Alan Moorehead - Cooper's Creek

Alan Moorehead - Cooper's Creek

Having just finished Simon Nasht's biography of Sir Rupert Wilkins, it was time to read a bit more about some other great Australian explorers, and what better way to proceed than with the tragedy of the 1860 Bourke and Wills expedition.

Alan Moorehead's book Cooper's Creek is still regarded as the definitive history of this doomed expedition and I actually have two copies - the 1972 Illustrated Edition from MacMillen and the 2001 Edition from The Adventure Libary.

First some background:

In 1845, explorer Charles Sturt had forced his way north from Adelaide, marching into one of the most appalling summers ever recorded. Living for more than a year in the arid inland, he had discovered Cooper Creek and the Diamantina River and journeyed further north than the current day Alice Springs. Finding no trace of the fabled inland sea, his efforts were eventually thwarted by the Stony Desert and what is now known as the Simpson Desert.

Soon after, trips by Mitchell and Leichhardt from the east coast had also got as far as the Cooper but no further. So Cooper Creek remained the last known point of reference and all beyond it was unknown.

So it was in 1860 that 2 separate expeditions sought to fill in the blank map once and for all - John McDougal Stuart from Adelaide and Robert O'Hara Bourke from Melbourne. Their routes and preparations were quite different - Stuart proceeded due north from Adelaide, passing to the left of Lake Eyre, reaching the dead centre of Australia and eventually getting within 800 km of the northern coast before having to turn back, a combination of sickness and lack of water. They had travelled light (a 3 man expedition with 15 pack horses) and they all arrived back safely in Adelaide in October of that year. Their achievement was immense and ranked with Speke's discovery of the source of the Nile. Stuart had solved that which he attempted with Sturt 15 years earlier – the riddle of the nature of the centre of the great Australian continent. 

By way of comparison, Bourke's expeditionary force of 19 men (with numerous horses and camels) was the most expensive and well planned expedition ever. His route was also quite different, striking north from Melbourne to the Murray River, thence to the Darling River before striking north at Menindie for the long dry trek to Cooper Creek. The expedition fragmented quickly and it was eventually left to 4 men - Bourke, Wills, King and Gray to venture forth from Cooper Creek for the final immense leg to the Gulf of Carpentaria - with six camels, one horse and enough food for just three months. And they made it in what is one of the most wonderful feats of endurance in Australian exploration. The tragic aftermath - stopping for a day to bury Gray who had died on the return journey, they missed out on meeting up with the rest of their force in Cooper Creek by a mere 8 hours. They arrived in the evening of Sunday 21 April 1861 to find that Brahe has left at 8AM that morning to return to Melbourne. John Falstaff's classic painting catches the moment of tragedy.

The news of their eventual deaths rocked Melbourne and Australia and led to a Royal Commission to investigate the causes. Memorials abound to mark their passing of various towns and sites, the most well known being the huge statue which stands on the corner of Swanston and Bourke Streets in central Melbourne (see http://www.burkeandwills.net.au/Memorials/summers.htm). It cost £14,000, raised by public subscription, and was unveiled in 1864. Here it is - I went in yesterday and photographed it.

And what of the book - written in 1963 with access to the various diaries, newspaper articles and Royal Commission findings, it is a fascinating read and an exciting one. It was the first comprehensive history of this expedition and it remains the best. Interestingly, although the book is titled Cooper's Creek, the real name of that water course is Cooper Creek. This must be the only mistake in what is otherwise a scholarly and ripping yarn.

Moorehead (1910-1983) was a prolific author with his most famous works coming later in his life - Rum Jungle (1953), Gallipoli (1956), The White Nile (1960), The Blue Nile (1962), Cooper's Creek (1963),  The Fatal Impact: An Account of the Invasion of the South Pacific, 1767–1840 (1966) and Darwin and the Beagle (1969).

I am sure many of us of a certain age studied Moorehead's The White Nile. I certainly did and still have my old school copy somewhere. It was my introduction to the history of African exploration - but that's another story.

Since I am on the topic of Australian history, some other books from my library spring to mind

The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin

Resolution - Captain Cook's Second Voyage of Discovery by Peter Aughton

Batavia by Peter Fitzsimons

The History of Australia (all 6 volumes) by Manning Clark

Flinders - the Man who Mapped Australia by Rob Mundle

So much to read and so little time!