Dig Tree

Tuesday 18 August 2015

A slow start to our day but only 71kms  to drive  today.  The sun is shining and jumpers were off by 8.00am. First stop was Burke's grave. It's easy to see how someone could perish around here - especially a person without bush survival skills. Burke, Wills and King's race to be the first to go from the south to the north end of the continent  to claim the 2,000 pounds offered by the South Australian government  in 1860 was fraught with incident. They made it to the top  and returned  to their supply depot at Cooper Creek. They were a month overdue and missed the supply team by a few hours. The supply team had dug a hole close to a tree and buried the provisions about 18" underground so that the aborigines would not find them. They then carved instructions on the tree so that Burke's party would know where to find them. This is now known as the "DigTree".  Burke & Wills subsequently perished but King survived by befriending the aborigines who fed him but he later died of complications.

 

Our morning tea stop was under a bridge beside the Cooper Creek.  It's hard to comprehend that a few years ago  this bridge was under water during the floods. Along the road in the Cooper Creek basin there are depth markers indicating how high the water could rise during a flood. These waters flow into Lake Eyre. It was a short but rough and dusty drive to the Dig Tree where we camped for the night alongside the Cooper Creek. The fishing competition was on again to see who could catch the first fish.  I'm not sure who çaught the first but Doc, Dave and Anthony were winners and grinners and the fishing stories at the campfire are getting bigger and better. Who would think that in outback Australia where water is a scarcity you would  be fishing.