John King (explorer)
John King | |
---|---|
Born | Moy, County Tyrone, Ireland | 5 December 1838
Died | 15 January 1872 St Kilda, Victoria, Australia | (aged 33)
Burial place | Melbourne General Cemetery |
Nationality | Irish |
Alma mater | Royal Hibernian Military School |
Occupation(s) | Soldier, camel handler, explorer |
Known for | Survivor of the Burke and Wills expedition and first European to cross Australia from north to south |
John King (15 December 1838 – 15 January 1872) was an
Early years
King was born at
) on 15 December 1838 to Henry King (d. 1839) and Ellen Orn (d. September 1847). He was the youngest of six known siblings:- Thomas King (b.1823) [citation needed]
- William King (b. 1830) [citation needed]
- Elizabeth King (b. 1833) Migrated to Australia in 1858.
- Jane (b.1835) [citation needed]
- Samuel King (b. 1831) [citation needed]
- John King (5 December 1838 – 15 January 1872).
King was educated at the Royal Hibernian Military School at Phoenix Park in Dublin between 1847 and 1853, before joining the 70th Regiment on 15 January 1853 at the age of 14. King was sent to Chatham and then posted to India, where the Regiment had been stationed since 1848.
India
King arrived in India on either 28 September or 29 October 1853. The regiment, under Colonel Galway and then
While convalescing he met
Australia
King arrived in
Burke and Wills expedition
The expedition left Melbourne on Monday, 20 August 1860 with a total of 19 men, 27 camels and 23 horses. They reached
Burke split the expedition at Menindee and the lead party reached Cooper Creek on 11 November 1860 where they formed a depot. The remaining men were expected to follow up from Menindee and so after a break, Burke decided to make a dash to the Gulf of Carpentaria. Burke split the party again and left on 16 December 1860, placing William Brahe in charge of the depot on Cooper Creek. Burke, Wills, King and Charley Gray reached the mangroves on the estuary of the Flinders River, near where the town of Normanton now stands, on 9 February 1861. Flooding rains and swamps meant they never saw open ocean.
Already weakened by starvation and exposure, their progress on the return journey was slow and hampered by the tropical monsoon downpours of the wet season. Gray died four days before they reached the depot at Cooper Creek and the other three took a day to bury him. They eventually reached the depot on Sunday, 21 April 1861 to find the men had not arrived from Menindee and Brahe and the Depot Party had given up waiting and left just 9 hours earlier. Brahe had buried a note and some food underneath a tree which is now known as the Dig Tree.
Burke, Wills and King attempted to reach
King survived with the help of the Yandruwandha people, with whom he lived for two and a half months.[2][3] He was rescued in September by Alfred William Howitt. Howitt buried Burke and Wills before returning to Melbourne.
After the expedition
When Howitt got to
King was cared for by his sister, Elizabeth, at her house in Westbury Street, St Kilda. In 1863 he went to Tasmania to see if it would aid his recovery, arriving in Hobart on the SS Black Swan on Sunday, 1 February. King returned to Melbourne and was present at the inauguration of the Burke & Wills statue on the corner of Collins and Russell Streets in Melbourne on 21 April 1865, the fourth anniversary of their return to Cooper Creek.
In 1865 he bought a house in Octavia Street, St Kilda, and on 22 August 1871 he married his cousin, Mary Richmond, at the Wesley Church on Lonsdale Street. King never fully recovered from the privations suffered while on the expedition, and in 1869 his health began to deteriorate. During November and December 1871 he was so ill he was cared for at his sister's house in Drummond Street, Carlton. He returned home to St Kilda and died prematurely of pulmonary tuberculosis on 15 January 1872 aged 33.[4] His pall-bearers were Ferdinand von Mueller, Dr David Wilkie and Inspector James M Gilmour. He is buried in the Melbourne General Cemetery.
He was not related to his contemporary, surveyor and explorer Stephen King, a participant in John McDouall Stuart's successful 1861–1862 expedition.
References
- ISBN 978-0-646-56419-7.
- ^ Harford, Tim (4 September 2019). "How do people learn to cook a poisonous plant safely?". BBC News. Archived from the original on 4 September 2019. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-674-07497-2. Archivedfrom the original on 12 July 2022. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
- ^ Australian Dictionary of Biography http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/king-john-3956 Archived 8 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Australia". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 941–970. (See pp. 961–962.) This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
- This article also incorporates text from the public domain Australian Dictionary of Biography
- The [Melbourne] Argus, 1861. "The Burke and Wills exploring expedition: An account of the crossing the continent of Australia from Cooper Creek to Carpentaria, with biographical sketches of Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills". Melbourne: Wilson and Mackinnon.
- Attwood, Alan, 2003. Burke's Soldier. Melbourne, ISBN 0-14-300082-9. (a fictionalised account of King's experiences)
- Bonyhady, Tim, 1991. Burke and Wills: From Melbourne to myth. Balmain: David Ell Press. ISBN 0-908197-91-8.
- Burke and Wills Outback Conference 2003, 2005. The Inaugural Burke & Wills Outback Conference : Cloncurry 2003 : a collation of presentations. Dave Phoenix, Cairns Qld. ISBN 0-646-44702-5
- Clune, Frank, 1937. Dig: A drama of central Australia. Sydney: Angus and Robertson.
- Corke, David G, 1996. The Burke and Wills Expedition: A study in evidence. Melbourne: Educational Media International. ISBN 0-909178-16-X
- Fuller, Howard Brant, 2018. The King's of Moy [clarification needed] THis is not a published work or valid citation.
- Henry, William, 1997. The shimmering waste: The life and times of Robert O'Hara Burke. Galway, Ireland.: W Henry Publisher. ISBN 0-906312-46-9
- Howitt, Alfred William, 1907. "Personal reminiscences of Central Australia and the Burke and Wills Expedition: Presidents inaugural address". Journal of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science. 1907 (Adelaide, 1907.), 43p.
- Jackson, Andrew, 1862. Robert O'Hara Bourke [sic] and the Australian Exploring Expedition of 1860. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- Manwaring, William Henry, 1970. "A contemporary’s view of Robert O’Hara Burke". La Trobe Library Journal. Vol. 2 (No. 6).
- Murgatroyd, Sarah, 2002. The Dig Tree. Melbourne: Text Publishing. ISBN 1-877008-08-7
- Victoria: Parliament, 1862. Burke and Wills Commission. Report of the Commissioners appointed to enquire into and report upon the circumstances connected with the sufferings and death of Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills, the Victorian Explorers. Melbourne: John Ferres Government Printer.
- Wills, William John, & Wills, Dr William, 1863. A successful exploration through the interior of Australia, from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria: from the journals and letters of William John Wills. London: Richard Bentley.
External links
- Burke & Wills Web A comprehensive website containing many of the historical documents relating to the Burke & Wills Expedition.
- The Burke & Wills Historical Society The Burke & Wills Historical Society.