Sarah Murgatroyd's "The Dig Tree: A True Story of Bravery, Insanity and the Race to Discover Australia's Wild Frontier" is really an excellent book.

The book tells the story of the Burke and Wills expedition, which aimed to cross the Australian desert and fill in the wide, blank spaces on the map. Burke is portrayed as supremely bungling, which taints the successful completion of his goal, as does the fact he managed to kill both himself and eight other men.

The book really succeeds on Murgatroyd's talent as a writer. It's an interesting story with a huge cast of characters and she manages to make them all memorable and easy to tell apart. For someone who knows little about Australia's history, I found this book pretty fascinating.

My only quibble is I would have loved to hear more about the Aborigines, who kept the only survivor of the desert crossing alive. ( )

Thoroughly researched story of Burke and Wills. In 1860 an eccentric Irish police officer Robert Ohara Burke led a cavalcade of camels, wagons and men out of Melbourne accompanied by William Wills, a shy English scientist. Burke was prepared to risk everything to become the first European to cross the Australian continent. A few months later the expedition had become an astonshing tragedy.

Sarah Murgatroyd retraced these ill fated steps and reveals new evidence both historical and scientific to shed some light on what led to the disaster.
Well written and generously illustrated throughout highly recommended for anyone with an interest in early Australian history. ( )

Very interesting history of the Burke and Wills expedition to cross Australia. The author traveled the same route as the expedition. Also, kind of bitter-sweet, because the author died not long after finishing the book from some illness. Highly recommended. ( )

This book is a good read, starts a little slow but pulls you in. The author is critical of the expedition's leadership - their motives and methods. She does build a good case and seems to strive to be objective at least in her analysis at the end. In all, its a nice piece of work - if you're into exploration literature like me - you'll enjoy it. I also enjoyed learning about the remarkable ecosystem of the outback - I kept mentally contrasting it with the description of the Amazon in River of Doubt. ( )

I so enjoyed this account of the famous Burke and Wills Expedition that I wonder it wasn't more widely lauded, how it ended up in the bargain bin at Borders for $7.50 (hard cover) I'll never know. Perhaps Sarah Murgatroyd is not a good interview subject, Peter Fitzsimons manages to get plenty of press for his tomes on similar topics.
Putting that aside I just thoroughly enjoyed this book. The suspense, the comedy of errors and ineptitude and the slice of life of Australia in the 1860's is really priceless. I nearly wept at the end, I tried to forget the ending, well more honestly I had forgotten exactly the ending of this famous story, so I was really in suspense as to whether they would make it back. Not any more - the account of their trials and tribulations will be burned in my mind for some time to come. ( )