About 100 years into the European settlement of Australia, as the coastlines flourished, with cities and growing populations, the vast interior remained largely unexplored and mysterious. In fact, by then, it had even been nicknamed the ghastly blank. Finally, in 1860, an expedition set out to make the first south-north crossing of the Australian continent, but unfortunately, they would find out why so much of the hostile interior remains sparsely populated even today. This is their story.