John McDouall Stuart Robert O'Hara Burke William John Wills

Great crowds gathered to farewell Burke and Wills when they left Melbourne on 20 August 1860. The party was very well-equipped. Enough food for two years had been packed on horse-drawn wagons and the backs of camels. Revolvers, rifles, eighty pairs of boots and thirty hats were taken. There were gallons of lime juice (лимонный сок) for the men and rum for the camels, fishing lines (рыболовная леска) and six tonnes of firewood (дрова), packets of seeds to plant. They also took 120 mirrors and a kilogram of beads (бусы) to give the Aborigines they were sure to meet.

Map of the Burke and Wills expedition

In 1860 and 1861, Robert Burke and William Wills became the first white people to cross the continent from south to north. They died of starvation on the return journey south.