Some contemporary experts believed the centre of Australia was a massive lake surrounded by lush pastures. Others thought it was arid desert. The Royal Society of the Colony of Victoria chose Robert O'Hara Burke to go to find out - and make history by crossing the Continent for the first time. Burke, ex-army and now a policeman, had no experience as an explorer. But with men, horses, carts, covered waggons, tons of supplies, and camels specially imported from India, he set out from Melbourne. Soon there were raging rows with his assistants. Burke fired his second in command and appointed William Wills , an eager young man from Devon, to the job. Together they were to achieve the ' most disastrous success' tn the history of Australian exploration.