Dig Tree At Cooper Creek

It’s Cooper’s Creek we’re crossing here, Willis said to Burke We need to have a base camp and this creek ought to work I’ll put it in the journal, November 1861 It’s been four months since we started but our venture’s just begun From Melbourne up to lands-end, they’ve asked us to explore We’ll camp here till it’s cooler but not a whole lot more But Willis, he got restless, so Burke said it’s OK So they, with King and Gary, headed north one day They reached the Little Bynoe after two months on the trail But swamp lands blocked their passage and they were feeling frail So back to Cooper’s Creek they turned though provisions were at nil Three camels and a horse they shot, their bellies so to fill They caught and ate a python but it gave them dysentery And somewhere back to Cooper’s Creek, they stopped to bury Gary Then once again at Cooper’s Creek, the three men planned to rest Regroup with all the others then get on with their quest But the campground was deserted, no one had stayed around Left a message carved upon a tree and provisions under ground So Burke and King and Willis rested for a while Then headed north towards Mount Hopeless – a trip of 150 miles They trudged north along the creek till their camels got bogged down They had to shoot them, lose provisions and finally turn around While the three were gone from camp, a rescue party came Not finding anyone around, they thought it such a shame They assumed no one had been there and the men were probably dead They didn’t leave a thing behind just turned around instead Back again at Cooper’s Creek, beneath the marked “dig tree” Burke buried notes and journals in case he ceased to be The Abos try to help them, native cooking 101 But Burke gets mad at someone and fires off his gun The native help then vanish, the three are left alone With nothing to sustain them so very far from home Malnourished and exhausted, they start hiking up the creek Then by the Breerily Waterhole, Willis gets too weak Burk and King continue north a couple days Then Burke dies the next morning and there his body lays King returned to Breerily and finds Willis has died too But he camps with some Yandruwandha that somehow get him through And therein lies the story of Willis, Burke and King Set off to find Australia but lost most everything If you’re ever down in Queensland get out to Cooper’s Creek It’s a carved stump of the “dig tree” for provisions that you seek