The Inagural Burke and Wills Outback Conference
August 2003
by Richard Cork

The concept for the Inaugural Burke and Wills Enthusiasts Outback Convention emerged out of my own rabid infatuation with the story. My party of two and later three has now made three trips into the Selwyn Ranges around Cloncurry to find the “Sandstone Cave”. Sandwiched between life’s more mundane commitments, these trips have been something to look forward to for the long two-year periods in between.

Along the way we’ve learned a little of the far western country and developed a healthy respect for it’s harshness as well as an appreciation of its rugged beauty. This country certainly brings me to a fuller recognition of my own insignificance. When a dawning appreciation of the nature of the unforgiving wilderness is coupled with an historical appreciation of the first four Europeans to cross it, the enormity of their undertaking smacks you across the face. You simply cannot help but to be overawed at the thought of this group of four humans, six camels and a grey horse trudging determinedly onward day after day in pursuit of the Australia 1860 version of the Holy Grail – to traverse the continent from south to north and back again. To gain some appreciation of the vastness and emptiness of the country nowadays is to be left breathless at the thought of the perils of the trip undertaken in 1860. How vast and empty it must then have seemed.

Amongst the absorption that enveloped me when in the midst of these areas, I found plenty of time alone in my swag, staring at the stars by which Wills himself had navigated, to ponder on the Burke and Wills fever that had gripped - me and how many others had become similarly infected. How it had once gripped Alfred Towner to the degree that he spent years of his life trying to track the route of the expedition. How now Alfred is gone and his work has never been adequately documented, justified or published. The world will now probably never know the justifications for the marks, plaques, blazed trees, rock cairns and so forth that he caused to be erected. I had read about other enthusiasts and over the years I managed to contact many of them by following the available leads to track them down, speak to them and compare notes. The notion of bringing all of these enthusiasts together into some sort of function that would facilitate meeting, developing a rapport and hopefully swapping notes became slowly somewhat overpowering. Surely we must do our utmost to ensure that what happened to the work of Alfred Towner is not allowed to recur. When my own party finally found the cave and thus had no further immediate goals, the concept took on a more urgent nature. It became my next goal.

After much planning and frustrating delays and setbacks, the venue and dates were finalised. The Cloncurry Conference was held in August 2003 and the event saw the largest gathering of Burke and Wills researchers ever assembled in one place.