CAMELEERS
Ben and Tegan, 14. Jenkins with CEO of Mithaka Aboriginal Corporation Barry Riddiford (centre) near native waterhole
Cameleers join search for
a n cient artefacts
T
HE cancellation of the Cameleers-led
deployment to southwest Queensland to retrieve the
Burke and Wills cache from the recently-discovered
Plant Camp may have been a blessing in disguise.
It was cancelled at the last minute for lack of approval
from Defence Minister Marise Payne because of a
lack of supporting government documentation.
That happened because of a bureaucratic oversight,
but the Cameleers, some Mithaka Elders and two
Melbourne academics - Dr Doug McCann and Dr Peter
Hogan - went through with their plans to deploy, and
instead of searching for Burke and Wills artefacts,
switched their attention to ancient Aboriginal artefacts.
Doug and Peter are also members of the Royal Society
of Victoria, the organisation that commissioned
26 | OCTOBER 2017
the Burke and Wills expedition in 1860-61.
Ben Jenkins, a former ADF member, and
daughter Tegan, 14, were among the Cameleers
who supported the Mithaka Elders as they
searched for items of cultural signifi cance.
This is Ben’s account of the twist in the tale
of the Burke and Wills misadventure that
surfaced during their eff orts to fi nd Aboriginal
artefacts and culturally-signifi cant sites.
The year is 1861, Robert Burke and John Wills, along
with Charlie Gray and John King, are nearly beaten men.
Stumbling along the Bilpa Morea claypan
after successfully crossing the continent from
Melbourne, they make the decision to lighten their