Burke and Wills
The Triumph and Tragedy of Australia's Most Famous Explorers
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Burke and Wills
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Narrated by:
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Michael Carman
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By:
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Peter FitzSimons
About this listen
The iconic Australian exploration story - brought to life by Peter FitzSimons, Australia's storyteller.
'They have left here today!' he calls to the others. When King puts his hand down above the ashes of the fire, it is to find it still hot. There is even a tiny flame flickering from the end of one log. They must have left just hours ago.
Melbourne, 20 August 1860. In an ambitious quest to be the first Europeans to cross the harsh Australian continent, the Victorian Exploring Expedition sets off, with 15,000 well-wishers cheering them on. Led by Robert O'Hara Burke, a brave man totally lacking in the bush skills necessary for his task; surveyor and meteorologist William Wills; and 17 others, the expedition took 20 tons of equipment carried on six wagons, 23 horses and 26 camels.
Almost immediately plagued by disputes and sackings, the expeditioners battled the extremes of the Australian landscape and weather: its deserts, the boggy mangrove swamps of the Gulf, the searing heat and flooding rains. Food ran short and, unable to live off the land, the men nevertheless mostly spurned the offers of help from the local indigenous people.
In desperation, leaving the rest of the party at the expedition's depot on Coopers Creek, Burke, Wills, Charley Gray and John King made a dash for the Gulf in December 1860. Bad luck and bad management would see them miss by just hours a rendezvous back at Coopers Creek, leaving them stranded in the wilderness with practically no supplies. Only King survived to tell the tale. Yet, despite their tragic fates, the names of Burke and Wills have become synonymous with perseverance and bravery in the face of overwhelming odds. They live on in our nation's history - and their story remains immediate and compelling.
©2017 Peter FitzSimons (P)2017 Hachette AustraliaRelated to this topic
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Story5 out of 5 stars 234
The name Captain James Cook is one of the most recognisable in Australian history - an almost mythic figure who is often discussed, celebrated, reviled and debated. But who was the real James Cook? This Yorkshire farm boy would go on to become the foremost mariner, scientist, navigator and cartographer of his era, and to personally map a third of the globe. His great voyages of discovery were incredible feats of seamanship and navigation.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Great. But...
- By Virgil Tracy on 05-01-21
By: Peter FitzSimons
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Batavia
- By: Peter FitzSimons
- Narrated by: Richard Aspel
- Length: 17 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 560
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 491
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 490
The story begins in 1629, when the pride of the Dutch East India Company, the Batavia, is on its maiden voyage en route from Amsterdam to the Dutch East Indies, laden down with the greatest treasure to leave Holland. The magnificent ship is already boiling over with a mutinous plot that is just about to break into the open when, just off the coast of Western Australia, it strikes an unseen reef in the middle of the night.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Disaster, Mutiny, Murder, Survival
- By Todd on 02-07-13
By: Peter FitzSimons
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The Legend of Albert Jacka
- By: Peter FitzSimons
- Narrated by: Cameron Goodall
- Length: 16 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 1
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 1
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Story5 out of 5 stars 1
Our heroes can come from the most ordinary of places. As a shy young lad growing up in country Victoria, no one in the district had any idea the man Albert Jacka would become. THE LEGEND OF ALBERT JACKA is an unforgettable story of the bravery and sacrifice of one extraordinary soldier that takes us from the shores of Gallipoli to the battlefields of France, all brought to vivid life by Australia's greatest storyteller, Peter FitzSimons.
By: Peter FitzSimons
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Monash's Masterpiece
- By: Peter FitzSimons
- Narrated by: Michael Carman
- Length: 15 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 49
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 40
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 40
The Battle of Le Hamel on 4 July 1918 was an Allied triumph and strategically very important in the closing stages of WWI. A largely Australian force, commanded by the brilliant Sir John Monash, fought what has been described as the first modern battle - where infantry, tanks, artillery and planes operated together as a coordinated force. Monash planned every detail meticulously, with nothing left to chance. Peter FitzSimons brings this Allied triumph to life and tells this magnificent story as it should be told.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent history, almost unknown in US
- By Paul Gallagher on 09-28-23
By: Peter FitzSimons
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The Incredible Life of Hubert Wilkins
- Australia's Greatest Explorer
- By: Peter FitzSimons
- Narrated by: Robert Meldrum
- Length: 21 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 26
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 23
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Story5 out of 5 stars 23
Sir Hubert Wilkins is one of the most remarkable Australians who ever lived. The son of pioneer pastoralists in South Australia, Hubert studied engineering before moving on to photography, then sailing for England and a job producing films with the Gaumont Film Co. Brave and bold, he became a polar expeditioner, a brilliant war photographer, a spy in the Soviet Union, a pioneering aviator-navigator, a death-defying submariner - all while being an explorer and chronicler of the planet and its life forms that would do Vasco da Gama and Sir David Attenborough proud.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Incredible individual whom I hadn’t heard of.
- By David on 02-10-24
By: Peter FitzSimons
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Mutiny on the Bounty
- By: Peter FitzSimons
- Narrated by: Michael Carman
- Length: 22 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 966
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 844
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Story5 out of 5 stars 840
The mutiny on HMS Bounty, in the South Pacific on 28 April 1789, is one of history's truly great stories - a tale of human drama, intrigue and adventure of the highest order - and in the hands of Peter FitzSimons it comes to life as never before. Commissioned by the Royal Navy to collect breadfruit plants from Tahiti and take them to the West Indies, the Bounty's crew found themselves in a tropical paradise. Five months later, they did not want to leave.
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5 out of 5 stars
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You don't know the whole story.
- By Justin Sluyter on 05-01-19
By: Peter FitzSimons
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Kokoda (by Peter FitzSimons)
- By: Peter FitzSimons
- Narrated by: Lewis FitzGerald
- Length: 16 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 571
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 511
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 513
For Australians, Kokoda is the iconic battle of World War II, yet few people know just what happened and just what our troops achieved. Now, best-selling author Peter FitzSimons tells the Kokoda story in a gripping, moving story for all Australians.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Indomitable spirit
- By David on 04-04-15
By: Peter FitzSimons
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Victory at Villers-Bretonneux
- By: Peter FitzSimons
- Narrated by: Robert Meldrum
- Length: 24 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 19
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 16
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Story5 out of 5 stars 16
It's early 1918, and after four brutal years the fate of the Great War hangs in the balance. On the one hand, the fact that Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks have seized power in Russia - immediately suing for peace with Germany - means that no fewer than one million of the Kaiser's soldiers can now be transferred from there to the Western Front. On the other, now that America has entered the war, it means that two million American soldiers are also on their way, to tip the scales of war in favor of the Allies.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A must for WWI!
- By Honey Solomon on 05-14-17
By: Peter FitzSimons
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Mawson
- And the Ice Men of the Heroic Age - Scott, Shackelton and Amundsen
- By: Peter FitzSimons
- Narrated by: Paul English
- Length: 23 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 166
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 145
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 143
Douglas Mawson, born in 1882 and knighted in 1914, was Australia’s greatest Antarctic explorer. On 2 December 1911, he led an expedition from Hobart to explore the virgin frozen coastline below, 2000 miles of which had never felt the tread of a human foot. After setting up Main Base at Cape Denision and Western Base on Queen Mary Land, he headed east on an extraordinary sledging trek with his companions, Belgrave Ninnis and Dr Xavier Mertz. After tragedy struck, Mawson found himself all alone, 160 miles from safety, with next to no food.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Real Life "Boys Own" Adventure Story
- By Windswept on 11-21-12
By: Peter FitzSimons
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Tobruk
- By: Peter FitzSimons
- Narrated by: Humphrey Bower
- Length: 23 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 489
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 365
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 365
In the early days of April 1941, the 14,000 Australian forces garrisoned in the Libyan town of Tobruk were told to expect reinforcements and supplies within eight weeks... Eight months later these heroic, gallant, determined 'Rats of Tobruk' were rescued by the British Navy having held the fort against the might of Rommel's never-before defeated Afrika Corps.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fair dinkum
- By J B Tipton on 11-22-08
By: Peter FitzSimons
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Castaway
- By: Robert Macklin
- Narrated by: Michael Carman
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 17
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 17
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 17
In 1858, 14-year-old Narcisse Pelletier sailed from Marseilles in the French trader Saint-Paul. With a cargo of Bordeaux wine, they stopped in Bombay, then Hong Kong, and from there they set sail with more than 300 Chinese prospectors bound for the goldfields of Ballarat and Bendigo. Around the eastern tip of New Guinea, however, the ship became engulfed in fog, struck reefs and ran aground.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Very interesting
- By Edward A. Vinson on 07-24-21
By: Robert Macklin
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The Battle of Long Tan
- By: Peter FitzSimons
- Narrated by: David Tredinnick
- Length: 21 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 28
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 23
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Story5 out of 5 stars 23
It was the afternoon of 18 August 1966, hot, humid with grey monsoonal skies. D Company, 6RAR were four kilometres east of their Nui Dat base, on patrol in a rubber plantation not far from the abandoned village of Long Tan. A day after their base had suffered a mortar strike, they were looking for Viet Cong soldiers. Then—just when they were least expecting—they found them. Under withering fire, some Diggers perished, some were grievously wounded, the rest fought on, as they remained under sustained attack. For hours these men fought for their lives against the enemy onslaught.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Headwinds
- By C. W. N. on 12-26-22
By: Peter FitzSimons
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Erebus
- One Ship, Two Epic Voyages, and the Greatest Naval Mystery of All Time
- By: Michael Palin
- Narrated by: Michael Palin
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 112
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 100
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Story5 out of 5 stars 100
Michael Palin brings the fascinating story of the Erebus and its occupants to life, from its construction as a bomb vessel in 1826 through the flagship years of James Clark Ross’s Antarctic expedition and finally to Sir John Franklin’s quest for the holy grail of navigation - a route through the Northwest Passage, where the ship disappeared into the depths of the sea for more than 150 years. It was rediscovered under the arctic waters in 2014.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Engrossing story
- By Anonymous User on 10-01-24
By: Michael Palin
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Children of the Night
- The Strange and Epic Story of Modern Romania
- By: Paul Kenyon
- Narrated by: Paul Kenyon
- Length: 19 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 82
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 71
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Story5 out of 5 stars 70
The country that gave us Vlad Dracula, and whose citizens consider themselves descendants of ancient Rome, has traditionally preferred the status of enigmatic outsider. But this beautiful and unexplored land has experienced some of the most disastrous leaderships of the last century. After a relatively benign period led by a dutiful king and his vivacious, British-born queen, the country oscillated wildly.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A haunting look at Romanian history
- By Steve Adams on 07-19-24
By: Paul Kenyon
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Eureka
- The Unfinished Revolution
- By: Peter FitzSimons
- Narrated by: Robert Meldrum
- Length: 22 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 75
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 71
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 72
In 1854, Victorian miners fought a deadly battle under the flag of the Southern Cross at the Eureka Stockade. Though brief and doomed to fail, the battle is legend in both our history and in the Australian mind. Henry Lawson wrote poems about it, its symbolic flag is still raised, and even the nineteenth-century visitor Mark Twain called it: "a strike for liberty". Was this rebellion a fledgling nation’s first attempt to assert its independence under colonial rule? Or was it merely rabble-rousing by unruly miners determined not to pay their taxes?
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5 out of 5 stars
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A gentle telling
- By Mr on 01-24-13
By: Peter FitzSimons
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Nancy Wake
- By: Peter FitzSimons
- Narrated by: Stephanie Daniel
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 740
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 631
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 625
In the early 1930s, Nancy Wake was a young woman enjoying a bohemian life in Paris. By the end of the Second World War, she was the Gestapo's most wanted person. As a naive, young journalist, Nancy Wake witnessed a horrific scene of Nazi violence in a Viennese street. From that moment, she declared that she would do everything in her power to rid Europe of the Nazis. What began as a courier job here and there became a highly successful escape network for Allied soldiers.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Who The "BLEEP" is Nancy Wake??
- By Simone on 09-04-12
By: Peter FitzSimons