The Dig Tree and Sssidney the Snake

Our campsite was at the famed Burke and Wills Dig Tree along the Cooper River.

The 1860-61 Burke and Wills expedition used this place as a base camp for a trek to the Gulf of Carpentaria. The party consisted of Robert Burke, William Wills, Charley Gray and John King. Remaining at the camp were William Brahe, Thomas McDonough, Dost Mahomet and William Patten.

After waiting months for the party to return, the camp group departed on April 1861. They carved the word DIG into a tree to indicate hidden stores.

Just nine hours later, the Gulf party returned to an empty camp. Gray had died en route. Wills and Burke both died making futile efforts to escape the area. Only King survived after being taken in by the local Aboriginal people.

Our problems were small, very small, in comparison.

The inverter in the 4wd ute either overheated or got a loose connection, and stopped working. This meant we had no Starlink comms because our Starlink power backups also weren't working. So, I prepped a bunch of scenarios to talk through with the 4wd hire company in case we needed to backtrack for a week to get repairs. Gloom prevailed.

Luckily a solar-powered wifi access for this very remote camp was available, so we used it for phone rendezvous with the 4wd hire guy.

By wiggling some very difficult to access wires and fuse holder we thankfully restored the inverter.

Gen was taking bird pics and I was enjoying a well-deserved happy hour. 

Raising my eyes from my tablet, I look straight into the eyes of a large Eastern Brown snake. Now I know it always pays to keep your glass full, and your feet up when a big eastern brown snake makes a beeline for your chair! He's highly venomous, but cool, so I'm cool for now, but he went up the wheel behind me into the chassis under our rooftop tent.

I nicknamed him Sidney which spooked Gen who said that was the name on the grave just next to our tree. The spooky thing is I knew and had seen nothing of the grave. Was this the spirit of the departed paying us a courtesy visit?

So we lit a campfire and blew some smoke up hiss majestic arse.

We decided to get going anyway in the morning, keeping an eye for him while folding up the roof top tent and cooking at lunch time. We had plans to do creek crossings and drive over corrugation. That should be enough to want him to consider another holiday place. We never saw him again.

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Simpson Desert, Dig Tree, Burke and Wills, Eastern Brown Snake, Queensland, Birds