When Burke and Wills Ran Out of Food

The Burke and Wills expedition, led by Robert O'Hara Burke and navigator William Wills, set out 20 August 1860, to cross the Australian continent from south to north.

Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills, Photograph - 1862

On the return journey, the expedition ran out of food, and when the remaining camel died, they had no means to carry enough water to  allow the crossing of the Strzelecki Desert. Burke and Wills were stranded at Cooper's Creek.

The Yandruwandha Aboriginal people, however, managed to live in these harsh conditions, by collecting and processing the sporocarps (seed-like spore cases) of the Nardoo fern, to make Nardoo cakes.

Seeing the Aboriginal people eating Nardoo cakes, Burke and Wills decided to collect Nardoo fern and make their own, Nardoo cakes. But to safely eat the plant, it must be processed to remove the high levels of the enzyme Thiaminase, which causes Thiamin (Vitamin B1) deficiency or Beri-Beri.

Common nardoo, Marsilea dummondii, on a pond in the Dandenongs, Casliber

Burke and Wills didn't know about the plant poison. So, as they made and ate their cakes, they became weaker and soon died.

The Yandruwandha people did not know about the poisons in the plants either. However, they had cultural knowledge passed on by social learning.

Over their long history, especially when food sources were scarce, Yandruwandha individuals would have used trial and error and over time, made discoveries about processing the Nardoo to make it safe for consumption. This knowledge was passed through the generations, by cultural knowledge and imitation.

Social learning is a very effective means to pass on knowledge, that persists over time and this helped the Yandruwandha people to survive by processing a toxic food. Burke and Wills did not have this cultural knowledge, so the toxic food killed them.