The Dig Tree: A True Story of Bravery, Insanity, and the Race to Discover Australia's Wild Frontier [Hardcover]

Sarah Murgatroyd (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 10, 2002

The harrowing true story of the Burke and Willis expedition team who took on the Australian wilds 150 years ago--and lost.

They departed Melbourne's Royal Park in the summer of 1860, a misfit party of eighteen amateur explorers cheered on by thousands of well-wishers. Their mission: to chart a course across the vast unmapped interior of Australia, from Melbourne to the northern coast. Months later, only one man returned alive--with tales of heroism, hardships, and lost opportunities that were by turns terrifying and darkly comic.

Drawing its title from one of the few remaining traces of the expedition, The Dig Tree combines the danger of Sebastian Junger with the irony of Bill Bryson to relive the tragic journey of these completely initiated adventurers. The cast of characters includes the expeditionleader; a reckless, charming Irish policeman known for getting lost on his way home from the pub; an eccentric nature enthusiast from Germany; an alcoholic camel handler; and a rogue American horse-breaker who is just in it for the money. For nine harrowing months, their quest for glory shifts from idiocy to perseverance and then inexorably toward tragedy. The nightmare culminates in a last haunting message left behind a group of desperate and dying men--the word DIG carved into what is now Australia's most famous tree.

The Dig Tree follows this compelling journey through a forgotten corner of history to examine a daring expedition that came unbelievably close to success only to let it slip away.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In a thorough but somewhat languid narrative, Murgatroyd chronicles the mid-19th-century trek led by Robert Burke to penetrate Australia's unforgiving interior and chart a course from Melbourne to the northern coast. The book, like the expedition itself, is a little slow to get going and, like the bulk of the territory the motley adventurers encounter, is exceedingly dry. While Murgatroyd does an exhaustive job of charting the group's movements and outlining the political machinations behind their quest, Burke's scant journal gives her little to draw on to make the story truly come alive. His second in command, the scientist William Wills, was more elaborate in his own writings, but decidedly practical. At one point, Murgatroyd despairs: "If only Burke had been a writer. His emotions surged so much nearer the surface than those of his deputy that he might have revealed more than just temperatures and plant names." But the book shows the obvious top-notch research one would expect from a seasoned journalist, and Murgatroyd unearths enough quirky facts to develop her main characters beyond the constrained outlines of a history textbook. She is also unflinching in portraying a campaign that, despite being elaborately equipped, was so shockingly unprepared and misguided that its account borders on black comedy. Burke, a volatile, impetuous leader driven by ego, was selected by a chummy, old-boys' network that cared more about his lineage than his qualifications. His poor decisions and leadership, combined with a considerable amount of bad luck, make for the type of hardship and disaster that will keep readers interested, even if they find themselves thirsting for a story that's a little more satisfying.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

"The history of Australian exploration is littered with the corpses of men who underestimated the power, the size, and the unpredictability of the outback," Murgatroyd writes. This book is the tale of one such group, the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition that set out in August 1860. Robert O'Hara Burke was an Irish police officer who not only possessed no exploration experience but also was notorious for getting lost in his own neighborhood. Surveyor William Wills, third in command until Burke fired his deputy, was a copious note-taker and documented the 5,000-mile journey, which commenced in Melbourne and took the men almost up to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north. Along the way the group splintered into three separate groups, with only Burke and Wills' small group reaching the northernmost point. Along the way, they encountered varied terrains--including grasslands and swamps--and Aboriginal people, many who brought the explorers food. Eventually, many of these explorers succumb to malnutrition and starvation. Both fascinating and tragic, Murgatroyd's book will appeal to those interested in expeditions or Australia's past. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Broadway; 1 edition (September 10, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767908287
• ISBN-13: 978-0767908283
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1.1 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #429,297 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A compelling, heartbreaking story, October 29, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Dig Tree: A True Story of Bravery, Insanity, and the Race to Discover Australia's Wild Frontier (Hardcover)

Sarah Murgatroyd does a terrific job of assembling a compelling story of a doomed expedition across Australia. She carefully pulls together pieces from diaries, old news accounts, and official records, and even throws in insights into human and camel physiology when necessary.

The story moves along with interesting characters and sometimes heartbreaking events. Importantly, Murgatroyd grounds everything in historical research, giving her account valuable credibility.

If there's a weakness in this book it is only because the author does so well bringing the reader close to the events. You want the book to go one further step and recreate the conversations among the explorers, but of course it cannot do that.

This is a great book for anyone interested in adventure or Australian history.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From sea to sea . . . almost, January 14, 2003

By 

Stephen A. Haines (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Dig Tree: A True Story of Bravery, Insanity, and the Race to Discover Australia's Wild Frontier (Hardcover)

Australia's desolate interior evokes much legend. Dominating the legends are the traverses of European explorers in the region. Among these legends, that of Burke and Wills retains a lofty status, one Sarah Murgatroyd may have forever toppled. She has given the tradition of explorer heroics a strenuous airing with this book. Few reputations are left unsmirched, but her real assault centres on the incompetence of the expedition's leader, Robert O'Hara Burke.

The author relates how Burke left Melbourne, Victoria, in 1860 with several ambitions, muddled instructions and devoid of capabilities to manage the task. Behind his straggling team were a cabal of businessmen intent on extending Victoria's borders. Beyond that, they also hoped to initiate a telegraph line route to Asia, thence to London. In competition with Adelaide to the west, both cities had sponsored expeditions to traverse the continent from south to north. Others had made the attempt, but the travails of crossing a land intolerant of blundering had thwarted them all. Burke was aware of a major competitor in the figure of Charles McDouall Stuart who had nearly succeeded before turning back. Burke, among other things, saw the enterprise as a race - which he intended to win.

Murgatroyed demonstrates how that aspect, among others, doomed the expedition from the beginning. Burke's undue haste led to launching the trek at the worst time of year. He quarreled with subordinates, sacked members of the team and scorned delays occasioned by scientific studies. His fatal error was in dividing the group, ultimately leaving most of his companions behind to make a dash to the northern sea. It was the fragmenting of the expedition that led to conflicting priorities and delays. In the end, not able to actually observe the sea, three survivors of the dash north returned to the rendezvous point to find the word "Dig" carved in a tree. It wasn't enough to save the two leaders surviving the journey.

In analysing Burke's actions, Murgatroyd contrasts them with others, some having set out to rescue the lost venturers. As she points out, the business leaders of Melbourne enhanced the already general view that the only thing considered more "heroic than a successful explorer was a dead one." Melbourne now had two in Burke and his subordinate William Wills. The legend of their heroism was almost manufactured by those who'd sponsored the expedition. The hagiography surrounding the pair has persisted in strength for over a century.

Murgatroyd dispels that idolatry effectively. She cannot be faulted for viewing the past with modern eyes as some are led to do. As a journalist's account, the book is not footnoted, although she provides a good reading list. Her style is open and forthright, keeping the reader close to the events related. She speculates but little, and her judgements are conveyed in sharp contrast. Various persona are portrayed in scathing terms. Even those driven by events escape but narrowly. Her account will dismay some, but none sink into ennui. Her rendition of a complex story makes excellent reading. Her loss to journalism is severe.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Almost makes it, May 27, 2003

By 

backstage reader "jnb33" (Monrovia, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dig Tree: A True Story of Bravery, Insanity, and the Race to Discover Australia's Wild Frontier (Hardcover)

Like the trek it describes, 'Dig Tree' is almost successful. There's no denying that a lot of research went into this book, and in some ways, that's what holds it back. It's almost like Ms Murgatroyd is afraid to leave anything out.
The book also has too many editorial gaffes--wrong tenses, left out words--they're minor, but annoying. Whether or not they are the author's is beside the point, they should have been caught.
I'd certainly keep this on my Burke & Wills shelf--but the classic for me is Alan Moorehead's 'Cooper's Creek.'
Although I doubt Moorehead had access to all that Murgatroyd did, he still manages to tell the story with a great deal more panache.