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Journal of William John Wills: 23 April-28 June 1861
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Unknown photographer
John King Sole Survivor of the Burke & Wills Expedition to Carpentaria [1863]
Sybil Craig Collection,
La Trobe Australian
Manuscripts Collection
State Library of Victoria


John King Sole Survivor of the Burke & Wills Expedition to Carpentaria


The Library purchased a journal and other papers of John King, sole survivor of the Burke and Wills Expedition, in 1936 from another source. The King ‘journal’ is fragmentary and is in the form of a retrospective account covering the forward journey to the Gulf of Carpentaria, December 1860 to January 1861. It is not known when it was written.

The three journals form part of NLA MS 30 and their combined monetary worth by today’s values runs into hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The Royal Society of Victoria’s Expedition Committee deposited most of the other papers of the expedition with State Library of Victoria in 1875. The papers include reports, despatches and watercolour drawings by members of the Burke and Wills expedition and the relief parties sent in search of it.

 
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