The Strzelecki Track is steeped in history: discovered and named by Charles Sturt in 1845 the Strzelecki Creek and the subsequent discovery of the
Cooper Creek opened the area. The actual "track" was originally blazed by Harry Redford, a cattle thief droving 1000 stolen cattle over untracked country from central Qld to
Adelaide. The thief was caught out, but due to his heroic efforts in establishing a new stock route he was let off and became one of the greatest drovers in Australian history.
But the tragic death of
explorers Burke and Wills on the banks of the
Cooper Creek near present day
Innamincka is the region's most famous incident. In 1861 the South Australian government offered 2000 pounds to the first explorer to reach the top end of the continent.
The Victorians at that time were brashly rich and with much pomp and ceremony Robert O'Hara Burke left
Melbourne with his team of 20 men, 18 camels, 22 horses and 20 tonnes of food bound to reach the Gulf of Carpentaria. Unfortunately, Burke was not a bushman, had absolutely no tracking or surveying experience and was extremely hot tempered. His second in command was not initially Wills but a fellow who had an unfortunate habit of feeding the horses rum! When Burke discovered this he sacked the man, smashed their entire supplies of rum and appointed William
John Wills to the position.
Their race to be the first to reach the top of Australia was fraught with incident but amazingly three of them actually made it to the top and returned to their supply depot at
Cooper Creek. They were Burke, Wills and King. The tragedy is that they were over a month overdue and the supply team had retreated south only 9 hours before their arrival. The supply team had left supplies buried beneath a tree which
bore the markings "Dig 3ft NW" and various other markings. The tree is now called
the Dig Tree and is protected by the Qld pastoral commission. It's just a half day drive from
Innamincka to visit the tree and the surrounding area where plaques mark the
grave sites of Burke and Wills who died of a combination of starvation and poisoning from eating berries after the supplies ran out and they couldn't make their way south. Only King survived - he had the sense to befriend the aborigines and when Burke and Wills died they cared for him until he was rescued in 1861.
How to Use this Trek Note
- To download this information and the route file for offline use on a phone, tablet, headunit or laptop, go to the app store and purchase ExplorOz Traveller. This app enables offline navigation and mapping and will show where you are as you travel along the route. For more info see the ExplorOz Traveller webpage and the EOTopo webpage.
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