“The resilience of the great Australian pioneer is as much a part of Australia’s kitsch DNA as Ned Kelly on his Harley-Davidson—particularly so when their escapades end in heroic failure. To courageously try is certainly better than not “havin’ a red hot go,” and as there are few things Australia loathes more than a tall poppy, perhaps best of all is to try and fail.

The heroic failure of Robert O’Hara Burke and William John Wills has enduring appeal for Australians thanks to its ability to weave in so much that we feel constitutes Australian identity—mateship, courage, hard yakka, and tragedy. Likely some idea of resilience, too, though it requires the mental gymnastics of a cognitive Nadia Comăneci to celebrate both heroic resilience and heroic death in one iconic Australian yarn. Such contradictions have never really stopped us before.

The story of Burke and Wills has inspired many Australian painters for these reasons and more—most notably, perhaps, by John Longstaff at the turn of the century and Sidney Nolan some half a decade later. Romanticising and mythologising the efforts of Australian pioneers in this way doubtlessly contributes to a national narrative that emphasises themes of self-reliance, egalitarianism, and a shared sense of identity—often at the greatest expense to nuance or critical understanding of Australian history. Valorising pioneers who were, in essence, trespassing contributes to a whitewashing of the brutal realities of colonisation.”