Journey Across the Western Interior of Australia

This book is a historical account of Colonel Warburton's remarkable journey across the Western Interior of Australia. In 1872, Warburton left South Australia as the supervisor of an expedition that also included his son Richard and J. Lewis to cross from Alice Springs to Roebourne on Australia's West Coast. It was funded and supplied with seventeen camels and six months' supplies by (Sir) Walter Hughes and (Sir) Thomas Elder, to connect the province with Western Australia. They endured long periods of extreme heat with little water after leaving Alice Springs in April 1873 and survived only by slaughtering the camels for their meals. Warburton was strapped to a camel when they arrived at the Oakover River. They were brought to Charles Harper's de Grey station in northern Western Australia on January 11, 1874. They had beaten the Great Sandy Desert to be the first to traverse the region.