First, next to no one knows that Burke and Wills were actually successful – they achieved exactly what they set out to do, which was to head from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria and return to base camp at Coopers Creek. It’s what followed that was heartbreaking. The troop returned to Coopers Creek, as per plan, expecting to be met by the remainder of the party. Instead, by the time they dragged their sorry arses back (albeit five weeks later than anticipated) they discovered that they had narrowly missed the others by nine hours. Being critically low on supplies and mostly crook already, the team (with the exception of John King, another of the party’s expedition assistants) died in a matter of weeks. How fucked is that? So close and yet so far – and the way that history remembers them is as failures. Davies’ show, Burke & Wills: the Expedition, aims to remedy this.
This is not Davies first foray into history either – he gave our favourite bushranger the treatment in 2000 with a CD and show called Ned Kelly. After that, he wasn’t necessarily sold on the idea of tackling another historic tale. However, a guy who’d enjoyed Ned sent him an email wondering whether there was going to be another CD like it and recommended that he read two books, namely Coopers Creek by Alan Moorehead and The Dig Tree: The Story of Burke and Wills by Sarah Murgatroyd. It was after reading those that Davies had a change of heart.
“I don’t think I’m necessarily a history buff,” Davies explains. “But I do enjoy it, especially if it’s in the form of a good yarn written well. I’m always up for a good read and Coopers Creek and Sarah Murgatroyd’s book just hooked me in. It was the same as with Ned, there’s so much of the story that’s left out through schooling and education – there’s a whole lot about Burke and Wills’ story that’s been misinterpreted. Nearly everyone thinks that they were a bunch of no-hopers who wandered aimlessly and died. Sure, what happened when they were trying to get back home is very tragic, but they did accomplish what they set out to do and I had absolutely no idea.”
Davies also wants to correct some of the myths around Burke. “For instance, I was having a chat to a guy about him the other day,” Davies reflects. “You know how there’s this whole story about Burke beating up Gray and then he dies? This guy says to me ‘Burke was a prick’. But what happened was that they got to the Gulf of Carpentaria and were running out of food on the way back and not catching much. They did get some indigenous help and really, he should have got more, but that was white fellas for you back then. So, basically, there were four of them and they were depending on each other for their lives. One day they couldn’t find Gray and they discovered him eating the supplies. Burke was very old-school and beat him and maybe he should’ve gone less hard, but the man had put all of them at risk.” It kinda puts a different complexion on things doesn’t it?
So in bringing the story to life, Davies hooked up with Dave Phoenix, the head of the Burke & Wills society. It’s similar to what he did with Ned, whereby he teed up the narrative with Ian Jones, the premier Kelly historian. Historical accuracy is very important to Davies. “Yeah, that’s definitely why I worked with Ian Jones and Dave,” he agrees. “I knew what I was doing musically and I knew that the musicians would interpret where I was coming from, but it was important for me in the telling to go to the foremost historians to make sure that the show has the cred from that aspect as well.”
Sure enough, the result of the collaboration is nothing short of glorious and thorough. It’s a two-disc package, the first of which is an atmospheric and epic instrumental take on the tale, neatly evoking each stage of the expedition, while the second CD has Henry Wagons telling the tale in his unmistakable rumble, backed by Davies and a handpicked collection of Australia’s finest musicians. It’s good to look at too – it comes with a beautiful hardback book, containing not just the narrative, but archival material from the expedition – pictures drawn by the scientists and artists who were actually out there.
It’s a big undertaking to translate this to the stage and it sounds fascinating. The show involves Davies, a seven-piece band and recorded narration by Wagons, backed by a projection of the archival material old-time movie-style. “The audience gets taken on a journey too with the visuals and the music,” Davies explains.
It’s easy to get fired up while talking to Davies about the show, because his enthusiasm for the subject is contagious. You also get the impression that he’s a glass half-full kind of guy. In summing the expedition up, Davies puts it this way: “There were some crazy, hard times and may be Burke wasn’t on the ball in some respects, but he got them there and back. Mate, just imagine if they’d made it back that morning – they would’ve been heroes!”
BY MEG CRAWFORD
