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2010 150th Anniversary of Burke + Wills Expedition

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SKU: CS122010BURKEWILLS-1C5 Category:
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Items:  2010 150th Anniversary of Burke and Wills Expdetition – UNC 2 Coin Set

This is a fitting trubute to Burke and Wills and their incredible journey from Melbourne in the south to the estuary of the Flinders River on the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north, a distance of around 3250 kilometres. This will surely be a very popular set pursued by collectors Australia wide. Unlike previous years with these sorts of releases both the One Dollar and Twenty Cent coins are available in the same set. The 2 choices in this series were either the magnificent Proof Quality or the Brilliant Uncirculated two coin set as is offered here. The two coins mark the start and the end of the expedition. The 20c coin shows Burke and Wills setting out on their epic journey. The $1 coin portrays John King, the sole survivor of the expedition, resting under the iconic ‘dig tree’ at Bullah Bullah waterhole on Coopers Creek. The folder they come in also has micro copy pictures of their jounal inside. Beautifully presented in every way and a fabulous gift or investment.

SKU

Design

Design:

  Metal                  Denomination                      Mass (g)               Diameter (mm)

  Cupro Nickel            20c                                 11.30                         8.52

  Al/Bronze                $1                                     9.00                         25.00

History

Burke and Wills:

In 1860-61 Robert O’Hara Burke, and William John Wills led an expedition of 19 men with the intention of crossing Australia from Melbourne in the south to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north, a distance of around 3,250 kilometres (approximately 2,000 miles) At that time most of the inland of Australia had not been explored by non-indigenous people and was completely unknown to the European settlers. The south-north leg was successfully completed (except they were stopped by swampland 5 kilometres (3 miles) from the northern coastline) but owing to poor leadership and bad luck, both of the expedition’s leaders died on the return journey. Altogether, seven men lost their lives, and only one man, John King, travelled the entire expedition and returned alive to Melbourne.

The tree at the depot camp that Brahe blazed to mark the location of the buried supplies on the banks of Bullah Bullah Waterhole on Cooper Creek in south-west Queensland is a coolibah, (Eucalyptus coolibah formerly Eucalyptus microtheca) estimated to be around 250 years old. Initially the tree was known as “Brahe’s Tree” or the “Depôt Tree” and the tree under which Burke died attracted most attention and interest. As a result of the blaze on the tree and the subsequent popularity of the book “Dig” written in 1935 by Frank Clune, the tree became known as the “Dig Tree”. There are three separate blazes on the tree; the camp number, a date blaze and the instruction to dig. Two of the blazes have grown closed and only the camp number blaze remains visible today.

*All history taken from Wikipedia for educational purposes only

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