Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Leichhardt (German pronunciation: [ˈfʁiːdʁɪç 'vɪlhɛlm 'lu:tvɪç 'laɪçhaːʁt]; 23 October 1813 – c. 1848), known as Ludwig Leichhardt, was a German explorer and naturalist, most famous for his exploration of northern and central Australia.
Leichhardt was born on 23 October 1813 in the hamlet of Sabrodt near the village of Trebatsch, today part of Tauche, in the Prussian Province of Brandenburg (now within the Federal Republic of Germany). He was the fourth son and sixth of the eight children of Christian Hieronymus Matthias Leichhardt, farmer and royal inspector and his wife Charlotte Sophie, née Strählow. Between 1831 and 1836 Leichhardt studied philosophy, language, and natural sciences at the Universities of Göttingen and Berlin but never received a university degree. He moved to England in 1837, continued his study of the natural sciences at various places, including the British Museum, London, and the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, and undertook field work in several European countries, including France, Italy and Switzerland.
On 14 February 1842 Leichhardt arrived in Sydney, Australia. His aim was to explore inland Australia and he was hopeful of a government appointment in his fields of interest. In September 1842 Leichhardt went to the Hunter River valley north of Sydney to study the geology, flora and fauna of the region, and to observe farming methods. He then set out on his own on a specimen-collecting journey that took him from Newcastle, New South Wales, to Moreton Bay in Queensland. On 23 September 1842, at the invitation of Alexander Walker Scott, Leichhardt arrived at Ash Island, where he spent two or three days. Leichhardt's diary from 28 December 1842-July 1843, mostly in German, is available on-line at the State Library of New South Wales.
The First Leichhardt Expedition (1844–1846)
After returning to Sydney early in 1844, Leichhardt hoped to take part in a proposed government-sponsored expedition from Moreton Bay to Port Essington 300 kilometres (190 mi) north of Darwin. When plans for this expedition fell through, Leichhardt decided to mount the expedition himself. Accompanied by volunteers and supported by private funding, he left Sydney in August 1844 to sail to Moreton Bay, where four more joined the party. The expedition departed on 1 October 1844 from Jimbour Homestead, the farthest outpost of settlement on the Queensland Darling Downs. During this trip, Leichhardt named Seven Emu Creek, after shooting a mob of emus nearby, a name later taken on by a large cattle station still in existence, Seven Emu Station.
Other geographical features named by Leichhardt on this expedition include the Dawson River, Comet River, Peak Range, Burdekin River, Lynd River, Mitchell River, Isaac River, McArthur River, Roper River and the Expedition Range. All these places were found to be inhabited by communities of Indigenous people. Various hardships were endured by the members of the expedition, including an incident where one of the Aboriginal guides, Charley Fisher, became frustrated with Leichhardt and punched him in the face, loosening several of his teeth.
On 17 December 1845, after a nearly 4,800-kilometre (3,000-mile) overland journey, and having long been given up for dead, Leichhardt arrived in Port Essington, where a company of Royal Marines was stationed. He returned to Sydney by ship, arriving on 25 March 1846 to a hero's welcome. The Journal of an Overland Expedition in Australia, from Moreton Bay to Port Essington, a Distance of Upwards of 3000 miles, During the Years 1844 and 1845 by Leichhardt describes this expedition. Leichhardt's diary (from 9 September 1845 to 23 March 1846) is available on-line at the State Library of New South Wales.
A memorial to John Gilbert, one of Leichhardt's companions on this journey, can be found on the north wall of St James' Church, Sydney. Under the title Dulce et Decorum Est Pro Scientia Mori (a variation on the more commonly seen Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori) the inscription on the monument, which was "erected by the colonists of New South Wales" reads: "in memory of John Gilbert, Ornithologist, who was speared by the blacks on 29 June 1845 during the first overland expedition to Port Essington by Dr Ludwig Leichhardt and his intrepid companions". There is also a memorial to Gilbert at Gilbert's Lookout at Taroom.
The Second Leichhardt Expedition (1846)
Leichhardt's second expedition, undertaken with a government grant and substantial private subscriptions, started in December 1846. It was supposed to take him from the Darling Downs to the west coast of Australia and ultimately to the Swan River and Perth. However, after covering only 800 kilometres (500 mi) the expedition team was forced to return in June 1847 due to heavy rain, malarial fever and famine. Members of the party nearly mutinied after learning that Leichhardt had failed to bring along a medical kit. Faced with failure, Leichhardt seems to have suffered a nervous breakdown, and Aboriginal guide Harry Brown effectively took over as leader of the party, taking them successfully back to the Darling Downs.
Leichhardt blamed failure of the expedition on his men's weakness. John Frederick Mann, his second-in-charge, published a rebuttal 20 years later, and a book, Eight Months with Leichhardt, after 40 years.
After recovering from malaria Leichhardt spent six weeks in 1847 examining the course of the Condamine River, southern Queensland, and the country between the route of another expedition led by Sir Thomas Mitchell in 1846 and his own route, covering nearly 1,000 kilometres (620 mi). Leichhardt's diary from 17 August 1847 to 14 September 1847, is available on-line at the State Library of New South Wales.
In April 1847 Leichhardt shared the annual prize of the Paris Geographical Society, for the most important geographic discovery with the French explorer Charles-Xavier Rochet d'Héricourt. Soon afterward, on 24 May, the Royal Geographical Society, London, awarded Leichhardt its Patron's Medal as recognition of 'the increased knowledge of the great continent of Australia' gained by his Moreton Bay-Port Essington journey. Leichhardt himself never saw these medals but was aware he had been awarded them. In one of his last known letters he wrote:
I've had the pleasure of hearing that the geographical society in London has awarded me one of its medals, and that the Parisian geographical society has conferred a similar honour upon me. Naturally I'm very pleased to think that such discerning authorities consider me worthy of such honour; but whatever I have done has never been for honour. I have worked for the sake of science, and for nothing else.
In 2012 the National Museum of Australia purchased the medal awarded to Leichhardt by London's Royal Geographical Society in 1847. It came directly from descendants of the Leichhardt family in Mexico.
In 1848 Leichhardt again set out from the Condamine River to reach the Swan River. The expedition consisted of Leichhardt, four Europeans, two Aboriginal guides, seven horses, 20 mules and 50 bullocks. The Europeans were Adolph Classen, Arthur Hentig, Donald Stuart and Thomas Hands, a ticket of leave holder who replaced Kelly at Henry Stuart Russell's Cecil Plains station. The Aboriginal guides were Wommai and Billy Bombat, from Port Stephens.
The party was last seen on 3 April 1848 at Allan Macpherson's Cogoon run, an outlying part of Mount Abundance Station, west of Roma on the Darling Downs. Leichhardt's disappearance after moving inland, although investigated by many, remains a mystery. The expedition had been expected to take two to three years, but after no sign or word was received from Leichhardt it was assumed that he and the others in the party had died. The latest evidence suggests that they may have perished somewhere in the Great Sandy Desert of the Australian interior.
Four years after Leichhardt's disappearance, the Government of New South Wales sent out a search expedition under Hovenden Hely. The expedition found nothing but a single campsite with a tree marked "L" over "XVA". In 1858 another search expedition was sent out, this time under Augustus Gregory. On 21 April near what is now Blackall, beside the Barcoo River, this expedition found a tree marked "L".