William John Wills
William John Wills
1834-1861
British-born Australian explorer who made the first overland crossing of the Australian continent in 1860 as second-in-command and surveyor on Robert O'Hara Burke's (1821-1861) ill-fated Great Northern Expedition, on which he and Burke died of starvation. After beginning medical studies, Wills migrated to Victoria, Australia, where he accepted work as a Crown Lands surveyor (1852). In 1858, he became a staff member of a meteorological observatory on Flagstaff Hill in Melbourne. In 1863, Wills and Burke's remains were reburied in Melbourne with a memorial to their transcontinental adventure.
More From encyclopedia.com
Robert O'Hara Burke , Robert O'Hara Burke
Robert O'Hara Burke (1820-1861) was a British policeman and explorer who led the first expedition to cross the Australian contine… crosier , crosier, crozier †cross-bearer to an archbishop XIV; bearer of a bishop's pastoral staff, hence (through the phr. crosier('s) staff) the staff itself… William Dampier , The English privateer and author William Dampier (1652-1715) explored the Western Australian coastline and stimulated interest in the Pacific through… Earl Frederick Sleigh Roberts , The British soldier and filed marshal Frederick Sleigh Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts of Kandahar, Pretoria, and Waterford (1832-1914), made his reputatio… James Jerome Hill , James J. Hill (1838–1916) rose above a childhood of poverty in Canada to become one of the great U.S. empire builders and one of the wealthiest men o… Australia , Compiled from the August 2006 Background Note and supplemented with additional information from the State Department and the editors of this volume.…
You Might Also Like
NEARBY TERMS
William John Wills