BONES OF EXPLORERS?

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 August 1938, Page 5

BONES OF EXPLORERS?

DISCOVERY IN CENTRAL AUSTRALIA MAY HAVE BEEN LEICHHARDT & COMPANIONS. NOT HEARD OF SINCE 1848. By Telegraph—Press Association. Copyright. ADELAIDE, August 2. The remains of eight human beings, found in central Australia, are believed to be those of Leichhardts’ exploring expedition of 1848. This announcement was made today by Sir George Ritchie, Chief Secretary, in the Legislative Assembly. Sir George Ritchie said that a sta-tion-owner on the border of the Northern Territory declared that, when mustering cattle, he came upon the bones of seven apparently white humans and another skeleton two miles farther away. That about comprised the personnel of the expedition led by Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Leichhardt, who left Brisbane in 1848 to cross Australia from east to west and was never heard of again. Leichhardt, who was born in Prussia- in 1813, went to Australia in 1841 and conducted important geological investigations. Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Leichhardt (1813-1848) was bom at Trebatsch Germany, on October 23, 1813, studied at Gottingen and Berlin, and with William Nicholson, of Clifton, travelled in France, Italy and England. He migrated in 1841 to New South Wales, and for two years investigated the petrology and botany of the Moreton Bay district, forwarding numerous fossils to Professor Owen in England. The results of his labours appeared in several German scientific periodicals and in Owen’s reports to the British Association in 1844. He had some success in exploring the northern parts of Australia, but on His last expedition his luck failed him. He wrote cheerfully on April 4 from a camp on the Cogoon River (Muckadilla Creek), and then vanished into, the unknown western region. No authentic trace of him had ever been discovered, but endeavours to find him were responsible for A. C. Gregory’s explorations of 1855-6.