Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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.

The book describes the (unfortunate) journey of Burke and Wills and gives a good overview of other explorers of Australia. The author has a great ability to recreate mid-19th century Australian life and views. Overall, this is a superbly researched book that captivates the reader.

An excellent read that both informs and entertains. Ideal for anyone who has interest in Australia, Australian history or exploration. It may not be that interesting for those without these interests

The late Sarah Murgatroyd has written a well researched and poignant account of this tragic expedition. Though l hesitate to use the word expedition, as it was poorly led and planned, perhaps a mad rush in the bush is a better description. Many times as a child l used to gaze at the statue of Burke and Wills, (Melbourne is my home town), when l visited the Museum and wondered how they died and why was that statue there. My schoolbooks portrayed them as tragic heroes, but l felt sorry for John King as these books seemed to minimize his achievement of survival

This book finally gives King the credit he deserves for his amazing survival and the tenacious ability he displayed to achieve this. Unfortunately his health was broken by the experience and he suffered much mental angiush for the remainder of his short life. This anguish, l suspect, derived from the charade he was forced to be a part of upon his return to Melbourne.

He was very critical of the Exploration Committee on the way back to Melbourne after his rescue but was stunned by the reception he received in Victoria on the way back to Melbourne where he was lauded as some type of hero. It was just too much for this quiet and unassuming man. He had to play along and hold his true thoughts about the Exploration Committee to himself. He was up against too much public emotion and powerful interests to upset the applecart, l also believe he felt very guilty about his survival.

This book captures the vastness and emptiness of the Australian interior and yet also describes the beauty of the outback. I have lived in the outback myself while working at remote weather stations. The description of the climate, landscape and vegetation of the part of the outback that the expedition traversed is concise and correct.

This book also gives an account of the expeditions of the explorer; the very able and resourceful John Macdouall Stuart and gives him the credit he richly deserves as a an explorer and a surveyor.

Whether or not you are familiar with the Burke & Wills story this is a great read.

No author could create such a black comedy as this. There is no genre that this tale does not touch upon. The Dig Tree is a beautiful historic drama with every conceivable human emotion on display, from our very best to worst the Dig Tree exposes humanity.

You do not require background knowledge of this time of Australia History, but you will thirsting for more once you are done. You really do care about those involved in this disasterous tal. You will find an allegience, you will change your allegience, you will become part of their story.

A fantastic introduction to the Burke & Wills Expedition, such an understated piece of Australian history. As we recognise in 2010 the 150th Anniversary of the ill fated expedition, let us pray that more come to appreciate the significance of both Robert O'Hara Burke & William John Wills.