The Storey Players is the brainchild of Melbournian Simon Storey and his play The Ghost of John King, a two-hander with his daughter, is a novel take on the famous, or rather infamous, Burke and Wills expedition as seen by the only survivor from the Gulf leg, John King.

The play was excellent but what made it most intriguing was that Mr Storey and his family were taking the show on the road following the route of the expedition from Melbourne to the Gulf.

That meant they would be coming through Birdsville, Bedourie, Boulia, Mount Isa, Cloncurry and up to Karumba.

I caught the play as they performed it in the MITS theatre in Mount Isa on Monday and it was an enjoyable evening.

At the start of the play Mr Storey called for a show of hands from the audience about who had heard of Burke and Wills and of course all hands went up.

Then he asked who had heard of John King and Charlie Gray and a lot fewer hands were raised.

They accompanied the two leaders from Coopers Creek in 1860 all the way to the Gulf and back.

Mr Storey mentioned a great book on the subject – The Dig Tree written by Sarah Murgatroyd (who sadly died of cancer not long after she completed it) and having read it, I agree it is an absorbing work.

The Burke and Wills story remains a compelling legend because of the amazing story and the various near misses where tragedy could so easily have been avoided.

But another important book The Aboriginal Story of Burke and Wills showed how these ignorant Europeans died in the desert when locals thrived around them.

Robert O’Hara Burke, like me was an Irishman, but I’m hardly proud of him. He was vain and stupid when it came to survival in the bush and treated the Aborigines with contempt when they could have saved his life.

There are still lessons to be learned from Burke and Wills on how Europeans should adapt to this great ancient landscape – Derek Barry