by John Wells

When Burke and Wills set out from Melbourne for the Gulf of Carpentaria on 20 August, 1860 there was great excitement in the state, and pride that Victorians would beat the South Australians in making the first north-south crossing of the continent.

To make a long story short the party of 19 men, with camels, horses, wagon-loads of supplies and equipment reached Coopers Creek in good order, on November 11, 1860, but there Burke, the rather abrupt and impatient ex-army officer and policeman, decided on December 16 to take a small team north to the Gulf to make better time. Burke, with William Wills, John King and Charles Gray set off from the creek on December 16, 1860.

On February 11, 1861 they reached the Gulf at the Flinders River, though the coastline itself was difficult to determine in the mud and mangroves. Burke was satisfied and the party, already on very short rations, turned south. Gray died on the way south. The other three reached the camp on Coopers Creek the very day the base party left it. John King was found in September 1861 by a search party from Melbourne. He was the only survivor of the four.

It is a tragic story but this is not the place to tell it.

Victorians were dismayed at disappearance of the explorers and search parties were sent out, including two ships, HMCS Victoria and the sailing vessel Firefly. Captain Kirby, on the Firefly, was to endure far more adventure than he wanted. The two ships were sent to search the Gulf of Carpentaria coastline, and to take in a search party, to be picked up in Brisbane.|

The ships were to land two land-based search parties as well but they were to land nearly six months after Burke, Wills, Gray and King had turned southward again.

The Firefly left Melbourne on July 29, 1861. She was under sail but she and the Victoria, which had left a few days earlier, arrived in Brisbane on the same day, as Captain Kirby reported, somewhat smugly.

The Firefly sailed to Brisbane and picked up men and horses for a search party. Kirby was to land them at a point on the Albert River chosen by Captain Norman of Her Majesty's Colonial Steamer Victoria. The ships then sailed in company to Torres Strait, where their troubles began.

On September 1 a great storm broke over the ships, described first as a gale, then as a cyclone. The Firefly was ordered to keep close to the Victoria. Kirby was forced to take in almost all his sails, and as the storm grew worse he fired rockets to attract Captain Norman's attention, to no avail. He was aware that he was drifting toward what he called "Barrier's Reef"".

"At 12pm – the storm being still terrific, the pumps continually working and an immense volume of water on the deck…we were in a most critical condition, being within 15 miles of Barrier's Reef, the vessel drifting at a rate of two and a half knots per hour…" The crew and the search parties were angry that the Victoria seemed to have abandoned them. She "would, with her steam power have been able to save us from all danger".

Throughout the 2nd and the 3rd Kirby kept his ship upright and moving, with only the half-reefed topsails to give him steerage way. He avoided several reefs and islands by very narrow margins. He got in under the lee of Sir Charles Hardy's islands, spotting another ship sunk in about eight metres of water and thinking at first it was the Victoria. The bottom here was all coral and the Firefly could not hold bottom when she tried to shelter under South Island… "heavy squalls and some of the most vivid lightning I had ever seen."

On Wednesday, September 4 first the port and then the starboard anchor cables parted and the Firefly went onto the reef, bumping heavily and clearly doomed. He launched a boat in an attempt to get 'the explorers' ashore but it was smashed against the Firefly. At three in the afternoon Kirby launched the ship's longboat and got nearly everyone ashore.

By five o'clock the tide had ebbed enough to allow men to wade between the ship and the shore, though with some difficulty. The stores were put ashore and the 25 surviving horses were landed. The Firefly's crew and passengers were all safe, with tents for shelter, fresh water, plenty of food and even a supply of firewood. They had cut a hole in the side of the wreck to get the horses out.
One horse swept away swam five miles to another island, in shark-infested waters, against the current, and was safely recovered.

The Victoria found them at last and put men aboard the Firefly to help run out an anchor to stop her going further aground. There was a significant problem appearing immediately. Kirby had a cargo he was to take to Surabaya when he'd landed the search party, and much of that cargo was barrels of spirits.

The Victoria's sailors found these and most became riotously drunk, Captain Norman ordered all the barrels smashed. The drunkenness lasted all of 24 hours and in that time the ship's stores were also looted.

The later reports differed on just whom to blame – Kirby blamed the Victoria's crew and Norman blamed the Firefly's men.

When these minor matters were sorted Kirby and Norman had to work out the next step. The search party needed the horses and there was no room for them on the Victoria. After much careful carpentry the Firefly was refloated, the horses were loaded aboard again (I have no idea how) and the Victoria took the wrecked Firefly under tow.

She steamed up the Gulf to Sweer's Island and then Bentinck's Island where they rested, and ate turtles for a change of diet. The Victoria took the Firefly under tow again and headed for the Albert River, where her battered hulk was left to rot and sink. She entered the river under a 'jury rig, on October 15, 1861.

The Victorian Government had sent two smaller ships to the Gulf to meet the Victoria. They were the brigantine Gratia (Kirby calls her the Grecia) and the schooner Native Lass. They carried coal for the Victoria's engines and various other supplies. The rendezvous was easily arranged, because the Gulf had been well mapped out, especially by Captain Stokes on HMS Beagle.

None of that resupply was of any help to Kirby. He had lost his ship and her cargo – he was still due in Surabaya with the Firefly and a cargo of spirits.

If you thought things had gone badly for him so far, they were not to get much better any time soon – but that is for next week.