When Howitt got to Menindee he sent King on ahead to Melbourne, escorted by Edwin Welch and Weston Phillips. King arrived back in Melbourne on 29 November 1861 where he was hailed as a hero and mobbed by the admiring colonists of Victoria. King received a gold watch and a pension of £180 a year from the Royal Society of Victoria. King was a deeply reluctant celebrity: still physically and emotionally fragile, he struggled to deal with the frenzied public interest in him.