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Updated: May 27, 2025
When returning to Clifton Station we spent a week at Floraville Station, on the Leichhardt River. Here I purchased stores for the station from Mr. Borthwick, who was managing for Mr. J. G. Macdonald. At this station there was a water-hole 25 miles long, and in bathing one would see crocodiles basking on the rocks and bank, but they appeared to be harmless.
Mcintyre reported by telegraph to Melbourne that he had found traces of Leichhardt, whereupon Baron von Mueller and a committee of ladies in Melbourne raised a fund of nearly 4000 pounds, and an expedition called "The Ladies' Leichhardt Search Expedition," whose noble object was to trace and find some records or mementoes, if not the persons, and discover the last resting-place of the unfortunate traveller and his companions, was placed under McIntyre's command.
On this occasion, Leichhardt did not err so widely as Burke and Wills did subsequently, when they mistook the mouth of the Flinders for the Albert.
With a thorough knowledge and appreciation of the many difficulties, dangers, and discomforts, inseparable from such an expedition, Dr Ludwig Leichhardt, a German gentleman, remarkable for enterprising spirit and scientific zeal, left Moreton Bay, upon the east coast of Australia, in September 1844, to proceed overland in a north-westerly direction to Port Essington, on the north coast, a distance of more than three thousand miles.
He was continually turned back by deep and broad mangrove creeks and boggy flats, and on the 21st May the party started for the nearest settled districts in Queensland, in the direction of Port Denison. They were now on the country already twice described by both Leichhardt and Gregory, and making in the same direction that Gregory did on his return journey.
But, perhaps, better still, a solid money reward was raised by both public and private subscription, and shared amongst the party, in due proportions. During his journey, Leichhardt had discovered many important rivers draining large and fertile areas. The principal being the Dawson, the Mackenzie, the Suttor, the Burdekin, and its many tributaries.
If Leichhardt had ever had to steady a thirsty mob of cattle during a pitch dark night, with a strong wind blowing from water, or even across the damp bed of a lagoon or river, miles and miles away, he would soon have found out by what sense cattle are guided in their search for water.
Equally necessary is the establishment of a guard at night, for it is impossible to calculate on the presence of natives they may be close at hand, when none have been seen or heard during the day. Had Dr. Leichhardt adopted this precaution his camp would not have been surprised, nor would he have lost a valuable companion.
Thick patches of a kind of tree, much resembling brigalow in its appearance and grain, were seen on the river banks; but the box, apple-gum, and iron-bark, mentioned by Leichhardt as growing in this latitude were altogether wanting. Large ant-hills, as much as 15 feet in height, which were frequent, gave a remarkable appearance to the country.
Leichhardt, through which the southerly current could have passed, my hypothesis, as regards it, is evidently wrong; and such, on an inspection of Sir Thomas Mitchell's map, appears to be the case, as he has marked a line of hills, connecting the basins of the Victoria with the higher ranges traversed by Doctor Leichhardt, nearer the coast.
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