Robert O’Hara Burke was born in the county of Galway, in Ireland, in 1821.  He was the second son of John Hardiman Burke, of St. Clerans, and was educated in Belgium.  In 1840 he entered the Austrian army, in which he rose to the rank of Captain.  In 1848 he joined the Royal Irish Constabulary, but five years later emigrated to Tasmania.  Thence he went to Victoria, where he entered the local police force, and became an Inspector.  Such was his position when he was offered the command of the expedition which ended in his death.

William John Wills was born at Totnes, in Devonshire.  He was the son of a medical man, and after his arrival in Victoria, in 1852, he led for a time a bush life on the Edwards River.  He was later employed as a surveyor in Melbourne, and then became assistant to Professor Neumayer at the Melbourne Observatory, a post he quitted in order to act as assistant-surveyor on the ill-starred journey.

Sentiment, and an hysterical sentiment at that, seems to have dominated this expedition throughout.  There was no urgent necessity for Victoria to equip and send forth an exploring expedition.  Her rich and compact little province was known from end to end, and she had no surplus territory in which to open up fresh fields of pastoral occupation for her sons.  But her people became possessed with the exploring spirit, and the planning and execution of the scheme was a signal indication of national patriotism.  And if sense and not sentiment had marked the counsel, the results might have conferred rich benefit upon Australia.

The necessary funds were made up as follows:  6,000 pounds voted by Government; 1,000 pounds presented by Mr. Ambrose Kyte; and the balance of the first expenditure of 12,000 pounds made up by public subscription.  But the final cost of the expedition and of the relief parties amounted to 57,000 pounds.  And the exploratory work done by the different relief parties far and away exceeded in geographical results the small amount effected by the original expedition.

A committee of management was appointed, and to his interest with this committee Burke owed his elevation to the position of leader.  He seems to have been supported by that sort of general testimony which fits a man to apply for nearly any position; but of special aptitude and training for the work to be done he had none.  He was frank, openhearted, impetuous, and endowed with all those qualities which made him a great favourite with women; moreover, his service in the Austrian army had given people an exaggerated notion of his ability to command and organize.  It would appear on the whole that his appointment was due solely to the influence he wielded, and to his personal popularity.

Wills appears to have been a man gifted with many of the qualities essential for efficient discharge of the duties and responsibilities appertaining to the post he held; but his amiable disposition allowed him to be influenced too readily in council by the rash and foolish judgment of his impetuous superior.  If, for instance, he had persisted in combating Burke’s incomprehensible plan of leaving the depot for Mount Hopeless, the last fatality would never have occurred.