Australian Explorers

No. Burke and Wills did not know each other before being appointed their positions in the exploration to cross the continent.

John Forrest was never a convict. He was born of free settler parents in Western Australia, so he was always free.

Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson and William Charles Wentworth discovered a route across the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, and in so doing, discovered rich grasslands and grazing land on the other side, sufficient to meet e needs of the growing colony for decades to come. They departed South Creek, Sydney Cove, on 11 May 1813 with four servants, five dogs and four horses. The route they traversed is essentially still the one used by travellers driving over the mountains today.

Yes he did.

He had a wife Elizabeth 4 sons 2 daughters mum dad brothers and maybe sisters.

Burke and Wills reached the tidal flats of the Gulf of Carpentaria on 11 February 1861.

This is Charles Sturt.

William Charles Wentworth did not discover the Blue Mountains whilst on a boat; in fact, he did not discover the Blue Mountains at all. The Blue Mountains held the colonists of the first Australian settlement virtually as prisoners within the sheer rock walls of the mountains from the time it became obvious that more land was needed. All the colonists knew of the mountains, which were quite visible in the distance, with their distinctive blue hue. Wentworth was one of three men who first crossed the Blue Mountains in 1813, sighting good grazing land to the west. No boat was involved, as the expedition had to be carried out entirely on foot and horseback.

John McDouall Stuart was a Scottish-born explorer who arrived in South Australia in 1839. His first experience in exploration was when he was employed as a draughtsman by Captain Charles Sturt on an expedition into the desert interior. He used the skills he developed from this experience to further his own exploration ventures, discovering more of what lay beyond Adelaide and other settled areas of the colony of South Australia.

Stuart is most famous for being the first recorded explorer to successfully cross Australia from south to north, and back again, returning alive. Stuart led a total of five expeditions in the attempt to be the first to cross the continent from south to north. He finally succeeded on his fifth attempt, reaching the northern waters at Chambers Bay in July 1862.

This exploration had major benefits. South Australia had been a struggling colony, not having the same degree of good, fertile soil or large rivers that the other colonies had. Stuart's exploration brought South Australia (represented by Stuart) into the limelight and gave the colony new significance. Because of Stuart's success, South Australia was given control of the area of Australia now known as the Northern Territory. Australia's famous Overland Telegraph Line was built from Adelaide to Darwin, roughly following the path Stuart took. This meant that messages from the rest of the world came into northern Australia and were then relayed to Adelaide first, from where they were relayed to other major centres in Australia. Essentially, it gave Adelaide new importance.

In some ways, Australian explorers Burke and Wills could be regarded as heroes. They were persistent and determined, both hallmarks of a hero. They endured a massive trek across the continent in horrific conditions, and gave their absolute best for their mission.

Burke was perhaps less of a hero: he was ill-tempered and impatient, traits which had a great deal of influence on the tragic outcome of the exploration. His motivation for exploring was primarily to impress the girl he wished to marry, who promised she would marry him if he went on the journey.

Wills, on the other hand, could be regarded as a hero. He did not have Burke's arrogance or impatience. He had more of a scientific interest in the exploration and sought to follow the orders of the colonial government in Victoria. He sought to hold the exploration party together where Burke's interest was to complete the task as quickly as possible, at the expense of good judgement.

From Adelaide, Burke and Wills travelled north to just west of today's Balranald, north to Menindee, Torowoto, Bulloo and reached their camp at Cooper Creek. From here they made their way to the corner where Queensland and South Australia meet (but do not meet any other state), then north to the Gulf of Carpentaria.

A map of Burke and Wills' route can be found at the related link below.

Ludwigs perants were great people. His mother was a sibling of 3 and was born in east Berlin. She didnt have a job as times when she was alive did not allow her to get a proper education. His father was an only child and his mother died in child birth. His father was born in east Germany. He had a career as a local butcher and in his spare time he was also the local town whore.

John Oxley's main problem, unlike later explorers, was encountering too much water. He followed the Macquarie and Lachlan Rivers in 1817 and was continually obstructed by swampland and waterholes, as it was a flood year. As a result, Oxley concluded that the countryside was useless, even though it is now valuable pasture and grazing land.

Burke and Wills did not pay for thyeir exploration. They were sponsored by the Victorian government.

The Burke and Wills expedition had the potential to be very important to the state of Victoria. Burke and Wills sought a suitable route for a telegraph line from the southern regions of Australia to the north. A telegraph link to the rest of the world was available off Java, but it had to be linked to a centre in the north, then an overland telegraph line constructed to carry messages down to the main cities in the south. This would provide a very important link for Australia to the rest of the world, and Victoria wanted to be the first state to receive overseas news. It also could have been the winning card to tip the authorities in favour of making Melbourne Australia's national capital in the future, over the larger and older Sydney (as it was, neither Melbourne nor Sydney was chosen).

In 1869, Forrest led the search for Ludwig Leichhardt's expedition which had gone missing while travelling across Australia from east to west. Forrest explored the uncharted areas of north and central Western Australia.

In 1870, Forrest surveyed the route which Edward Eyre had taken in 1840-41 from Adelaide to Albany, across the Great Australian Bight. As the main route from eastern Australia overland to the west, he realised it needed to be surveyed so a road could be built, and later a railway.

In 1874, Forrest explored the central areas of Western Austalia, heading northwest to the Nicholson Range from Geraldton, hoping to find a good stock route to the east with plenty of food and permanent water. His only significant discovery on this journey was the freshwater supply which he named Weld Springs.

Burke had a horse named Billy. Billy was one of the last horses to die, surviving most of the way to the Gulf and back.

Leichhardt is arguably best known for disappearing in the Australian interior without a trace. Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Leichhardt, born on 23 October 1813 in Trebatsch, Prussia (now Brandenburg, Germany), was keenly interested in botany. After he arrived in Australia in 1842, he showed an interest in exploration, although he had no bush survival skills.

Leichhardt made a total of three expeditions. In October 1844, he left from Jimbour, on the Darling Downs, to find a new route to Port Essington, near Darwin. The 4800 km overland journey reached its destination on 17 December 1845. This was his most famous exploration, as he found and named numerous rivers in Australia's Gulf country, and many people thought he had died on this journey. His second expedition, from the Darling Downs in Queensland to Perth in Western Australia, commenced in December 1846. However, wet weather and malaria forced the party to return after they had travelled only 800km.

Leichhardt's final expedition began in March 1848, picking up where his second expedition left off. However, somewhere in Australia's vast outback, Leichhardt, together with six other men, eight horses, fifty bullocks and twenty mules, vanished. Many theories have abounded as to what happened, and many claim to have found evidence of the remains of the expedition, but what really happened remains one of Australia's enduring mysteries.

John McDouall Stuart made seven major expeditions.

Stuart first explored when he was employed as a draughtsman by Captain Charles Sturt on an expedition into the desert interior. Following his experience with Sturt, Stuart led six expeditions west and north of Lake Eyre. On each one, he made it a little further north until he finally broke through to the north coast.

There do not seem to be any records of where Oxley went to school. It is known that he was quite young, possibly only 14, when he entered the navy.

Clara Gregory Baer was born in Algiers, Louisiana on August 27, 1863. She worked as an instructor in physical education, and penned the first set of published rules for women's basketball.

Possibly your best source is the National Library of Australia, but there may not be a transcript available online. Try the link below, as it contains a large number of papers relating to the Burke and Wills expedition.