This book is concerned to document, where possible, what became of the men who participated in and survived the Burke and Wills expedition (see Table 1.1). These biographical sketches do not consider the personal histories of John King (see Villiers 2012), William Hodgkinson (see Stoodley n.d.), Charles Darius Ferguson (see Ferguson 1888, 1924; Potts & Potts 1979), or Dr Hermann Beckler (see Dodd 2016), as their stories are relatively well-known and are already the subject of some biographical study. Rather they concentrate on the other 25 survivors. As each decade passed from the departure of the expedition in 1860, awareness in Australia of the identities of the last survivors became confused and with the emigration of some expeditioners (such as Beckler, Ferguson, Macpherson, and Price) to other countries, they became out of sight and out of mind. To confuse the issue even further, my research has identified a significant number of men and women who falsely claimed an association with the expedition.

Membership of the expedition is interpreted broadly to include the three men who were selected but dismissed on or before the day of departure - that is, Owen Cowen, Henry Creber, and Robert Fletcher; however, it does not include Professor Georg Neumayer, who travelled with the expedition from Swan Hill to Bilbarka; or Police Superintendent Henry Foster who accompanied the party from Swan Hill to Balranald. Of the 29 survivors, a year of death is known for only half of them. Of those known, the first to die was Landells in India (1871), followed by King in Melbourne (1872), Creber died at sea off New Zealand in 1874, Dost Mahomet died in 1881, and Cowen in New Zealand in 1885. Macpherson died in New Zealand in 1896 and Lyons died in Melbourne in 1899. Four members died in the first decade of the 20th century - Hodgkinson in Brisbane in 1900, Price in New Zealand in 1904, McDonogh in Melbourne in 1904, and Lane in Melbourne in 1907. Only four men are known to have lived to see the golden jubilee of the expedition in 1910: Brahe who died in Melbourne in 1912; Beckler in Germany in 1914; Prolongeau in Mildura in 1915; and Ferguson in the United States in 1925. As far as we know, Ferguson was the last expedition member to die, and the longest lived - at 93 years of age. At least three members - King, Lane, and McDonogh - were receiving assistance from the Victorian Government at the time of their deaths.

The study began with 29 survivors, and excluded four men (John King, Herman Beckler, William Hodgkinson, and Charles Ferguson) because they have been the subject of some biographical study, leaving 25 subjects. Of these, biographical details have been found for the following 15 men - George Landells, John Prolongeau, Owen Cowen, Robert Fletcher, Alexander Macpherson, Thomas McDonogh, William Brahe, William Wright, Henry Creber, Alfred Price, James Lane, Myles Lyons, Esau Khan, Dost Mahomet, and Belooch Khan. The other 10 men remain the subject of further research: Robert Bowman, Thomas Brooks, John Drakeford, Patrick Langan, James McIlwaine, John Smith, Samla, William Cole, Frederick Morrison, and M. O'Brien.