By Farah Farouque
YOU may have unknowingly passed it during a walk in the park. It's a large but rather nondescript mound of stones amid the cultivated lawns of Royal Park.
But in August 1860, the Parkville site it memorialises was host to climactic scenes never before seen in Melbourne.
Top-hatted gentlemen mingled with ordinary folk to farewell Robert Burke and William Wills as they attempted to be the first to cross the continent from south to north.
See a Multimedia special on the Burke and Wills saga
Today, two days before the 150th anniversary of the departure of the ill-fated trek, Governor David de Kretser will unveil a new plaque at the bluestone cairn (rather quirkily, it was erected 30 years after the men left).
In doing so, it turns out, the Governor will shadow one of his own predecessors, Governor Henry Barkly, who was among the hordes of Melburnians to pay a visit to the location in the frenzy surrounding the explorers' departure.
Victoria, a colony for a mere nine years back then, had never seen such a farewell as was given to the expeditioners, says David Phoenix, president of the Burke and Wills Historical Society. On the day of departure - August 20, 1860 - some 15,000 people, almost a tenth of the city's population, converged at the park.
In the preceding week, there were multiple farewells around town. In this spirit, multiple events will be held in Melbourne this week to mark the event.
Despite the failure of the enterprise - Burke and Wills died on the return leg in June 1861 - the trek still grips the Australian psyche.
''It's such a fascinating story … the courage, the endurance,'' said Mr Phoenix, one of the many Melburnians still in the thrall of this footnote in history.
The Age is a Royal Society of Victoria partner for the 150th anniversary.