Sanderson Media

This is how we promote your news

We give you style, flair, marketability and exposure

Burke and Wills: brave explorers or romantic fools?

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

The daughter of the heir to Harrods of London spent time with Burke and Wills before their ill-fated journey.

Evidence indicates that they were as much romantic fools as they were brave explorers.

One was so keen to impress the society ladies back in Melbourne that it might have led to serious risk taking.

This impression was gained from the memoirs of the last lady to dance with Burke and Wills, before their expedition to oblivion? Her great great grand daughter was Bronwyn Anderson, above, and we have the story.

The memoirs of Clara Ellen Campbell were absorbing reading for Bronwyn Anderson from “Woolthorpe,” a cattle property in Western Queensland.

She grew up knowing that her great great grandmother had entertained famous Aussie explorers, Burke and Wills, before they drove off to a place in history and slow and cruel deaths by sickness and starvation.

Bronwyn’s father Edgar had a great grandmother, an heiress to Harrods department store in London. Unfortunately this English rose went from a life of privilege in England to one of colonial deprivation. Deportation was meant to act as a discipline.

Bronwyn Anderson is related to an heir of Harrods and her great great grandmother had the last dance with romantic Irishman Burke.

She was eager to read those memoirs to learn what brought this liaison with Burke and Wills. And how close had she come to being related to a famous explorer?

Bronwyn admired the indomitable spirit of Clara and her sister Emma and their desire to lift the spirits of the soon-to-be-famous explorers who were given a right-royal send off.

Not a royal send off.

Right royal however would not describe the English send off for Clara’s dad, Charles Harrod, the eldest son, who might otherwise have inherited the famous department store if not for his ability to make a small fortune disappear into thin air.

His father, Sir William Harrod, sent the fiscal miscreant out to the Australian colony.

Clara had the last dance with Mr Wills.

It was not unknown for the influential English gentry to get their more “hopeless” relatives transported to the colonies. This provided character building at a place known for turning hapless convicts into resourceful settlers.

The disappearance of her privileged life turned Clara into a writer with a heartfelt, imaginative style.

She assessed her dad as “wild and extravagant in every way. He was handsome, a social favorite, a good singer, dancer and hunter with hounds but a spendthrift to the core.”

Edgar Campbell whose great grandmother was the last person to dance with Burke and Wills before they went on a risky adventure to impress society girls in Melbourne.

Edgar operates the Woolthorpe property in Western Queensland.

Rough and comfortless wilderness

Australia was described as “a rough and comfortless wilderness,” and that was just the semi-rural Melbourne hinterland.

Charles Harrod’s fixed allowance had been invested in a property near the Avoca River in Victoria but after five years he sold it, making almost every penny disappear into thin air within twelve months.

The heir then suggested to his wife Elizabeth that she might want to “lean on” her family for some money. “I would rather die than do such a thing,” answered the well-bred lady, also from landed gentry.

He then set about converting one of his few remaining assets into cash.

Clara, whose sister was married off to raise some needed cash.

Daughter’s marriage brought wealth

In 1859 Charles bartered his daughter Emma’s hand in marriage to Swan Hill publican, Henry Raines. He received a small farm and some cash and Emma got a stroppy, heartless, businessman.

Raines was a partner in Cobb and Co Coaches and had interests in the Melbourne shipping trade.

In her mid-teens, the socially starved Clara was one of four girls selected from her boarding school to attend a local gala ball. A generous slice of gala “tipsy cake” saw her get slightly sozzled and sent to live with Emma and Henry Raines. You didn’t get away with much back then.

It did not bother the Raines as they wanted her home for an upcoming party in honor of Burke and Wills. The Englishman and Irishman had accepted the challenge of crossing the continent for a reward of two thousand pounds.

It was November 24, 1861when the residents of Swan Hill staged a send-off for the explorers.

The large Raines house and verandahs overflowed with well-wishers. There was food, liquor and tipsy cake in abundance.

Clara Ellen Campbell was away from her wasteful old dad where she could have some fun for a change.

Burke and Wills accept the challenge

Crinolines swirled gracefully as music and laughter carried into the summer night. The exploring party gathered enough memories to sustain their trek across the continent.

Speeches were made, toasts were drunk and the crowd danced until daylight.

Clara Ellen wore her best crinoline for the Burke and Wills party at which she made a promise to explorer Burke. It was to go unfulfilled.

Sixteen-year-old Clara was a picture of loveliness. Her hair was in ringlets to the waist and she wore a white tulle dress looped up with flowers and ribbons. Irishman Robert O’Hara Burke made one last request. “May I have the last waltz with such a pretty young girl.” Her heart fluttered.

Burke failed to impress the wealthy ladies

One heart that he had failed to impress belonged to Melbourne light opera star, Julia Matthews. He had privately expressed the hope that the expedition might win her admiration. There was no thought of postumous glory.

Sunlight yawned across the Murray River as this latest admirer made a solemn promise in the arms of Burke. “You may also have my first dance when you return in 12 months time.”

Her sadness at leaving England had faded. Clara was making the best of colonial life. She watched the expedition’s camels and horses cross the Murray River on a punt and waved goodbye until they became specks on the horizon.

Months later when they felt like giving in to fatigue, dehydration and starvation, did the memories of young Clara or the opera singer Julia, inspire the Irishman to keep going? Did William John Wills have similar thoughts?

Julia Creek was named after the lady that eluded Robert Burke.

He named nothing after the teenager Clara however Julia Creek in Central Australia was called after a “secret friend.”

As Melbourne folk grew restless with the apparent tardiness of the exploration party, the hard-to-catch “secret friend” Julia Matthews visited the editor of the Argus newspaper.

Wearing a heavy disguise, she begged the gent to stir up the public and get the Melbourne Exploration Committee to send a rescue party for Burke and Wills.

While dancing with Clara, the explorers probably dreamt of Melbourne’s elusive society girls.

It was not unrequited love but concern for the heroic men who, in the opinion of Julia, might have been “starving out in that wilderness.” The celebrity was well aware that Burke had taken on the challenge in an effort to impress her.

Did Bronnie come close to being related to Burke or Wills?

Bronwyn Anderson from Theodore often wonders how close she came to being related to Burke. No one will ever know. The explorers missed their rescue party by just nine hours and perished in the outback. She didn’t get the promised dance with Wills.

Julia Matthews’ efforts to have the two “risk-takers”Burke and Wills rescued, was unsuccessful by serveral hours

Although her forbears were disinherited, Clara Ellen Campbell’s family of pastoralists has shown a Harrods-like determination in farming Queensland’s “rough and comfortless” terrain.

Great great grand-daughter, Bronwyn, (now Christensen) believes that there might have been just a little room in the family for an explorer.

Bronwyn Anderson who found the memoirs that spilled the beans on the great explorers.

Comments

commenting closed for this article