The Horrifying First Australian Transcontinental Expedition

About 100 years into the European settlement of Australia, as the coastlines flourished, with cities and growing populations, the vast interior remained largely unexplored and mysterious. In fact, by then, it had even been nicknamed the ghastly blank. Finally, in 1860, an expedition set out to make the first south-north crossing of the Australian continent, but unfortunately, they would find out why so much of the hostile interior remains sparsely populated even today. This is their story.

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Attributions/Special Thanks for Photographs:
Wellcome Images

Writing and research by Jay Adams

This video contains light dramatic reenactment but no actual footage or pictures of anyone being harmed or who has been harmed. The thumbnail is NOT a real image.

And a huge thank you to the Scary Interesting team of writers, editors, captioners, and everyone else who make this channel possible.

[brobafett]

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

[Gennodel]

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.

[HanTheProphet]

The Royal Society: "keep the party together Robert"

Robert: _proceeds to evenly distribute the party across all of Australia_

[MarieLehleitner]

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

[ozzieperkins]

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

[TheTexas]

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

[taniaelliott]

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.

[aperez]

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

[HeeroAvaren]

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

[lestupidunicorn]

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

[drosera]

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."

[sugarspice]

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.

[XxInuyashadowxX]

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

[BezBog]

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

[sara.gem.n.L]

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 🤦‍♀

[apathyisdeath]

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.

[drunkpaulocosta]

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.

[michaelbiscay]

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

[andrewdavies]

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.

[thedrunkenelf]

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.