Wurke and Bills

Have always loved those large format, illustrated histories in which the sparse text is interleaved with images drawn from a wide variety of contemporary sources. The other day I picked up one from the early 1970's, by Max Colwell, called The Journey of Burke and Wills. Among its visual attractions is a number of luminous watercolours by Ludwig Becker, the German polymath who accompanied, and died upon, the doomed expedition. Plus much else besides. The actual account of the trek is fairly abbreviated but includes all the essential detail of that extraordinarily poignant disaster. The only thing I wish was also included is Sidney Nolan's wonderful painting of their departure from Melbourne, which I can't find an image of on the Web either. But this one's pretty good: