However, three months passed before Wright left Menindee. Just over a month later he divided the exploring party again, setting off with Wills, King and Gray for the Gulf of Carpentaria. William Brahe was left in charge of the depot with instructions to wait three months for their return. On about 9 February the four expeditioners reached the Bynoe River, near the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Burke and Wills left the other two and tried to walk to the ocean but were unable to find a way through the mangrove swamps. The party started their return journey to Cooper Creek on 12 February Extreme heat and illness forced the party to rest at the Bulloo River where Charles Stone, William Purcell and Ludwig Becker died of malnutrition and dysentery between 22 and 29 April.
On 5 June William Patton also died. He buried a cache of food and a note stating his intention at the foot of a coolabah tree. About nine hours after Brahe departed, Burke, Wills and King arrived. They found the cache, which had enough supplies for a month, but instead of following Brahe back to Menindee or staying at the depot, on 22 April they decided to head south west to try to reach a station at Mount Hopeless.
Burke, Wills and King buried a message of their own under the Dig Tree explaining their plans. They were careful to leave no trace that they had been there, so that Aboriginal people would not dig up the letter. Brahe too left no indication of his visit, so that when Wills doubled back for one last look at the depot on 27 May , he found nothing to suggest that anyone had returned to search for them.
Wills died alone, having urged the other two to leave him and keep searching for Yandruwandha people who had been generous with their food and hospitable since the expeditioners had arrived at Cooper Creek. Up to this point, these overtures of cooperation had been met with suspicion and sometimes hostility by the explorers. King eventually found the Yandruwandha people, who accepted him into their community and saved his life. Burke and Wills died of malnutrition, which was accelerated by the onset of beri-beri — a deficiency of thiamine, vitamin B1.
The explorers contracted beri-beri by eating nardoo, a clover-like plant which contains an enzyme that breaks down thiamine. Nardoo was regularly eaten by the Yandruwandha people. He did not observe the signs that Burke had returned and did not find his message. Burke, Wills and King were too weak to get far on their journey to Mount Hopeless.
King returned to Melbourne with the rescue party. The Royal Commission criticized Burke for having divided his party at Menindee. Burke achieved the aim of the expedition to reach the Gulf of Carpentaria. Indirectly, discovery was promoted.
The well-equipped expedition, the first to use camels, departed Melbourne on 20 August During their stay the group had erected a stockade to protect their supplies from Aborigines and, before leaving, buried at the foot of a nearby Coolibah tree a small cache of food. On the morning of their departure they left messages carved into the tree pointing to the cache—the so-called Dig Tree survives to this day.
As the whole enterprise was initiated and largely funded by the Victorian Government, the two parties were to be under the supreme command of Captain WH Norman of the HCMS Victoria , which was to act as a supply ship.
On 24 August the expedition sailed from Brisbane and, on arrival at the Gulf, established a depot on the Albert River, later the site of Burketown. After reaching the Herbert River, he returned to the depot on 19 January , in accordance with his instructions, to consult with Captain Norman on his future movements. After re-supplying, both parties set out in search of further tracks.
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