Sarah Murgatroyd

In 1860, an eccentric Irish police officer named Robert O'Hara Burke led a cavalcade of camels, wagons and men out of Melbourne. Accompanied by William Wills, a shy English scientist, he was prepared to risk everything to become the first European to cross the Australian continent. A few months later, an ancient coolibah tree at Cooper Creek bore a strange...

"Wills knew that he was fading fastest. On 26 June, he decided the only honourable thing to do was to sacrifice himself to save his companions. 'Without some change,' he wrote, 'I see little chance for any of us'. In 1860, an eccentric Irish police officer named Robert O'Hara Burke led a cavalcade of camels, wagons and men out of...

Sarah Murgatroyd has brought together for the first time new scientific and historical evidence, and tells in brilliant detail the story of Burke and Wills, the explorers who set out to cross Australia from coast to coast. The Dig Tree describes vividly the remarkable courage, suffering and moments of sheer lunacy, as Burke and Wills struggled to survive in a...