The only companion that Francis Birtles had on this trip which re-enacted the famous 1860-1861 trek of Australian explorers Burke and Wills was a dog - an alsation bulldog pup called "Wowser".
This mute actuality documentary picture is a "lost film" of the Australian cinema.
A newspaper advertisement promotional blurb for the film read: "The unequalled heroism of the actors in this early drama of Australian history has left an imperishable record of courage and fortitude in desperate straits, that must ever stand pre-eminent in the annals of our country."
Francis Birtles, according to website Burke & Wills Web, "...reached Broken Hill on 25 February [1915] and Adelaide on 1 March. He remained in Adelaide for two weeks to recover from an illness and then went via Burra, Port Augusta, Quorn and Maree to Cooper Creek. He reached Boulia in May, Gilliat in June and Normanton on Saturday, 5 June 1915. He then returned to Melbourne via Cape York, Einasleigh, Hughenden, Tambo, Roma, Toowoomba and Brisbane, arriving in Melbourne at the end of September 1915 having covered 7,000 miles in seven months. Birtles took a movie camera and made a cinematographic record of the journey. He then drove from Melbourne to Swan Hill and Menindee to finish the movie of the Burke and Wills' track."
A promotional blurb in a newspaper advertisement for the film read: "SCENES - The most Northerly Camp, Chief of the Innamincka Tribe, Burke and Wills's Depots, Desert Scenes, Desert Sandstorms, Fight with Boomerangs, Gathering Nardoo Seeds, Corroborees and customs of Cooper Creek Aborigines, Wayside Glimpses, &c., &c."