lead the exploration, just to leave.

Did they put an ad out for something? Is that how he any just applied and... I think that's basically how it was for... He's a long country. He was on Agum Tree. Yeah, they actually nailed it to Agum Tree. But what about the other guys? Were they more qualified? Yes. Great.

Great, so they're going, what the fuck? You've just chosen some Irish cop. That's Birk. He was first in charge. Second in charge was a man named George James Landells oh Landells that wheels all right no no wheels oh get to wheels will wasn't second in charge now okay okay so uh uh James Landell second George James George James Landells he was born in Barbados oh Oh, exotic.

And his family lived, they moved around a bit in Barbados, Jamaica, Gambia, and England, before he moved. Well, there's, I don't know if anyone knows geography, but there's a long distance between Jamaica and Gambia, which is in Western Africa. Yeah, that is a big challenge. It's a long way, and then up to England, okay. Then up to England, and then to India in 1842.

Well, he's traveled a lot, but has he explored before? Well, his big thing was because they made a decision with this exploration that because they were going through some pretty full on desert terrain, well, I thought it was, they didn't know a lot about it. They were going to bring in camels, so they brought. And that works out well, didn't it? Yeah, well, I mean, it was important because they definitely did help. The camels did help them get through some desiddy places.

That's right. Well, but... But if people don't know, Australia has the largest population of feral camels in the entire world. Yeah, I haven't checked. I wonder if any of them come back from it. I think they ended up eating most of them. I don't know if they could have any of them go free. So later on they brought in more camels. Because now they had to have a big cull because there was a cluster of a million camels

in the middle of Australia. I've never seen a camel. And they would... You've never seen a camel? I'm sure I have. In fact, now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure... Yeah, I have, because there's one at Chesterfield Farm.

Anyway. Oh, right on. I went there last year as an adult. But they've bought in some camels. Good. But he was the man who was sort of in charge of that. He was sent out to India to purchase the camels. Oh he's camel man. He's the camel man. That's kind of why he was chosen to be second in charge just because he's expertise with the camels which were seen as a real key point in the success or potential success of this expedition right on camel man. Like every time you say it, Matt just lights up like a little like he said. I'm going to say a lot more now.

Right on. Right on. I'm echoing it every time he says. Yeah. You've noticed. Okay, so we've got a second in command. Yep. That's actually what I see.

Yep. So's a true I see, yep. So vice captain. He was hailed for his travels through the very unsettled lands by the English skinned and newspaper, Cindy and let's say Cindy and similarly lauded in Melbourne where the exotic animals caused the sensation. This is a quote from our man.

David Phoenix. David Phoenix, why do you hear you're good? You're on today, yeah, what are that? I'm a big fan of the day Phoenix, man. Apparently, when the camels were brought to Melbourne, they were paraded through the streets. Oh, that is great. And they caused a real sensation.

As did their handlers, who have been identified variously as Indians, Sepois and Malays. Sepois being Indian serving in the British Army. Is Sepois right? Bloody hell is this scratchy, but... It's fine, it's fine. But those, those, those handlers, that small group of handlers, which was about five dudes, I think three, four, five dudes. Yep, it's not that clear.

It's so funny that they were just not seen as being important enough to document even where they're from. So there's a lot of info about the camels. But they were the people who were handling the camels. Yeah. If it wasn't for them, the camels, I don't know what'd gone rogue or something. Rogue camels. Which they did later. Exactly, that's right.

That did not work out well for the middle of Australia If only we'd paid more attention to these handlers to a to a stepwise Relations like who do you think was third in charge? There's a will Will's all right number three and you know you guys know will will's first name I do because it is so ridiculous that it's one of those things that it's Cannot be real I think that his name is William John Wills. Because I was thinking John so maybe it's William Wills.

Which is very similar to a character Jonathan Schuster plays. Willie Wheels. You have a standout? No I have not seen that. Melbourne comedian Jonathan Schusteret the way you go. Anyway, Willie Willes was born around 1834. I love old, oh my god. Old record. I'm not going to talk to me.

This is your thing. When people don't know when people are born, it is fascinating. Yeah, a whole year. You couldn't even get it down to one whole year. Especially someone who is quite important. Yeah, that's right. That's what we talked about. Someone who was third in command. So he was born in Devon in England and his family moved to Australia in 1853.

And at first, he assisted at his father's practice in Ballarat before studying, surveying, and becoming an assistant at the astronomical and magnetical observatories at Melbourne under Professor G.B. Numea. So he's got some experience being an assistant but it's gonna be the third assistant. In a lot of cool fields as well there so so he was very good at surveying which was a very important he was he was actually very handy so

second and third in charge probably more qualified than number one. Well definitely very handy at least. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Okay. On board. Um. But you know what? I reckon that Burke just had, he had the confidence, you know. He had that, that spark. He, stage presence. That's, well no, I think that from a bunch of different accounts that I've read, they do talk about that. Very charismatic. Yeah, I was going to say charisma. Yeah. It's probably a sort of attractive man. Yeah. Oh. I do talk about that. Very charismatic. Yeah, I was gonna say charisma, yeah. It's probably attractive, man.

Oh, yeah. I'm gonna make that assumption. Big bid, you know. Bit of a ladies' man. Bit of a... Don't worry, ladies, I'll be back in the summer. Yeah, I'll be back. Just wait for me.

Wait right here. So, I gotta go walk through the desert, bye. Bye. What's that new phrase you've brought in? Right on. Right on. Right on. on oh indeed on the 20th of August 1860 is Go time but it's go time and show time go time and show time. Yeah, that's right

They assembled in Royal Park Melbourne in Carlton And the men there were instructed on rifle shooting and caring for camels There's two things you need to know boys the men there who are instructed on rifle shooting and caring for camels. There's two things you need to know boys. So, if you had a reader map, nah, just care for his camel. And shoot a gun in case you don't care for the camel. I love how it's just like on the day, we're about to go before we do.

He's a cowboy tip. Two hour crash course. Yeah, it's crazy. I was like, It's so underpriced. I mean, it's been raising money for years and they haven't trained it for years. I feel like it just feels like, you know,

that people talk about when things are organized by committee, they're always in mass. And that is what this feels like. It's a big old mass. Big old party planning committee. So along with, so the dudes are getting trained, right? And there's also up to 20 tons of stores, a mass, 20 tons to bring with them. They're to 20 tons of stores amassed 20

tons to bring with them they're carrying 20 tons oh my god it's not a nice lean quick exploration up the up the center of Australia 20 tons and who's pulling that? Will's camels and heaps of horses for the back of this so there was something around 20, 20 odd horses, 26 camels and six wagons. Wow. Um, what? I think you need supplies. They're going to walk a long way.

That's okay. Yeah, I support this motion. 20 tons. Okay. I reckon you just take a couple less dudes. Anyway, look. Just go solo. Look, hindsight is 2020.

Of course. So easy for us to say that I'm not even helped but on on that afternoon before setting off Birkfire a couple of his men for being drunk And replacements were hired on the spot. Oh my god. Hey, are you drunk? You're fired. Hey, are you not drunk? You're high? You're in oh Man say buddy your mom. Yeah, just so was... We're going. I just, I couldn't believe that.

Wow. Do you know anything about camels? Well, neither did these guys. That's fine. That's right. Well, I mean, they've done the crash course, but we can just teach you as we walk. We'll do it as we go.

It's fine. Really, it was only 15 minute presentation. These are Malayan slash Indian Sep Boy men, whatever they are. I haven't taken the time to learn their names. They'll tell you how to clean up the camel shit. All right. Yeah, that's pretty much how it is. That just sounds a bit the same sobers out of me.

Getting the wagon. Well, somewhere I read online, they brought enough food to last for two years. Oh, wow. Which is way longer than they expected. What, how long do the thing it's going to take? I was thinking months, not years. Oh, wow.

OK. That's good. I think that's the thing. I think maybe up to a year. So they had twice as much as what they probably thought. 80 pairs of shoes. What? So about, I think that's about four per man. Wow. 20 camp beds, 30 cabbage tree hats, 57 buckets. And a par tree. Brandy. Pres preserved fruit, vegetables and fire arms. They're really like kings, 80 pairs of shoes.

And they're also, so this is... They're not like, it's not like the Harrison Children's collection though, it's probably like... Yeah, they're not worse than women. It's okay that I said it. Yeah, that's okay, they said it in 1850. Yeah. And I, being I wrote it. And they also, one other thing that was a bit different for the time, they would normally bring a lot of their food as living livestock, which is I think what livestock normally is

living. So yeah. Like one of the fundamental... It's in the name. Livestock. I almost didn't want to hear. It's in the name. Live stock. I wasn't even what I was here. Yeah. But they decided instead to bring try out dried meat. So that's why a lot of the stuff they were like livestock and walk itself, which is a

pro. Sadly, salted beef cannot walk far at all. So that was, um, but neither could Burke. Well, he never learned. I never heard anything about Burke walking. But neither could back. Well, he never learned. I never heard anything about Burke walking. I have 80 pairs of shoes for some reason. I put them on my hands and crawl.

I don't think somebody like one of them will like I just drag you. Like a Sherpa. Everyone grow up like in an arm. Come on guys, come on, it's a team effort. Put Birken his sack. Start the dragging process. There's time to a camel and whippers. And he's still shouting at orders.

Turn left, turn left. I said left. Left. God damn it. At Nordstrom, you can shop the best holiday gifts for everyone you love, all in one place. You'll find beauty favorites, cozy presents, fun ideas under 100 and more. Like festive dressing for you in your home. Experience the magic at your favorite store.

Or order on Nordstrom.com with free shipping and returns. Need it faster? Pick up your order today in store. The best gifts are yours at Nordstrom. Are you working way too hard for way too little? There's never been a better time to consider a career in IT. You could enjoy a recession-resistant career in a rewarding field, with plenty of growth opportunities and often flexible work environments. Go to mycomputercareer.edu and take the free career evaluation. You could start your new career in months, not years. Take classes online or on campus, and financial aid is available to qualified students, including the GI Bill.

Now is the time. Mycomputercareer.edu Alright, so they set off. Alright, they're fired a couple of guys, got more guys on, done a quick training. They set off in the afternoon. Right. So it's not in them. It's not a whole day of travel, but they set off in the afternoon. Where do you reckon they camp?

Remembering they left from Carlton, they're heading to the north of Australia. How far is the journey supposed to be? They're in back in things 5,000 miles or column, it would be miles. It would be miles. It would be miles. It would be. Or cum North. And they're looking after that. They did a little bit better than that, but not heaps better. They camped that night in Essendon. Oh my god. How many kilometers? Which is where I now live. Yeah.

And it's a 15 minute bike ride. Oh my goodness. That's day one. I mean, they're a little bit further down, right? So say half an hour bike ride, maybe. But they've taken horses and camels, and they've taken a whole day to do it. Well, a whole afternoon. I love that as well, that they're like,

should we head off? Yeah, we'll head off to Zabba, don't we? Because it was a huge thing. I had a huge send off. Everyone, the majority of Victoria rocked up to the send-off. And you know what's great? People then would have gone home,

and then they could have passed them. Yeah, they were happy. Oh, you got it out. Oh, yeah, we actually live in Essentom. Yeah, John. Hey, we saw you just before. Yeah. You just getting here now.

Oh, shit. All right. And good on you. No, you all right, well, yeah. Looks like I had to fire a couple of guys, all right? Yeah, give just get in here now. Oh shit, all right. And good on you. No, you're all right, well, yeah. Looks like I had to fire a couple of guys, all right? Yeah, give me some credit. I got dragged here, OK? Speaking of, our man, Dave Phoenix,

said that Burke's leadership was pretty full on. And he continued to alter his personnel, losing one of the Sepoys two days out of Melbourne. He hired a cook. Grace, we just left the Sepoys, who's probably never been to this country before in the middle of Victoria. I got on CMA. Oh my god. That's ridiculous. That's probably little English. Yeah. He's lost his camel friends. Oh my god.

That's awful. Good on you, Burke. Demonstrate. Then he hired a cook at Mia Mia just on a whim. Someone, oh we should've got a cook. Yeah, hang on, we need to eat. Did they think this through at all? It doesn't feel like, does it?

Then he hired a bushman with exploring experience. There we go. There we go. And then dismissed four more men at Swan Hill. Oh my god. Which is not even the left Victoria yet. So still in the first date, and they're supposed to get to a third.

Yeah, that's right. So they've already... Back again. And back again, they've already lost what, five minutes at least at this stage, plus the two they fired on day one, so seven of the original crew are gone, but they've gained a Bushman and a chef. But don't worry, he replaced those four men with another four randoms, including a sailor named Charlie Gray. Who's useless on land? They're gonna sail the we're going this inland expedition. He's like yeah this is my forte. I know a lot about land. Yeah so there was a lot of comings and goings from the crew. Like there was a lot of

ah and who are you sort of like how weird would that be? You wake up everyone wanting to go sorry were you part of the group last night? What happened to Doug? Sorry, we left him. Left him was one of them. I feel like they're underprepared, but they have too many, like they've got way too many shoes and too much food and took under and over.

What if you fire someone and they're a size seven and then you hire a size 11? That is really awesome. Suddenly, we've got no shoes. Yeah, that was the kind of thing that was like, do you have any experience? Oh, not really. What shoe size are you?

Seven perfect. You're in. You're in. Have the pair of shoes. So, remembering these key dates, because I won't. The 20th of August is when they set off. Yep, I wrote that down, yep.

The 11th of September is when they got to the Murray, the border. Okay. And so it's taken them a couple weeks. And they set off. Three weeks. Three weeks to get to the border of the first date, okay? And from there they set off into New South Wales. Obviously.

Yep. And from there they turned left. For some reason. Yeah. And from there, they turned left. For some reason. So they surprised me. They accidentally did that. They are extremely under prepared. Okay, so they're in New South Wales now. Yeah, so they're in New South Wales now.

And there have been further personal changes. Second in charge is now William John Willes. What happened to the Barbados guy? There was an incident when looking to cross the river. Our man from Barbados. George James landed out the camel man. Who's the camel man? He said the best way to get the camels across the river is to buy some sort of a punt like a wrapped guitar wrap something and Burke said no what was Burke's idea let's hear what the camel man has to say no we'll do this

what did he think he said wills you're swimming him across We'll say, um, Will's it. He cracked it and quit. Um, and Burke, uh, gave Willie Will's. What, as a reward for swimming with the camels. He gave him second in charge. Did the camels make it across? They made it. But yeah, he's like... I got a lot of money. You're sure you want to get them knackered before we even get to the desert?

Like doing this thing that they're not used to doing, using weird muscles? And he was like... He's like... Yes! I'm Burke! I'm Burke, him you're all! Yeah, he's pretty much his steady said. I'm Burke.

So he's like, who did charge here, hey? Hmm, but I don't call this the Burke and Landel expedition fuck off. Fuck off. Fuck off, back to Barbados. Yeah, so, okay, so let's give you a head a little. Landel's is gone and they have started working their way up through New South Wales. It's been about two months since we left Melbourne and they've got to Menindi. That same journey at that time would take the male coach a fortnight.

Sorry, sorry. How long did it take that, Berk and Will? Two months. About two months. They should have just got on the male cut. It might have believed that they're going on this big journey with camels, all this stuff. And they've just every couple of weeks they see the male cut. Just go past and say, hey guys.

Ding ding! Any male for Birk? Yeah, I've got a couple of letters. Some cookies from your wife. Thank you, and they just keep going back and forth What why do they not just start from Minindi on the oh my on a coach Well, they had a big parade to set off these guys but every morning the these Post-a-work is to get nothing no parades for them That is so funny, small mansion.

Ding ding! Yeah, I guess. It would feel like they're going past every couple of hours to you. They're like, oh, fuck. Oh, fuck. There they go. So they got to Manindi, and beyond that, it was pretty much unknown territory to Europeans. They'd sort of push their knowledge.

Europeans would push their knowledge up to an Indian, New South Wales, but beyond there. So is this sort of half wayish? Probably not quite a third. Oh, Burke, anyway. So there's a long way to go, but he's an impatient man, he wants to just get it done, and he's also in the back of his mind, he's always thinking about this man's stew it. Oh yeah because he's racing us the other late Scott Scotsman. Yeah that's right. That's forgotten about that. Yeah so he's going we can't afford to be too slow even though he's being super slow he's like we're gonna have to pick up the pace from here and that's when he decided to break the group into two and that was against the orders of the committee who were funding the whole thing Well, I'm bet they're thinking that later was a good choice good choice. He's not even listening to us anymore

So when they when they first put the party At Minindi they they split it into One group which was the fit of seven men that Burke Found to be the fit of seven men that Burke found to be the fit of seven men. I don't know what the rigorous test. Why did they figure that out? 10 star jumps go. He also picked the fittest animals. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM So they became a quite a lean operation now. Berk told the others that he would send for them later. So I thought you were going to be like, Berk told the others,

Fuck off! You and your barbed-ass mate can't have fuck off. We had our nieges. It was about 10 days later he did send for them. Actually, we need you. Yeah, it's like, yeah, you guys head on up now. We are send for them. Actually we need you. Yeah it's like yeah you guys head on up now we are ready for you. You're like in the job interview. Burke will see you now. About that time he sent the new third in charge William Wright back to him and indeed to collect the others and meet

Burke at the depot which they were were going to create at Cooper Creek. Right on, so that's a big supply area. That's right, so they moved up to Cooper Creek, which is like the big, famous historical base that they made for themselves. So, so this stage you got the seven guys up, one of those is heading back to tell the bigger group with all the animals and supplies to start heading up. Great, so you really could have just gone with the whole group, but instead, he's the fittest seven men will forge ahead,

then six of us will wait here, while one has to go back, tell you to do the journey that you could have done the whole time, and then we'll continue on. Yeah, that's kind of it. That's so dumb. Oh, that's just, I'm sure that there's no sound.

And the whole time the male coach is still zooming up and down. This is zoomin. Baby! In November, 1860, about three months after leaving Melbourne, Burke and the other men that he saw out with him established a depot camp 63, but that struggled. So they made another one at camp 65,

which is the famous one, which was just inside the Queensland border. So they made a little bit of ground in those 10 days. And how many of them at this campus are there? So this was a six of them with the one guy sent back to send the message. And Queensland was now a thing. It had only just became a thing the year before, a state or a colony of that stage was in a state as yet. Sure. And Burke was expecting the other half of the party to meet them at any time from then

um... but after waiting for further ten days he decided uh... what what's burq's thing you know when he has a brainwave it seems to be one main thing and that is to split the party once more and uh... six is too many just wasting so much time just sitting around

waiting for 10 days. Yeah, they wanted the supplies, so if the supplies could get there, but so they have no idea what went wrong. It turned out they were having troubles at the big party, but not just physical troubles, but also like organization. There was one guy who he basically demanded that his family get put on a train to add a leg and he wouldn't leave until there were all these supplies and he wanted a pay rise I think and it was like a flight to Cuba and a mango and I love mangoes and yeah and I wait for a couple of months so they they're making some ground now they're sort of they're losing that huge thing they started with the start maybe

maybe that could have started smaller I reckon so how many are there now they've just put again now it's just the four of us just four so we've got so yeah this breakaway group was Burke Wills Charlie Gray who is our sailor and John King so they're the four and they've gone what and who's the plan who's John King E at 21 year old Irishman great young he was put in charge of the camels Because we lost the camel guy. Oh, so he's in charge of so he's in charge of camels his new camel man And his no camel experience is young and Irish although he didn't know much about camels Please finish the sentence. He did speak the language of the handlers

Oh Please finish the sentence he did speak the language of the handlers. Oh He could work as in well. They assumed he could yeah exactly so he Why wouldn't a 21 year old Irish could be able to speak he came over on the boat with Landels so he he's a young guy he's been through India and he he's been hanging out with these guys for a while I I honestly thought you were going to say that John King could speak the language of the camel. Yeah, I would see that too. They really grown a lot there. I wish you could see your face running.

This camel is tired. Also, he's hungry. That river really hurt my feet. I miss James Landel. I speak the language of the camel. So yeah, that was, he could speak. So he was basically able to go pass on messages from Burke to the handlers and back again. Yeah, okay So the other handle is still coming with the handlers I think they've gone ahead sans

Suppose sure Suppose a fun word to it is I hope for him pronouncing it right these poor bastards have done so much work to get this anywhere No, credit. No names just the Suppose not even a hundred percent sure how many of them one of them is in country Victoria gone what the hell do I get home that's outrageous so on the 16th of December 1860 they set off from the depot at Cooper Creek for the Gulf of Carpentry which is the end game that's the goal on the northern coast. Berk told the four men they were leaving at the

depot to wait for three months. Will's quietly went over to them and said, better make that form. I don't trust this guy. He pretty much is like, I've kind of looked at this. Four months is more likely. Three months would be very lucky. Nothing goes wrong. We make it back in three months. More likely, four months. And what do they say after four months, what do they do? Assume we're dead and go home. Pretty much assume we're dead or we've gone to a Queensland settlement. And we set up new lives. Yeah, exactly. As came farmers. What? Assume we're dead. Like, so guys just sit here for three months if we don't come back just hit home okay bye you and then we'll just like

make it love you bye but they definitely they had full confidence especially Burke he didn't too much confidence yeah he didn't think failure was even a possibility so he wasn't like he's like he's listening to he's listening to eight mile on repeat success is my only option, failure's nut, and we all just like, yeah, for ma, mum spaghetti's on his sweater all over. Yeah, so news got better for a little while, they found the going easier than anticipated heading north. And it works pretty, feeling pretty arrogant at this time, I reckon these cock of the wall, we're not very proud of him. I'm very proud of him. I'm very proud of him.

I'm very proud of him. I'm very proud of him. I'm very proud of him. I'm very proud of him. I'm very proud of him. I'm very proud of him. I'm very proud of him. I'm very proud of him.

I'm very proud of him. Grey's Creek to celebrate Christmas. This was doubly pleasant, as we had never in our most sanguine, which also means optimistic. Um, fuck moments, we just got up, anticipated finding such a delightful oasis in the desert. Our camp was really an agreeable place for we had all the advantages of food and water attending a position of a large creek or river and we're at the same time free from the annoyance of the numberless ants, flies and mosquitoes. This is in paradise. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. The Christmas miracle. So things were going great. I think it was going real good. Burke was feeling real real good. And they lived happily ever after. Thanks for listening guys.

Right Matt? Yeah. It got harder from there. Oh, so the camel's really struggled, because they'd taken way longer than expected, so they were getting there during wet season, which is a tropical north. But it's not good.

John King, tell his camel to suck it up. Wow. So Charlie Gray's sailing experience came into its own. No, it's not good John King tell his camels to suck it up So Charlie Gray's sailing experience came into it's a salient camel through the wet swamp Yeah, just through the mud and muck So yeah the wet season broke and as they were approaching the golf It made things incredibly tough. It was pretty much as being bogged Birkenwil's big in the camels out. I got my camel bogged. Birken made a decision.

Of course he did. What do you reckon that decision would be? With the party. With the party. Oh no. I'm going to take the fittest camel and go on alone. So he split it just to him and Will's. Oh, and here, here in Liza Birkenwils.

Yeah. And he left King and Grey behind and they forged on. But it was only 20 or so miles to go to the coast. Oh, that's close. Yeah, so they were really close, but it was getting so wet and so swampy and... Yeah. That, uh... Don't tell me they gave up 20 miles to go.

No, that was when they split, so they kept going 20 miles in. And with approximately five miles to go. Did they know that it was about that? Yeah, they could just about see the coast. The water was now becoming salty. Oh, so they could taste it. They were so close they could taste it. They could literally taste it.

Wow. I'm so close I can taste it. But they had to turn back. They just couldn't go on any further. I honestly thought Berk was gonna split the party. Man, that would have been too good. So they still, they count that as making it. So they still have to add as a success.

Alright, and you've got to go in, have a naked dip in the ocean and then turn around for a discount. I kind of agree, you have to see sand. You want sand between your toes. Yeah, I reckon. You're gonna have that too.. You want sand between your toes. Yeah, I reckon. You're going to have to see. And your 80th pair of shoes. And 80th pair of shoes full of sand. They took a pair of thongs in there.

Yeah, they're good. So at this point, at their very peak, five miles from the coast, they were two months away from when they'd left the depot. Oh, so it was exactly halfway, because they said wait four months, right? Yeah, Burke said three months, so Burke was, Burke was being optimistic, but yeah, they said four months. So it was about halfway, unfortunately.

Will's just feeling pretty smart going, don't worry about it, don't worry, I told him four, told him four. Yeah. Unfortunately though, they'd gone through two thirds of the supplies. Okay. From there, they dumped and non-essential items

and started to return to it. What non-essential items are you carrying? What are you carrying? They're carrying like measuring equipment and different sort of, what wheels of scientific equipment? He's like, I don't need my Xbox. Yeah, this thing.

It's just like huge, huge bits of metal. I think that they were bringing still some pretty heavy things so that around this point, when they got back to the guys, so they met back with King and Grey, 15 miles back, Will's wrote this note in his journal in March 1861, said, I found Grey behind a tree eating skill skill agility. Does that mean eating with skill? I think it's a it's a thing called skill agility. Oh I thought it was he was eating skill agility. So he was eating some of the supplies he found Gray behind a tree

eating skill agility that's probably not how it's pronounced He explained that he was suffering from dysentery and that he had taken the flower That was the kind of flower without leave Oh, so without permission he'd gone to the bottom of the splice was eating. I'm sick but I've eating yeah, I've got dysentery I don't know what I'm doing Will sent him to report himself to Mr. Burke and moved on. Go and tell Burke what you've done. Yeah, basically. And Will says, he having got King to tell Mr. Burke for him was cold up and received a good

thrashing. There is no knowing to what extent he has been robbing us. Many things have been found to run unaccountably short. So, hold on, there's four of them. Yeah. The second in command has found the sailor going, eating too much. I liked Charlie. So, and then this, and then this, he says, go tell number one, and then sailor's got John King to tell the boss.

Surely you're going to run into him. There's only four people at the whole fucking camp. They're all in the same room at the start, they're sharing a tent. That's it. Just can't you go tell. Oh my god. I'm kind of with you on this a bit, Jess, because it feels like Will's is the one riding this.

And it feels a little scapegoat, but I'll come back to that in a second. So it's given him a beating. He's game and different reports say to different levels. Some say it within an inch of his life and some say, you know, just a pretty good, just a pretty good thrashing. So around this time again, one by one, the camel grew weak and were abandoned.

So some of them were abandoned apparently. So maybe that doesn't sound good for them. No, I don't think they go on, yeah, let and yeah let's go hey let's go to the middle of Australia yeah and procreate a million times. So they're either abandoned or killed for their meat in April I haven't mentioned this guy yet but Burke's favorite horse Billy they had to kill as well so it was pretty pretty tough. Oh Billy Burke. And according to Will's it was a good healthy me without an ounce of fat. Oh, they ate his pit horse Well, you know tough times. I had no supplies left

You do what you got to do and this left them down to only two camels between the four men, right? So to me, that's a key fact here. Yeah, so they're rotating between getting a ride obviously or drag All right now here's his effect That no one has disputed. I'm the I'm like I'm making trouble here But on the morning of the 16th of April 1861 they found Gray dead in his swag They spent the day digging a shallow grave for him. Okay, so this guy Gray is now dead All we know is that Will says he stole some flour and that Burke bashed him. I'm thinking They've gone two camels

Forguys. Oh, that's not enough camels. Who do we graze the old guy? Let's top him, and then I'll just backtape my journal saying, oh, we found he's stolen some stuff, you know? What are you reckon? Yeah, I'm with ya, 100%. I reckon Grey was a good guy. I reckon he was the best. He's my favorite guy in the story, so the guy. So the favorite guy.

He's a sailor. Berks of pain in the ass. Berks are real jerk. Berks of pain. Berks of jerk. They're definitely going that way, he's back. Ber It perks a real jerk. It perks a real jerk. It perks a real jerk. It perks a real jerk. They're definitely going that way. It's back. Yeah, jerk.

That's another key thing that'll come back to haunt them a little bit is that they spent a day digging a shallow grave. So they spent a whole day in the middle of nowhere, like the better of a spoo- They just start moving fast, do they? They just, it's a shallow grave. Just chuck some leaves on him and move on. Come on, that's like a... So that's a whole other day of food you gotta eat.

It just, it doesn't make a lot of sense. He used me to shits these guys. It should have been him. So mad at them. Yeah, it just feels like everything they do, it would be the hardest movie to watch. No, no! Hop and fuck!

Say, what are you doing? What are you doing? Come on, and he's not even like a lovable idiot. He's just an idiot. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, loveable so totally yeah so I was picturing Heath Ledger in the role yeah yeah and then I remember that he's difficult now difficult not impossible reminded me of the scene in Ned Kelly when they ate one of the horses oh I was talking about that before you said they they ate the horse I was like what happened to Ned Kelly he probably pretty much went about to change the character either bearded Irish yeah done bearded a jerk maybe we could recut Nedlly to be the Birkenville story yeah I can Orlando bloom his wheels that works yeah got a

bit of the wheels about him yeah so we're down to three now we're down to three in this book wheels and king the three men are rotated between the two camels so they were still getting a bit of a rest. Only one of them had to be, you know, walk or dragged along at a time. When they, so they're heading back to the depot, right? Burke not only expected to be greeted by the group, he'd left behind, led by a man named William Brown. But he thinks that they've left month ago, right? He also, yeah, well no, he just thinks, he, he just thinks they'll have waited because

I know what I said. Yeah, that way. That way. It's me, Burke. They wait for Burke. It's not a joke. They wait for Burke. He's expecting them to be there. So he's not only expecting him to be there, he's expecting to get a hero is greeting because he just, he just clocked it. He just seen the north. He's walking with his hands raised and yeah. He's doing like it. Got it. Queen waves off the side of the camel. He's expecting to go in there. They're going to be like, where's Charlie? Don't worry about that. We made it. Well, just nearly, else five miles out. But anyway, he tells. I could smell the ocean, I think. So he's not only expecting the small group that he left there

But he's also expecting everyone else to now be there Oh right so much time as as it turned out on the evening of the 21st of April 1861 When they arrived was it was just over four months after they left there was no one there So walked into camp no one there. The depot was deserted. Where did everybody go? So have you heard of the dig tree? Yes.

It's kind of a, it's the thing I'd heard of which I never really knew what it meant. But it's basically a tree that they left a message on. I actually know it's a dig here basically. Yeah. So it's a birkpan, that note. He was expecting to have there be a big party and everyone would be like, oh, here it was a rob. But instead he just found this little note on a tree, tell him to dig.

That's why it's called the dig tree. Interesting. Yeah. He followed the instructions and he dug. What he found was a small box of provisions and a message that read Fuck you, Bo Jess you want ever cracked that's not quite right we split the party Man, they would have made him proud there

So then the note read depotppo Cooper's Creek, April 21, 1861. The Deppo Party of VAE, the Victorian something expedition. The electric light orchestra. That leaves this camp today to return to the darling. I intend to go southeast from camp 60 to get onto our old track near Ballu. Two of my companions and myself are quite well. The third pattern has been unable to walk. I'm going to be the Berkshire. I'm able to walk for the last 18 days as his leg has been severely hurt when thrown by one of the horses.

No person has been up here from the darling, so the other group never come. We have six camels and 12 horses in good working condition. Oh, that's just a brain. Yeah. So that's the same day. The Edison A. Edison A for 21 twice. Yes. They left that day. The estimate is between seven and nine hours. Oh my god. Oh, that's what you're saying that day that they they So, oh that's what you're saying that day that they... They... They're very brave, they just went, I will just... Oh just took an hour to...

It was a shallow grave, just dig a bit... A whole day for a shallow grave. Just dig a bit, chuck him in. No disrespect to you Charlie, I really like you. But a shallow grave, a shallow grave, they could spend two hours on it or all day on it. They spent all day on it. At the end of the day, it's still shallow. Yeah, they didn't respect you enough for a deep grave

So so basically they waited for four months and five days when told to wait for four months Three months even I mean yeah make it for and they waited a little bit longer just just to give them a chance Yeah, and they miss them by seven to nine hours That is brutal. Oh my god And if that had And if that had happened, if that had happened, they would have arrived to be greeted by six camels, 12 horses in good working condition and a bunch of supplies still. So now that all they have is a couple of supplies and a note that is probably the worst thing you could ever read. Oh man.

What do you decide to do from there though? So one thing you would know from that note is that these guys are only seven to nine hours away. You're not far behind them. Yeah. I reckon I can let get and try and catch it. Yeah, I can walk all night. Yeah. And he's given instructions. Of course, because they'd have to stop at night. You just keep walking. And he said where they're're going So we told him when they were going they decided Against that they decided to just wait for 10 days see what happens They said it is Yeah, like the party

But it's like all right, Will's Um, oh no So this stage so that they had very little supplies. They were really struggling Burke had had a few issues Another one of his issues was that he saw indigenous Australians being inferior to white man. And due to this, he refused gifts of food from the local yantra-wantor people.

Burke, come the fuck on. I think he did take somebody, he could have, like he definitely could have, anyway. You know what? Wights weren't particularly nice to the Indigenous, so it's that they've turned around and gone, do you want some food? No, thank you. Yeah, I think we've got this.

So, but then... Do you know who I am? But what I, what I, what I just sort of pretty funny about is that he's like, I think we've got this and then he and Will's tried to copy the locals. So they were sort of like looking at him going, they're eating these things called nardou cakes. Now somehow prepared from some seeds from a local ferner and he, yeah, let's just try that. Let's try it without knowing any dangers of it. We won't take it, but we'll just try and make it. Yeah, that's right. We won't take it. The pre-prepared ones prepared earlier, we'll just try and make it. Yeah, that's right. We won't take it, the pre-prepared, once prepared earlier, we got this.

We got this. And after a while, they found these firms and they did prepare something, what they didn't realize, if not prepared properly, it would prove toxic. Oh, of course it would. Of course it would. This crucial information could have obviously been learnt from the locals, the indigenous Australians,

but instead Birkenwells decided to slowly let him decide, but they slowly died from starvation and chronic loss of vitamin B1, which is what the C did. It would make you feel like you were full and it would make you feel like you were eating enough, but your body Like it like it physically enough foods going in but it's depleting your stores of B1 and Means that yeah, you just slowly die. I don't know. I feel so bad. I've been eating so much of this berry I think I'm gonna need some more So apparently I don't know if you have any interest in how how goes this guy anthropologist and botanist Philip Clark says that some of these foods like Nado need to be collected once they've aged

so not green like they were Picking it and but it also needs to be slushed and ground up and a lot of the toxins washed out and even after that It needs to be baked just to make sure so they so they are about five steps off It was just after they weren't. It's like trying to make a cake by putting eggs and flour in a bowl and going, well, that's what they were doing. Yeah.

It was a cake. So they basically, so they died separately. Burke, I think Will's told Burke to go on or the boy's first, and they sort of moved on a little bit and Will's died with the party. Yeah, just with a gun in his hand sort of died. And it was all a bit of a messy end. And those two just died by themselves.

Birkenwills, just dying of starvation alone. One of them had gone off from the other. Better news for John King. King E! He was the only one who made it all the way to the top who survived, although he was 20 miles short, but he basically made it to the north. And he decided to search for the local Yantrawanta people

and he basically just made himself a hangar on. This is what one account by man named Philip Clark, we're talking about before, he said that King basically made himself a hangar on of the local Aboriginal camp and sort of just refused to leave them alone. If you're like, go away. Interimating he should stay behind and not follow them. And him like pretending he didn't understand. Yeah, we'll come with you.

Thanks. I'll have some more fish. Yeah. What? But this guy, King, obviously not like Burke, didn't see them as being inferior, saw them as being the only people who were comfortably living there.

So that's right. They would know nothing about this land. They seem to be living off amazing land. But he hung around long enough that they adopted him into their clan. So that's right, they would know nothing about this land. They seem to be living off amazing land. But he hung around long enough that they adopted him into their clan and insured that he survived. Wow. Yeah, so they saved his life.

Apparently he lived with them for several months and just enough time to strike up a relationship and have a child. What? Yeah. So he really got into the community. Oh, he did. And Dr. Ganesh, he's probably picked the community. Oh he did. And you got into the community. He's probably picked up the language because he's a bit of a linguist because you knew

the, I thought he would not say English and then he picked up the local Indian language when he was there. So it's probably a pretty good picking up language kind of guy. I think, yeah, maybe, I think when you're immersed yourself in a different language right, it's meant to come on a lot quicker. No one else can speak English. That's right. And you're like, well, this is the only way I can communicate with my wife yeah yeah yeah that's right and our son now but he left before the sun was born

oh what a dog I don't I don't know if he necessarily knew that she was pregnant oh he's like condoms or whatever now but um oh I did not wake up wheels died at the rock star age of 27. Oh Willie Will's the first member of the 27 club. Yeah so the 27th so I've written down a few of the other ones. Do you guys remember any of the members of the 27 club? Yeah, Kirk Abane, Jimmy Hendrix, Janice Joplin, and Winehouse. Yeah, Emmy Winehouse is there. Brian Jones from Rolling Stones. Yes, man you know all the key ones basically. Robert Johnson. Winehouse is there. Brian Jones from Rolling Stones. Yes. Man, you know all the key ones, basically.

Robert Johnson. I'll Robert Johnson, we're young. But yeah, they're probably all the keys. Weird aside. Just to wrap it up, I guess. So King, he moved on, but he did live. Yeah, that's right. And he came back and lived back in Melbourne.

And that's all the way back, yeah. Yeah, so it was sort of seen as a success because it was only meant to, it wasn't, they wanted to come home to get there, you know, the glory. But it was really just doing it, north, south to north was a success. So they were seen as the first Europeans to do it. So in a way, it was, it wasn't all failure.

It just ended a bit, bit rubber-sheet. I always had it in my head that they hadn't made it. For some reason, I knew it was something like they just missed out and I thought they'd died like just as they were about to get to where they wanted to go. I didn't realize they were seven hours behind food or idiots. Yeah I was the same. I knew the story as much as it was a couple of guys with beards who were in the desert. And you didn't quite make it, yeah. I didn't quite make it, but I didn't know anything more about it. Yeah.

There has been, in 2011, there was a mock coronal inquest by the legislative assembly of Victoria. So the State Parliament, they investigated the factors which may have contributed to the deaths of Burke, Wilson, Gray. They found that Burke's appointment was a fundamental mistake. Oh yeah, no shit. I'm not surprised at who that is. You could have called that at the start of his podcast. Wait, we did.

Which related to the deaths of Wilson, Gray, and that all three men died of very, very starvation, dehydration, and thiamine deficiency, which is the coroner also suggested that one of the most fundamental errors made by the expedition was the decision not to utilize Aboriginal Guides, which seems pretty clear as well. If you sort out bring in some indigenous help as part of the expedition, it would have been a walk in the park well compare comparatively absolutely because they would have they wouldn't have had to bring any food

like it isn't get on the way yeah I mean I'm simplifying that way too much but thanks so much guys for listening to my very interesting tale is the great Burke and Will love loss and romance I think it's just because the King expedition because he was King. Yeah. Yeah. King Street. Oh yeah. Apparently named after the King of the day. Charlie Gray was still my favorite. But he was hard done by. Very interesting. Thanks Matt. Thank you guys.

So we'll be back next week. Jess Perkins. Yeah. Jipoo. Jaipoo! She has not revealed what she will be talking about, but I'm sure we'll know that be a very interesting topic. I hope so. Thanks again for listening guys, and we'll see you next time. See ya.

Bye. Do go off. Do go off. Right on. At Nordstrom, you can shop the best holiday gifts for everyone you love. Right on. At Nordstrom, you can shop the best holiday gifts for everyone you love. All in one place. You'll find beauty favorites, cozy presents, fun ideas under 100 and more.

Like festive dressing for you in your home. Experience the magic at your favorite store. Or order on Nordstrom.com with free shipping and returns. Need it faster? Pick up your order today in store. The best gifts are yours at Nordstrom. Are you working way too hard for way too little? There's never been a better time to consider a career in IT. You could enjoy a recession-resistant career in a rewarding field, with plenty of growth

opportunities and, often, flexible work environments. Go to mycomputercareer.edu and take the free career evaluation. You could start your new career in months, not years. Take classes online or on campus, and financial aid is available to qualified students, including the GI Bill. Now is the time. Mycomputercareer.edu. to qualified students, including the GI Bill.

Now is the time, mycomputercareer.edu.