Burke & Wills 19: Swan Hill - Burke and Wills Expedition (sitios de interés)
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Bogs and rain slowed the overloaded expedition's initial progress across the state of Victoria. It reached Swan Hill, 320 kilometres from Melbourne, on September 6. A major factor stymying their advance was Landells' decision at the outset to forego loading gear on the camels so they'd be fresh for the desert campaign ahead. Burke had hired three extra wagons in Melbourne, but the poor weather and roads obviously took their toll on the carriages.Burke, already fretting about mounting expenses, sacked three men from the party here, lying that he'd send for them later. But he took on new hands, indicating it was more a matter of personal dislikes. As well, sepoy Esau Khan was too ill to carry on. Among those hired was Charles Gray, 52-year-old sailor who was working as an ostler at the Lower Murray Inn. Charlie Gray was an experienced bushman, having travelled with the Gregory brothers during their expeditions.
Waiting for Burke at Swan Hills was an urgent telegram – a warrant for his arrest, threatening him with imprisonment because one of his personal cheques had bounced, a serious offence in those days. Burke telegraphed friends back home to sort it out on his behalf.
Swan Hill got its name in 1838 from a surveyor who couldn't get a decent sleep while camped here because the waterfowl, primarily black swans, never shut up. In 1853 Francis Cadell sailed his paddle steamer, Lady Augusta, up the Murray this far. The whole town came out to welcome him – all 12 of them. Their numbers swelled when a punt crossing was established, the only one on the Murray within 70 miles. The punt operated until 1896, when a bridge was built, about the time the photo below was taken.
Today visitors to the town of less than 10,000 enjoy the Swan Hill Pioneer Settlement, an vast open-air historical museum on the banks of the Little Murray River. It's a reconstruction of a 19th-century river port where the staff wear period attire and kangaroos and peacocks stroll about. With a more genuine story to tell is the Burke and Wills Tree, an enormous Moreton Bay fig, the seed of which was planted by the explorers' local host in 1860, one Dr Gummow. The tree, arguably the largest of its kind in the country, is marked here on Curlewis Street.
The Burke party crossed the Murray on September 11, 1860, and set off into New South Wales.
