Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/McKinlay, John
McKINLAY, JOHN (1819–1872), Australian explorer, born in 1819 at Sandbank, on the Clyde, emigrated in 1836 to New South Wales to join an uncle who was a prosperous squatter. He took up several runs near the South Australian border, and quickly made a reputation as an expert bushman.
When in 1861 the government of South Australia decided to send an expedition to trace the fate of Robert O'Hara Burke and Wills, and effect further exploration, the command was offered to McKinlay. He left Adelaide on 16 Aug. 1861, and within three weeks of the date of the grant of the assembly was at Kapunda. His party consisted of about ten men, and besides horses he took bullocks and camels, as well as sheep for food. He proved that Lake Torrens did not exist, but came upon several new lakes, one of which was named after him. At Cooper's Creek he found the remains of Gray, the first victim of the Burke and Wills expedition: under the impression, afterwards corrected, that he had discovered the graves of the leaders, he proceeded to carry out the second part of his instructions, and explore the country between Eyre's Creek and Central Mount Stuart. He struck the coast at Gulf Carpentaria on 19 May 1862, but did not actually get to the sea. Turning southwards, he made his way over the mountains of Queensland, and across the Burdekin River to Port Denison, which he reached on 25 Sept. 1862. He had lost none of his party, but they had been reduced to the greatest straits, and had eaten most of the camels and horses, as well as the other animals that they brought with them. ‘The peculiar incidents met with threw an entirely new light upon the physical geography of some parts of the desert; … and we must add that for cool perseverance and kind consideration for his followers, for modesty, and yet for quiet daring, McKinlay was unequalled as an explorer’ (Wood). For this expedition the South Australian government voted McKinlay 1,000l.; the public of the colony presented him with a testimonial, and the Royal Geographical Society with a gold watch.
In September 1865 McKinlay was again despatched by the South Australian government to explore the northern territory in a peculiarly rainy season, from the perils of which McKinlay's extraordinary ingenuity seems alone to have saved his party.
On his return from this journey McKinlay returned to pastoral occupations, but his hardships had worn him out, and he died on 31 Dec. 1872. He was married. A monument was erected to him at Gawler, South Australia, not far from the point of his departure on his great expedition.
[Davis's Tracks of McKinlay across Australia, ed. Westgarth; Wood's Hist. of the Discovery and Exploration of Australia, vol. ii.; Mennell's Dict. Austral. Biog.]