The future of Melbourne's oldest public monument, a statue commemorating the ill-fated explorers Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills, hangs in the balance, sparking a fresh debate about colonial history and public memory. The bronze and granite statue, created by Charles Summers in 1865, has been in storage for nearly nine years, originally removed due to the construction of the Metro Tunnel. Its continued absence, however, has evolved into a symbolic reckoning, with calls for its permanent removal or relocation met by accusations of 'politically correct' historical airbrushing.
A Monument to Mismanagement and Myth
The imposing statue immortalises an expedition that has long been mythologised as a 'heroic failure' in Australia's foundation narrative. In August 1860, amidst great fanfare, the Victorian Exploring Expedition departed Melbourne, aiming to cross the continent from south to north. Funded by the Royal Society of Victoria and led by the charismatic but profoundly unsuitable Burke, the party was spectacularly ill-prepared for the harsh Australian interior.
Burke, a former police inspector with no exploration experience and a notoriously poor sense of direction, was an eccentric choice for leader. Historian Sarah Murgatroyd noted he was "notorious for getting lost on his way home from the pub." His motivation was partly romantic, driven by a desire to impress a young actress, Julia Matthews. The expedition was lavishly equipped with absurdities including a piano, a Chinese gong, and 50 gallons of rum for the camels, but crucially, it lacked an Aboriginal guide.
The Tragic Unravelling of an Expedition
After a series of poor decisions and internal disputes, Burke, Wills, John King, and Charles Gray pushed north from their base at Cooper's Creek in Queensland towards the Gulf of Carpentaria. They reached the mangroves near the Flinders River in early 1861 but, exhausted and on half-rations, were forced to turn back. Gray died on the return journey. The remaining three men staggered back to Cooper's Creek on 21 April 1861, only to find the depot deserted.
The support party, under William Brahe, had left that same day, leaving behind buried supplies and a famous message carved into a coolabah tree: "DIG." In a final catastrophic decision, Burke chose not to wait but to attempt a trek towards Adelaide. Burke and Wills subsequently perished from starvation. King, the sole survivor, was saved by the care and knowledge of the local Yandruwandha people, who the expedition had largely shunned.
Recontextualising a Colonial Symbol
The statue's potential return to a redeveloped City Square, now likely to prioritise First Nations narratives, is at the heart of the current controversy. Former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett has criticised the decision to keep it mothballed as disrespectful. However, the debate offers a chance to reassess the expedition's true legacy: one of fatal incompetence that led to the deaths of seven men and, following later searches, contributed to the violent dispossession of Aboriginal peoples from newly 'discovered' pastoral lands.
A royal commission censured Burke's leadership, and historians note the explorers might have survived if they had accepted Indigenous help. Burke reportedly fired at Aboriginal people offering fish. The parallel narrative of King's survival thanks to the Yandruwandha is now seen as essential to the story. Proposals suggest if the statue is relocated—perhaps to the Royal Society of Victoria—it should be accompanied by an Indigenous-themed monument to provide crucial context.
Ultimately, the statue represents a Victorian colonial quest for exceptionalism that captured the public imagination. Today, Melbourne grapples with whether a monument to such a tragic folly, devoid of its full historical context, still deserves a prime civic space. The fate of Burke and Wills, once celebrated with a state funeral attended by 40,000 people, now prompts a more nuanced and critical public conversation about which stories we choose to monumentalise and why.
