Still standing 150 years later – this blazed coolibah tree, between Normanton and Bourktown, marks the site of Bourke and Wills second last camp before returning south.

Not far from the campsite, maybe a kilometre downstream, I spotted this croc lying under the pandanus palms. Poor old Bourke and Wills were sick and exhausted at this point. Crossing the creeks and rivers must have been a nerve-wracking experience for them. They survived all that, only to perish on their return to the base camp on Coopers Creek, missing their departing comrades by just hours.