author
John McKinlay
1819–1872
Drawn by hardship, distance, and the challenge of the unknown, this Scottish-born explorer became one of the determined figures in Australia’s great age of inland expeditions. He is best remembered for leading a South Australian search party sent to trace the fate of Burke and Wills.
1 Audiobook
McKinlay's Journal of Exploration in the Interior of Australia
by John McKinlay
About the author
Born in Scotland on August 26, 1819, he migrated to New South Wales as a teenager and later built a life in the Australian colonies as a pastoralist and skilled bushman. His experience in the outback gave him a reputation for toughness and resourcefulness, qualities that shaped the rest of his career.
His name is most closely linked with the South Australian Burke Relief Expedition of 1861–62. Although the mission began as a search for Burke and Wills, it also became an important journey of exploration in its own right, adding to colonial knowledge of Australia’s interior. He later published an account of the expedition, preserving a firsthand record of the difficulties and discoveries of inland travel.
He died in South Australia on December 31, 1872. Remembered as both an explorer and cattle grazier, he remains part of the story of nineteenth-century Australian exploration, and the town of McKinlay in Queensland carries his name.