In 1860-61 Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills led an expedition of 19 men with the intention of crossing Australia from Melbourne in the south to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north, a distance of around 3,250 kilometres. At that time most of the inland of Australia had not been explored by non-indigenous people and was completely unknown to the European settlers.

The south-north leg of the expedition was successfully completed, but on the return leg both Burke and Wills died, along with seven other men. Only one man, John King, travelled the entire expedition and returned alive to Melbourne.

Australia Post previously commemorated Burke and Wills on a 30c stamp in 1983.

Issue Information
The issue consists of two se-tenant pairs showing Burke and Wills, along with illustrations showing scenes from the expedition.

Gummed Sheet and Prestige Booklet (Regular) Stamps
The sheet stamps will be issued in two se-tenant pairs showing Burke and Wills, along with illustrations showing scenes from the expedition. The four stamps will also be issued in prestige booklets containing four unique layouts.

 
Sheet stamps

Gummed Miniature Sheets
The 60c Crossing Australia stamp will also be issued in the Adelaide Stampex sheet on 20 August. Until the sheet is released it is not known if there are any differences.

Stampex miniature sheet

Gummed Booklet Panes (Normal Version - 3 August 2010)
The four stamps will also be released in a prestige booklet. Each pane features the same painting in a different colour.

 

 
Prestige booklet panes (click on each pane for an enlargement)

Gummed Prestige Booklets (Normal Version - 3 August 2010)
The above four panes will be included in the prestige booklet.

Prestige booklet

Gummed Prestige Booklets (Adelaide Stampex Version - 3 August 2010?)
An imperforate version of the Burke and Wills booklet will be issued for Adelaide Stampex. It is expected that the booklet will be overprinted with the show logo on the cover.

Self-adhesive Coil Stamps
The two 60c stamps were also issued in self-adhesive coils of 200 stamps.

Self-adhesive stamps

Self-adhesive Booklet Stamps
The Stamp Bulletin lists both B100 paper (used for booklets) and B90 paper (used for coils) for the self-adhesive stamps. Australia Post has advised that B100 paper was included by mistake. There are no self-adhesive booklets being issued with this issue.

Postal Stationery
The four maximum cards featured enlargements of the paintings shown on the stamps.

Maximum cards

Issue Summary
The table below summarises the above information. The cost of each item is given, along with a total for each section. In some cases the stamps are only available from self-adhesive booklets (sold at face value), or from prestige booklets, souvenir sheets or folders (sold above face value).

Item and Description	Cost
For the General Collector
Gummed sheet stamps Horizontal se-tenant pairs (2 x 60c, 2 x $1.20) Self-adhesive stamps 2 values from coil (2 x 60c)	$3.60   $1.20
Total	$4.80
For the Specialised Collector
Blocks, pairs and strips Blocks of 4 and horiz pairs from prestige booklet panes Imperforate blocks and pairs from prestige booklet panes Booklet panes Four panes from prestige booklet Imperforate panes from prestige booklet Booklets Prestige booklet Imperforate prestige booklet Postal stationery Maximum cards	$10.95 $40.00   $10.95 $40.00   $10.95 $40.00   $6.60
Total	$159.45
Grand Total	$164.25

References
Wikipedia, Burke and Wills Expedition, accessed 6 June 2010
Australia Post, Australian Stamp Bulletin, No. 305, July-August 2010

If you have more information, or spot an error, please e-mail me.