Short Story – The Dig Tree

The Dig Tree is based on the true story of what became mythologised in Australia as an heroic failure- the expedition led by Robert Burke and William Wills, who together with John King and Charles Gray became the first Europeans to travel the length of Australia from South to North. On the return journey, having missed William Brahe and the backup party at Coopers Creek by only 9 hours, Burke, Wills and King decided to try and reach Mount Hopeless but Burke and Wills succumbed to exhaustion and starvation in the June. Initially buried at Coopers Creek, nearly two years later, they received Australia’s first state funeral and were buried at Melbourne General Cemetery.