What did Burke and Wills accomplish?

Answer 1

The expedition of Burke and Wills was one of the largest to ever be undertaken in Australian history - and one of the most tragic. It is disputed whether or not they actually accomplished anything significant.

Robert O'Hara Burke, with William Wills appointed second-in-command, led the 1860-61 expedition to try to cross Australia from Melbourne in the south to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north - and back again. Their party was very well equipped and, because of its size, was split at Menindee so that Burke could race ahead to the Gulf of Carpentaria with a smaller group. Part of this smaller group established a depot at Cooper Creek to stock provisions for when the explorers returned from the Gulf. Burke chose the wrong tim,e of year to make the push for the north, leaving in December 1860 - Australia's summer. He took with him Wills, Charles Gray and John King.

The expedition to the Gulf took much longer than Burke expected: when he returned to Cooper Creek, he found that the relief party had left just seven hours earlier, which was actually less than how much time it had taken to bury Gray, who had died on the return journey. Through poor judgement, lack of observation and a series of miscommunications, Burke and Wills never met up with the relief party. They perished on the banks of Cooper Creek. King alone survived to lead the rescue party to the remains of Burke and Wills, and the failure of one of the most elaborately planned expeditions in Australia's history.

Burke and Wills, whilst possibly the first to actually cross the continent, essentially lost the race to John MacDougall Stuart who crossed Australia on his third attempt and returned alive.