Australasia 1862: Crossing the Outback
12 March 1862
12 Mar 1862
Crossing the Outback
12 Mar 1862 Crossing the Outback
21 Jun 1864 Invasion of the Waikato
8 May 1865 Fijian Confederacy
10 Nov 1868 ‘Hauhau’ Wars
22 Aug 1872 Australian Overland Telegraph Line
13 Aug 1877 British Western Pacific Territories
6 Nov 1884 New Guinea Protectorates
20 Aug 1889 Samoan Crisis
15 Mar 1893 Partition of the Solomon Islands
14 Mar 1899 Second Samoan Civil War
The possibility of connecting Australia to the world by a telegraph line to Java encouraged the British colonies of Victoria and South Australia to mount competing expeditions to cross the continent. Despite having better funding, the 1860–61 Victorian expedition under Burke and Wills narrowly failed to reach the northern coast and ended in disaster when the two explorers ran out of supplies on the way back. The South Australian expedition under Stuart fared better, successfully charting the route from Adelaide to just east of Port Darwin in 1861–62.