When the expedition left Melbourne, it was amid the shouts and hurrahs of acclaiming thousands, who probably had not the faintest idea of the easy task that the explorers with their imposing retinue and outfit had before them.  In fact, with all the resources at Burke’s command, a favourable season and good open country, the excursion would have been a mere picnic to most men of experience.  A number of camels had been specially imported from India at a cost of 5,500 pounds.  G.J.  Landells came to the country in charge of them, and had been appointed second in command.  Long before they left the settled districts, Burke quarrelled with him, whereupon he resigned and returned to Melbourne.  There he openly declared that under Burke’s control the expedition would assuredly meet with disaster.  Wills was then appointed second by Burke, and Wright, who was supposed to be acquainted with the locality which they were approaching, was engaged as third, another most unfortunate selection.  Besides those already mentioned, there were Dr. Hermann Beckler, medical officer and botanist, and Dr. Ludwig Becker, artist, naturalist, and geologist, ten white assistants, and three camel-drivers.

The expedition in full reached Menindie on the Darling, where Wright joined them.  On the 19th of October, 1860, Burke, Wills, six men, five horses and sixteen camels, left Menindie for Cooper’s Creek.  Wright went with them two hundred miles to indicate the best route, and then returned to take charge of the main body waiting at Menindie.  On the 11th of November, Burke with the advance party reached Cooper’s Creek, where they camped and awaited the arrival of Wright with the rest.  Grass and water were both plentiful, and the journey had hitherto proved no more arduous than an ordinary over-landing trip.

The long delay and inaction worked sadly upon Burke’s active and impatient temperament, and he suddenly announced his intention to subdivide his party and, with three men, to start across the belt of unknown country —­ a distance of five hundred miles at the furthest —­ that separated him from Gregory’s track round the Gulf.  Although his lavish outfit had been purchased specially to explore this comparatively small extent of land, he thus deliberately left it behind him during the most critical part of the journey.  He had with him no means of following up any discoveries he might make, and his botanist and naturalist and geologist were also left behind.  He killed time for a little while by making short excursions northward, and then, on the 16th of December, impatient of further delay, he started with Wills and two men for Carpentaria.  The others were left, with verbal instructions, to wait three months for him.  Thus, dispersed and neglected, he left the costly equipment containing within itself all the elements of successful geographical research.  Certainly this was not the plan that had been anticipated by the promoters and organisers.  We have now, at this stage, the spectacle of the main body loitering on the outskirts of the settled districts, four men killing time on the banks of Cooper’s Creek, and the leader and three others scampering across the continent, all four of them utterly inexperienced in bushcraft.