In 1860, Robert O’Hara Burke and William John Wills set out to lead the first expedition across the Australian continent — from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria. Backed by public funding and national attention, their journey was supposed to be historic.

Instead, it became a slow-motion disaster.

This episode tells the true story of how miscommunication, bad decisions, and cruel timing turned a moment of promise into one of the most tragic chapters in exploration history. From missed rescue by just hours to buried journals no one found in time, this is the heartbreaking fate of the Burke and Wills expedition — and the one man who made it out alive.

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