The title for this book nails it.

This is the story of the doomed exploration by Burke and Wills across the Australian continent. I had to reach back through my memory to my childhood to recollect a perception that the trek was tragic but that Burke and Wills were heroes. This book reveals what a debacle the whole thing was and I certainly questioned their hero status. But in a new colony in 1860, the colonial rule, class system and pure ignorance of the landscape and seasons were against these men from the outset.

Murgatroyd does a brilliant job retracing their footsteps in minute detail laying out the very personalities of Burke the trek leader and Wills the only surveyor who had enough knowledge to navigate the country. Indeed, what we learn about Burke is truly eye-opening. The culpability of the people in The Royal Society who put the expedition together reflected the thinking around class and privilege and not experience, for Burke was a policeman not an explorer.

The true tragedy of this book is that the author did not live long enough to enjoy the accolades about her book as she succumbed to breast cancer soon after it was published more than twenty years ago.

It’s a well written and wonderfully paced book which enlightens us about the era, the people, and the politics of this ill-fated journey. It’s fast paced and a page-turner and I loved it.

Check this one out.