All roads lead to Innamincka at least thats how it feels as it is the cultural centre of the outback in terms of European settlers.
The area is dominated by the stories of Burke and Wills and their doomed exploration from Melbourne to try and establish a land route through to the Gulf of Carpentaria on the north coast of Australia .
They set off from Melbourne with 21 tonnes of supplies including such essentials as a 12 foot oak dining table and chairs and a piano (from this you may get the flavour of how well prepared they were for the outback). After a month into the trip they had got as far as the normal mail carrier did in a week !
As we drove towards Innamincka we took the diversion to see the “Dig Tree” . The dig tree was preserved by a local landowner and nearby an artist carved a sculpture of Burke into a tree.
This is a key part in the sorry tale. The explorers got as far as Innamincka and split into two groups. Burke , Wills and Grey and King made the push up for the coast whilst another group would stay at camp for three months .
The party got as far as Birdsville before they turned back not finding a way through. On the way back Grey died and they took a day to bury him. When they arrived back at Innamincka four months after departing they missed the other party who had waited longer by 9 hours. They had however buried food and provisions for them under a tree in the camp and left a message on it by blazing the tree . This is where you take off a big scoop of bark then carve a message into the wood. It told them 3 yards north Dig.
This they did and lived off those provisions for some time. They refused the offerings of help from the local tribes and in fact Burke was aggressive and rude.
They all started to deteriorate. They decided to move away from the camp and follow the river. Anther party searching for them made it to the dig tree camp just 16 hours after they left but Burke had left his messages and journals under ground . The search party saw no new message on the tree and assumed they had not made it back !
Burke and Wills died near innamincka but King sought out the local tribes who looked after him (even carrying him on their backs when moving camps) until one of the search parties arrived.
The ranger at the Dig tree was a great character and we chatted with him for an hour or so as he gave us the offical and his own view of history which was great.
The town common campsite at Innamincka is big and open with great river side spots and very few people at this time of year.
Over the following few days we visited Burkes grave , Wills grave and a memorial to King the sole survivor.
We also had a half days trip down the Old Strzelecki track into the Simpson Desert – one day I will return there as it was a great short trip .
The pub is a real surprise modern , slick and big ,but with a great feel about it.
We had a few beers in their and swapped stories too. My favourite one was from back in the 70s when the teller was coming home from a game of footy with his mates in a big V8 ute. They were waved down by a sedan at the side of the road and asked for a tow. They used the 8 foot rope that they had and set off , this was before drink driving was understood in the outback so you get the picture. In essence they forgot about the car behind they were towing , when they checked they found the windscreen , lights and all the front paintwork stripped from the stones thrown up by the ute and one of the sedan passengers being held by his ankles with a broken stubby in hand trying to cut the tow rope and put them out of their misery !
We had a day trip out to Coongie Lake its another amazing drop of water in the middle of the desert that sustains a huge amount of wildlife. We had close encounter with Eagles and I think our fist sighting of a peregrine falcon and Brolgas
Q How do you settle that age old drunken discussion about who would win a fight between a croc and a dingo .
A Leave your shoes out overnight
They should add this to the list !
