(1821 - 1861)

Burke was born in Ireland, and served in the Irish Mounted Constabulary and the army before leaving Ireland for Melbourne in 1853.

He joined the Victorian police force, and soon was appointed senior officer in the Beechworth district. When sent out to restore order following riots on the Buckland Goldfield he got lost, thus highlighting his poor knowledge of bush skills. Burke remained in the police force until 1860 when he proposed an expedition to traverse the continent from south to north.

The expedition was to be a disaster from the start. Led by a man with no bush skills and little or no planning, the party established a depot at Menindee in New South Wales, and sent William John Wills ahead to establish a second depot at Coopers Creek.

The party then waited six weeks for the group from the first depot to join them, before finally heading north to the Gulf of Carpenteria. The party arrived there in February 1861. On the return journey the party began to run out of supplies, and upon their reaching the Coopers Creek depot in April they found it abandoned. Wills and Burke endeavoured to reach Mt Hopeless, 240 kilometres away, but died on the journey.

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