[1] The brothers worked with a squatter uncle until 1840 and afterward took up a property called "Yambro" on Lake Victoria between the Darling River and the South Australian border.

[2] McKinlay successfully participated in Sturt's expedition from 1844-1845, which gave him exploration experience of Australia, which at the time was a fairly foreign country to him.

However, after John King, the sole survivor of the Burke and Wills expedition, had recounted the events it was discovered that Charles Gray died north of Cooper Creek, near what is today known as Coongie Lake.

By 20 May 1862 the shore of the Gulf was thought to be only around five miles (8 km) away, but the intervening country was very difficult, and it was decided to turn east and make for Port Denison on the north Queensland coast.

[4] In September 1865 he was chosen to lead a party of twelve to explore the Northern Territory and to find a more suitable site for settlement than Escape Cliffs, to which B. T. Finniss had staked his reputation, and was proving a costly embarrassment.

With great resources McKinlay, having killed his horses, constructed a raft with their hides and saplings and with Edmunds and his party made a perilous journey to the coast.