Sarah Murgatroyd Libri

'In 1860, an eccentric band of adventurers, cheered on by 15,000 excited people, set off from Melbourne, Australia, to try to do something no one had ever done before: cross the vast and forbidding interior of the country from sea to sea. To succeed, they would have to push through 1,600 miles of the hottest, driest, most punishing desert on earth . . . then turn around and come back again. They expected it to be hard. In fact, it was much worse than that. Comprising 19 men, 26 camels, 23 horses and six wagons, the Victorian Exploring Expedition, as it was formally known, had too much of everything but common sense and useful experience. Almost immediately things began to unravel. The group set off at exactly the wrong time of year. The leader was an idiosyncratic Irish policeman who had no experience of desert conditions and was famous for getting lost even in built-up areas. What they were attempting to do was practically impossible anyway. On the first day they made not quite six miles. It was mostly downhill from there.

In 1860, much of northern Australia was still unexplored and perilous. However, on August 20, 1860, The Victorian Exploring Expedition departed from Melbourne to journey into the Gulf of Carpentaria, marking a significant change in the understanding of this 'dark continent.' This work narrates the expedition's story.

In 1860, Australia remained the truly dark continent. Although there were European settlements in its south, much of the north remained unknown and dangerous. But things were changing. On 20th August, 1860 The Victorian Exploring Expedition left Melbourne to make the journey into the Gulf of Carpentaria in the northern coast. The expedition was headed by an Irish policeman called Robert O' Hara Burke - a charmer, gambler, and a man infamous for taking long baths in his back garden. Burke and his team of eighteen men made a confident start. After leaving most of the group behind in Cooper Creek (in central Australia), three of the party, including Burke, reached the Carpentaria. They were the first ever to do so. But the journey back was riddled with mishap and bad luck. By the time the three had returned to Cooper Creek, exhausted and starving, they discovered that the rest of the party had retreated, leaving behind only a carved message on a coolibah tree… THE DIG TREE is the tale of this tragic expedition. Sarah Murgatroyd brings the story vividly alive - the political events in the background, the colourful characters, the spectacular and, often, unforgiving landscape, and the awful desperation of the final days. It is an intelligent, evocative and above all, utterly gripping book.