ROBERT Burke and William Wills died in 1861 after attempting their famous but ill-fated trek from Melbourne to the north coast of Australia.In 1863, the Victorian Governor interred a time capsule underneath a fountain in Ballarat as a memorial to the famous explorers — now almost 150 years later, it has been dug up.A throng of excited onlookers, including Premier Ted Baillieu, packed around the Burke and Wills fountain in Sturt Street at 9.30am yesterday in anticipation of the time capsule being removed from its long slumber.But as the hours went on and workers struggled to make any inroads into the solidly-built fountain, the politicians left and the crowds started to dwindle.Heavy equipment was brought in to help locate the elusive time capsule, with concrete drills and angle grinders used to gradually eat away at the 150-year old concrete.Murmurs began circulating throughout the crowd that the prize did not even exist.Finally, after more than three hours of constant chiseling, digging and drilling — a hole formed in the thick concrete wall and an excited mayor Craig Fletcher was invited to showcase the ancient memorabilia to the masses."With this gold coin I give you Burke and Wills' treasure," he exclaimed as he held up the sole gold sovereign found among the priceless loot.Heritage Victoria Archaeologist, David Bannear undertook the dig and admitted he was getting a little bit worried when the results were not instantaneous."I thought when we removed the two slabs there would just be a cavity inside, but it turned out to be a little harder than that," he said.Streatham man Geoff Wills, a relative of William John Wills, said he was proud to attend."It's such an important story, they were just a matter of hours from survival," he said.The contents of the time capsule will be displayed at the Ballarat Gold Museum until mid June. As part of a supporting educational program around the Burke and Wills story, local school students will be asked to work on contents to be placed in a time capsule for re interment.