Burke & Wills 7: Princess Bridge - Burke and Wills Expedition (sitios de interés)
Descripción del sitio
The VEE's beasts of burden, herded across this bridge into downtown Melbourne, weren't the first camels brought to Australia to expedite its colonisation.In 1846 John Horrocks had imported nine dromedaries from the Canary Islands for his own exploratory venture into the interior. He found little of interest, and in fact managed to get shot by a camel in the process, while scouting Lake Torrens on the Spencer Gulf. He was loading his rifle to shoot a bird when the beast carrying him – a foul-tempered camel named Harry, sole survivor among its compatriots – jerked its pack into his trigger. The bullet took off one of Horrocks' fingers before embedding in his cheek. Harry was killed by his unamused handlers; Horrocks died of infection three weeks later. Australian exploration was clearly not without danger.
