BURKE, ROBERT O'HARA (18 20-186r ) , Australian ex plorer, was born at St. Cleram, Co. Galway, Ireland, in 182o, entered the Austrian army, left it in 1848, and joined the Royal Irish Constabulary. Five years later he emigrated to Tasmania, and shortly afterwards crossed to Melbourne, where he became an inspector of police. At the end of 1857 the Philosophical Insti tute of Victoria appointed a committee to inquire into and report upon the exploration of the Australian interior, and an expedition was organized under the leadership of Burke, with W. J. Wills as surveyor and astronomical observer. This expedition, which left Melbourne on Aug. 21, 186o, forms a painful episode in Australian annals. Ten Europeans and three Sepoys accompanied the ex pedition, which was soon torn by internal dissensions. Near Men indie on the Darling, Landells, Burke's second in command, be came insubordinate and resigned, his example being followed by the doctor--a German. On Nov. 1 i Burke, with Wills and five assistants, 15 horses and 16 camels, reached Cooper's Creek in Queensland, where a depot was formed near good grass and abun dance of water. Here Burke proposed waiting the arrival of his third officer, Wright, whom he had sent back from Torowoto to Menindie to fetch some camels and supplies. Wright, however, delayed his departure until Jan. 26, 1861. Meantime, weary of waiting, Burke, with Wills, King and Gray as companions, de termined on Dec. 16 to push on across the continent, leaving an assistant named Brahe to take care of the depot until Wright's arrival. On Feb. 4, 1861, Burke and his party, worn down by famine, reached the estuary of the Flinders river, not far from the present site of Normantown on the Gulf of Carpentaria. On Feb. 26 began their return journey. The party suffered greatly from famine and exposure. In vain they looked for the relief which Wright was to bring them. On April 16 Gray died, and the emaciated survivors halted a day to bury his body. That day's delay, as it turned out, cost Burke and Wills their lives; they arrived at Cooper's Creek to find the depot deserted. But a few hours before, Brahe, unrelieved by Wright, and thinking that Burke had died or changed his plans, had taken his departure for the Darling. Burke and his companions struggled on, until death overtook Burke and Wills at the end of June. King sought the natives, who cared for him until his relief by a search party in September.