The Explorers Podcast

The Burke and Wills Expedition - Part 1 - Australia, the Royal Society of Victoria and Robert Burke

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The first episode in the Burke and Wills Expedition series provides background to the endeavor - which was an expedition to cross Australia in 1860-61. We are introduced to the organizers of the expedition - Royal Society of Victoria - and its eventual leader, Robert Burke.

Key people and places

  1. Robert Burke - Irish police superintendent from Castlemaine. Will be named leader of the expedition.
  2. Royal Society of Victoria - aka The Society. Scientific society based in Melbourne. They will organize the expedition.
  3. Exploration Committee - The committee of the Society which oversaw the Burke and Wills Expedition.
  4. Victoria Exploring Expedition (VEE) - The official name of the expedition led by Robert Burke to cross the Australian continent.
  5. Sir William Stawell - Key member of the Exploration Committee, and Chief Justice of Victoria.
  6. John Macadam - Secretary of the Exploration Committee.
  7. John Bruce - Wealthy Australian businessman who supported Robert Burke's bid to lead the expedition.
  8. Peter Edgerton Warburton - aka Major Warburton - Police Commissioner of South Australia and candidate to lead the VEE.
  9. Gustov von Tempsky - Prussian adventurer and candidate to lead the VEE.
  10. George Landells - Horse trader who would bring 25 camels to Australia to be part of the upcoming expedition. Would later be named second-in-command of the VEE.
  11. Charles Sturt - British soldier who would explore Australia - discovering Cooper's Creek in 1844. 
  12. John McDouall Stuart - Scottish explorer who would be the chief competitor with the VEE to blaze a route across Australia. 
  13. Augustus Gregory - Explorer who had gone from Brisbane to Adelaide in 1858. He turned down the opportunity to lead the VEE, but recommended any expedition go to Cooper's Creek and set up a depot - and use it as a base for striking out to the north. 
  14. Cooper's Creek - River in central Australia. It is about halfway across the continent if someone is traveling between Melbourne and Gulf of Carpentaria in the north. 
  15. William Wills - British surveyor and astronomer who will eventually become the second-in-command of the VEE. 

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