When the news reached Melbourne that Burke and Wills were dead
and buried on the Cooper, debate raged about the proper resting
place of the heroes' bones. It was decided they should be
reburied with all honours in Melbourne and Alfred Howitt, who
had found and buried them on the Cooper, was sent back there to
retrieve them. The custom of the day favoured a variety of
funerary souvenirs, and Howitt collected locks of the explorers'
hair and specimens of nardoo from their last campsite. On his
return journey he was met in almost every township and village
he passed through by crowds and delegations wishing to pay
homage to the bones of Burke and Wills. In Melbourne the remains
lay in state in the hall of the Royal Society for two weeks in
January 1863, where they were viewed by more than 100,000
people, out of a total city population of 120,000. The burial of
Burke and Wills was Australia's first state funeral. Held on 21
January 1863, the procession stretched for four city blocks and
drew the largest crowd eve