The Horrifying First Australian Transcontinental Expedition 

One of the most impressive feats in all this is convincing a government official that the rum is for the camels

6:34 the fact they didn't simply turn back for repairs after THREE of their wagons broke down 4 miles away from the city is all I really need to know for how the expedition went.

The Royal Society: "keep the party together Robert" Robert: _proceeds to evenly distribute the party across all of Australia_

Crazy that bringing 50 gallons of rum as “camel stimulant” didn’t even make the top 100 stupid things they did 😂

Being cut from this expedition seems like it raised the odds of survival significantly...

"Hey, instead of trying to catch the guys with all the supplies, let's go to Mount HOPELESS"

"one of the camels escaped" probably because it was fucking drunk

This whole expedition is the most chaotic mess that you’ve ever covered

I love how it took them two months to travel to Menindee when it took a mail wagon two weeks. I imagine the mail wagon passing them four times over the two months each time becoming more and more surprised and concerned, and by the last time the mail man is just like "Yeah their screwed."

Melburnian here. During a tour I went on from Cairns to the Gulf of Carpentaria back in 2022, one of the places I visited was this specific Eucalyptus tree, roughly a good while east to south-east of Karumba, iirc. The reason this tree was a tourist spot, was because part of the tree's bark had been purposefully stripped of a specific section by manmade tools, but with nothing written on it. It's considered to be one of, if not the last remnant of one of the fated explorers. It's a haunting sight. This random tree, out in the outback, with a man-made carving in it, the final marker of a deceased explorer, out in the desert wilderness in the middle of nowhere. Eerie.

To be fair to the interior, this group was woefully unprepared and incompetent. Burke had hardly any relevant experience, they packed a Chinese gong and other ridiculous items and left behind useful ones. It was such a shit show, it's amazing they made it to the top at all.

“You know, I am something of an explorer myself…” Robert, a policeman

This has to be the single most avoidable exploration disaster on this channel so far. And its almost entirely the fault of one completely unqualified man who should've never been an option for first in command, let alone said yes with no actual expedition experience or an expert on the team. The man picked his friends over professionals, did the opposite of what the government told him, and pissed off the one guy who knew anything about this type of mission. Un-fucking-believable. I wanted to claw my eyes out in the first five minutes.

"Reach the north coast, document anything of scientific interest, and survey routes for a telegraph line" "Got it, reach the north coast."

Melburnian here: I saw the title and immediately started cackling-- these guys are infamous to us here. One of the items they insisted on bringing was a heavy, bulky writing desk 🤦‍♀

I forget as an Aussie that not everyone knows this story. I remember in grade 4-5 learning about this(as its basically our Oregon Trail part of Australian history curriculum) I always remember the underlying tone in how it was taught to us, was always "Don't take things for granted and to appreciate what those who came before us did" But i just remember I always thought it would make a funny Tarantino movie.

George's understanding of camel physiology is equal only to his understanding of which way to face when having his picture taken.

“Guys, don’t forget the 50 gallons of rum for the expedition.”

Who could have possibly guessed that letting a man with no previous expedition experience lead an extremely dangerous expedition could go wrong? It's not like that is how every bad idea ever starts in human history or something - someone incompetent in charge.

"Their best chance of survival was to head for a place called Mount Hopeless" I am convinced Robert wanted everyone to die

Robert O'Hare Burke happens to be one of my ancestors. I was told a couple things that were not mentioned here. While Robert forbade all of the others from using the wagons for their personal belongings, Robert himself had brought a piano, which took up an entire wagon itself. Also, I believe that when they got to the northern shore, that was supposed to be the end, and some ships were going to pick them all up there. But, the ships never arrived, because they had all hit and been sunk by what was yet to be known as the Great Barrier Reef.

I’ve got through that land on a bus and stayed in a tent and let me tell you - the idea of going out there unprepared is insane.

Early Australian exploration is littered with wild men doing stupid things. A lot of them got away with it, lots didn't. Somehow Burke and Wills are legendary explorers, have a good number of things named after them, including the Burke and Wills highway, into Karumba, despite their seeming stupidity and incompetence. I'd like to hear someone putting the story into the perspective of the time. African exploration of the same era didn't fare much better, with a British officer packing a piano, to go and fight in a vicious war, and loosing hundreds of men to seemingly obvious bad leadership. I think it has something to do with the Gung ho, we can do anything attitude of the Victorian upper class, who funded these kind of things. There was also a massive disconnect between the metropolitan elite, and the harsh reality of the Australian outback, likewise in Africa.

This always crosses my mind when watching your content but I just never comment it: Thank you for still creating videos the Ye Olde way and not using AI voice clones. Your speaking voice and tempo is *extremely* skillful and your time and work is appreciated.

Let’s be real, that 50 gallons of rum wasn’t just for the camels

It's amazing how many 19th century explorers ignored the survival techniques and practices of the indigenous people living in the places they explored

I live and work on a small community in the Western Central Desert region of Australia and drivec 1300kms each fortnight around here for work. Even today with endless modern resources and technology, this place is no joke, especially in summer.

Even today travelling around Australia is very dangerous... One false move and you will die very quickly. It's extremely hot in summer and cold enough to kill in hours in winter. Lots of us work in the desert. Winter is by far preferable because you warm up quickly. However, you are constantly putting jackets on and taking them off because the shadows are still freezing but anything exposed to sunlight is warm.

It infuriates me how incompetent people can be. Lack of common sense can kill. Especially 200 odd years ago.

never put a Hungarian-Irish police officer in charge of anything, ever.

Australia... Why The Mad max films were so effective. Set in the vast Australian interior & outback, an apocalyptic barren setting that sets the tone & impending doom.

If you look at Australia on Google Earth it looks almost uninhabitable. Most of it looks like the moon but more orange.

Robert is exhausting

"Left seven men and told them to stay there til they sent someone for them. Of course he had no plan to do this." Wtf! That was just criminal.

Fun fact: the statue for Burke and Wills in Melbourne has been on many adventures itself. The running joke is that they've travelled as far in death as in life, an exaggeration, but you get the picture. It's been in 5 different locations, and is currently in storage due to major building works before - hopefully - being put in its - again, hopefully - final spot.

Fascinating. This expedition sounds like Australia's version of The Donner Party. And that one was also a disaster practically from day 1. Thanks for the history lesson.

LOL "If you made it this far." That's funny on a few levels...

I hit pause to say this before going any farther, they were giving booze to camels? This expedition is doomed right there.

Heck yeah!! I absolutely love your channel,ive been listening nonstop for two weeks now! 🖤 Thank you for making my day!

This is a super complex story as you know better than most. For these, just an unsolicited suggestion, consider habitually showing on screen dynamic map identifying the location and movement of each separate party. Almost like a call of duty mini map or the red dead redemption display which is great at highlighting locations. Basically combining 14:55 and 15:05. Individually these are fantastic but together I’d imagine they’d be even stronger. Basically 18:15 but sticking to one design for simplicity sake and shown regularly. Just a thought! Ignore at your discretion. Not only to remind ppl of names, but also to illuminate the distances between each group. I almost exclusively listen to these not watch but because I know this story I would refer back to the video at the confusing parts. It’s hard for someone to grasp I bet how far apart these parties got and doomed it was really was the moment they dwindled down the supplies with each camp. I was imagining showing the supply chunk with each party on the map following the last until you can visibly see how little they actually had with them. It looks like a suicide run when you consider how irresponsible the navigation was handled. For instance even ignoring the wisdom the Aborigines or the Makasan’s (not meaning to offend if that’s the colonial title just using the historical reference), they still had the expedition from Ludwig Leichhardt which almost surely had mentions of mangroves and other useful information, no? That’s always been my assumption. I liken it to Walter Raleigh attempting to establish camp in Roanoke without actually speaking with the Roanoke , Wanchese, etc or using other exploration notes. It would be mad to try that. Burke’s expedition was truly an impossibly underprepared trip woefully mismanaged and undersupplied with proper materials to be successful. With most of the hurdles being known had they surveyed correctly using the 3 entire years they squabbled over less important details. Speaking of, you really should consider that Roanoke colony expedition for a story. It’s not really as mysterious as people make it out to be. Buzzfeed brutally butchered the story providing so many historical inaccuracies that tons of people saw it’ll make your head spin. The unsolved mysteries podcast did much better but without visuals of course.

This is like seeing a plane that is on fire, without a wing, and has active explosives on bored and thinking " YEAAAA I CAN KEEP GOING"

"You have died from dissin' Terry..."

I'm Australian and this is probably the best retelling of this story I have ever heard. Good work mate!

Love your content! Thanks for posting, i've been watching all your old videos too! great work

Best timing, morning Scary Interesting viewers!!

As an Aussie who’s been to the places in the story, the expedition was doomed before it began. Burke had no experience whatsoever, and the expedition was ridiculously overloaded. They carried a massive oak table, complete with lace tablecloths and fine china, so they could be ‘civilised Englishmen’. Burke was egotistical and likely narcissistic. Even when dying, he scared away the aboriginal people trying to help him, as he thought of them as enemy. Had he allowed them to help as they wanted, they would all have lived.

I may or may not have watched all of your videos within a month of finding the channel. Love your storytelling, voice, and editing of the videos. Please keep making content! ❤

"Go alone to go faster; go together to go far" An african proverb. Robert chose the former to his own demise.

They appointed an expedition leader that had zero experience leading expeditions. Makes sense.

I love how theirs no messing about and you get straight into the stories in all your videos. Ty for your awesome content ❤

Australians: "Camels drink copious amounts of Rum - need to have that - for them."

3:24 lol…WHAT kind of photo is THAT??! 😂

An interesting fact about Australia I’ve heard is that almost 90% of the total population live within 50 km of the coast. Vast amounts of inhospitable nothingness out there. These guys may have been ill prepared and irrational in their decision making but they were incredibly brave (or stupid)

Robert did achieve immortality, for being seen as a stupid man for trying to lead an expedition with 0 expierience or ability to trust subordinates.

as a Canadian going to school in Australia, I'm loving these Australian stories!!! I'd love to hear more!

We were taught about this in primary school as a heroic yet tragic expedition ... watching this, I see that our teachers, they left out a LOT of details

In this story of transgressing Australia's 'harsh interior' it's strange how they decided to start out in the winter months with all the extra wet weather and swamps full. During the months when roads would be most impassable ...

there's still a slang term "going burko" for when somebody is irrationally angry, three guesses where it came from

Bill Bryson's book "Down Under" is a terrific read, including details about this journey.

While the expedition itself wasn't a success, the resulting searches for Burke & Wills were highly successful in exploring more of the unknown red centre, Leichhardt, Stuart & others covered vast areas in their searches.

your video are always as high quality as usual, great job

I just love the background music, it’s just so intriguing and weirdly calming. Not to mention the actually interesting stories and great voiceovers, simply why this is my favorite channel!!

Thanks for this video! I love that it points out that Australia is mostly uninhabitable, a fact not many realise. I also love that, the men chosen for the expedition, ahead of far superior candidates, had NO idea what they were doing and hired only people they knew, rather than people best suited to the role....a longstanding tradition that continues in Australia until this very day.

I live an hour away from Menindee in Broken Hill. Google the origin of my towns namesake and you'd have a whole new video idea at your finger tips. Was super cool as always to see some content right near home so youve got a new sub regardless.

9:06 ...George's insistence on carrying an obscene amount of rum for the camels... I had no idea camals drank rum. 🤔 My dog likes Bailey's Irish Cream and Kahlua so I guess anything is possible.

The beginning of the story tells you everything you need to know about how it goes.

Perfect timing. I needed something to listen to while I did some cleaning. 13:50 that sudden voice change though

This video had me in a constant state of eye rolling! It's amazing that anyone survived

Mike from "That Chapter", Yourself with "Scary Interesting", John Ballen, from "Mr. Ballen, my 3 favorite channels in that order! Congrats! Love your content!

As an Aussie who learnt about this in school (many years ago), this is an excellent account of the expedition. Thank you.

Dying of "Malnutrition" only 5 days after the animals were gone? M-hmm. 🚩Red Flag

"We need 50 gallons of rum for the camels"..."Don't worry boys, they bought it"

I see many comments regarding the 50 gallons of rum.. Well, 50 gallons is only one large keg (only around 2.5 gallons per guy).. So relative to the 20+ tons they were hauling, pretty insignificant. Besides, we would all welcome a night or three of drink on this brutal journey.

Always love the topics and learning history from you, much appreciated work you put in! Thank you keep it up ❤

I've been waiting for someone to cover this. When I was a kid I got a book about Burke and Wills with some pretty traumatising illustrations. I have a 50 cent piece from the centenary somewhere.

It’s so fucked that these colonists thought they “discovered” these areas.

The Outback is seriously dangerous if you’re not prepared. Even today, with tarred roads, you must ensure that you have plenty of water, food and spare fuel as well as a recently serviced vehicle. Its no joke. Beautiful countryside but seriously dangerous.

Remember: If an Australian says somewhere is treacherous & inhospitable, then it's DEFINITELY dangerous

My Australian friend went on walk about to rethink his wife 5yrs later he has not returned 😢he is a deep thinker

There's a sick joke if you're going to San Jose from the east it's okay to go over the Donner pass if you don't stop an eat.

What an absolute trainwreck of an expedition. I think the main reason that the Lewis and Clark expedition succeeded without a single loss of life outside of natural causes while this one failed was that the Corps of Discovery was a military operation. This expedition was deeply unqualified and doomed to failure.

Ah my reminder to never go cave exploring, diving , going mountaineering, or an expedition.

As soon as I saw the title I know it was about Burke n' Wills, was one of my favourite books when I was like 10, proud to be an aussie (awesome video btw!! :D)

Oh hell yeah i'v been wanting to see a video on that topic. Australia is just such a crazy ecosystem, forces respect.

Great video!! I’d just love it more if the uploads were more frequent. Thank you for sharing these videos regardless.

Ooh! I got to be here early! I love these videos. Looking forward to relistening during the work week as well.

Man, I look forward to your videos so much. These videos about stuff that happened long ago are really entertaining. I wont lie, like 1 or 2 years ago I did not like your channel due to a couple things you did but now it is top tier stuff.

Good Morning, hope everyone has a great day, Thank you for a great video!

Fun Fact - The Ghastly Blank is how Australia is still described in travel brochures to this day and is one reason why most Australians live in London.

I always get so excited when you upload! Hell yeah brother

For the Americans watching Burke and Wills are basically our Lewis and Clark except they died and failed spectacularly but we still celebrate their spirit of exploration

Bro idk how you manage to pump out such high quality videos so fast keep it up I love it ❤

Great. I’m terrified of diving, might as well get terrified of walking on land, too. 😂 **gets popcorn**

hey Scary Interesting, another good upload, definitely what we needed on an otherwise rainy Sunday in Georgia!

"Unknown and unexplored" by the European-descended peoples. It is probably safe to assume the aboriginal people were at least a little familiar with it.

I’ve only recently found your page and I’ve watched nearly all your videos, love your channel! Really interesting and well told stories

So hard to listen to how so many small and stupid mistakes can end up in utter disaster.

We learn about this in primary school usually. You covered a lot of interesting stuff that we don't get told. Good job.

Holidays in Australia are pretty much like this today...

Loved the content, thanks for the keen editing