In 1852, within weeks of his departure for the Antipodes, the future Australian explorer Sub-Inspector Robert O'Hara Burke, troop commander at the Irish Constabulary Depot, wrote a character reference for one of his "rough riders", Constable Maurice Oswyn Kelly, from Co Cork.
The manuscript, hurriedly written on Constabulary writing paper, was shown to me on a visit to St Arnaud, Victoria, where it survives in the archives of the far-flung Kelly family. It describes him as a man of "the very highest character", and a "a loss to the service". Married, with a young family, Constable Kelly too had decided to emigrate. Disembarking at Melbourne, he found work as a toll-keeper, then as manager of a bush hotel, before settling as a farmer.
Gold rush
Burke's earlier had arrival coincided with the excitement of the gold rush in the 1850s. Having made his mark as "a most successful" superintendent of police at Castlemaine, he was appointed in 1860 to lead the ill-fated expedition to open up the unexplored interior of the sub-continent. The venture was organised by the Royal Society of Victoria, backed by the colonial government.
In Adelaide, the South Australians were also mounting an expedition, to be led by the veteran explorer, John McDouall Stuart. With its coffers overflowing with gold, the Melbourne government, eager to steal a march on its neighbours, spared no expense in equipping its own enterprise.
Burke's appointment incurred the wrath of the Melbourne Herald because of his lack of experience in exploration. Hungry for fame and fortune, he admitted that he had used "every fair, honourable and straightforward means" to get the job for himself.
His recklessly brave and generous nature must have endeared him to the colonial premier, John O'Shanassy, who hailed from Ballinahow, Thurles. O'Shanassy was in a strong position to influence the choice of his fellow countryman to lead the caravan of 17 explorers with 23 horses, 25 camels and three overloaded drays. With Burke leading the way, the caravan left Melbourne to a tumultuous farewell on August 20th, 1860.
The tragedies that overtook Burke and the English scientist, William John Wills, might have been avoided if the penniless Irishman had not thrown caution to the wind, bent on reaching the Gulf of Carpentaria ahead of Stuart to win the prize of £2,000 for the first man to complete the hazardous journey.
On my quest for the emigrant Irish policeman, starting from the vineyard city of Mildura, with Alan Moorehead's Cooper's Creek in my haversack, I crossed the Murray river into New South Wales. At Menindie, on the Darling, picking up the trail blazed by Burke, I sheltered from the burning sun under the giant eucalyptus marking the site of the base camp he established by Burke in mid-October 1860.
Mootwingee oasis
Crossing the stony desert in a hired Land Rover, I came to the Mootwingee oasis, a rocky depression sacred to the Wilyakali tribe. At Mootwingee, the limit of my own modest adventure, the advance party filled their water bags before embarking in high summer on a 400-mile trek to Cooper's Creek.
At the Creek, Burke divided his party again. Accompanied by Wills and two dependable men, Charles Gray, a resourceful sailor, and John King, a young soldier schooled in obedience, he made for the Gulf, another 700 miles further north. After terrible privations, they reached their destination on February 11th, 1861. On the return journey, muscle-bound and lashed to a camel, Gray died in the saddle. It took good companions nine hours to scrape out a lonely grave.
It was now April 17th. While they were digging, by a cruel coincidence, the half-party lingering at Cooper's Creek, despairing the fate of their leader and the others, prepared to return to the base at Menindie. On April 21st, they had packed up and were on their way, only hours ahead of Burke, when the three exhausted explorers arrived back at the deserted camp. The valiant Burke and Wills succumbed soon afterwards.
King was cared for by compassionate aborigines. On September 13th, close to death, he was found by a rescue party. Born at Moy, Co Tyrone, and educated at the Hibernian School, Phoenix Park, Private John King was only 19 and had lately served with the army in India. "King has behaved nobly, he has stayed with me to the last," Burke scrawled in his notebook as he lay dying.
Kelly archivist
Sub-Inspector Burke's erstwhile Irish Constabulary subordinate, Maurice Oswyn Kelly, was another man - disciplined and loyal, and a highly skilled horseman to boot - whom Burke would have been glad to have had at his side. I was told by the Kelly family archivist, Sheilah Kelly-Keane, that her ancestor offered his services to Burke, but was turned down. His former troop commander, unattached himself, was unwilling to employ a married man on a dangerous mission.
My thanks to Jim Herlihy for calling attention to a new account of the Burke and Wills expedition, The Shimmering Waste, published by the Galway historian William Henry; an attractive volume, with bibliography, index and route map.
"Robert O'Hara Burke. . .provided Victoria with a hero when it needed one." Henry's chapters on the Burkes of St Clerans, Co Galway, are valuable contributions to "one of Australia's most remarkable fireside stories."