SKELETONS OF EIGHT MEN

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19699, 3 August 1938, Page 5

SKELETONS OF EIGHT MEN

CENTRAL AUSTRALIA

POSSIBLY EXPLORERS

LOST LEICHHARDT PARTS

(Eloc. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn. (Reed. Aug. 3, 9 a.m.) ADELAIDE. Aug. 2.

The remains of eight human beings which have been found in Central Australia are believed to be those of Leichhardt's exploring expedition. This announcement was made today by Sir George Ritchie, Chief Secretary in the Legislative Assembly. Sir George Ritchie said that a station-owner on the border of Northern Territory had declared that when mustering cattle, he came upon the bones of seven, apparently, those of white human beings, and another skeleton two miles further away. That number 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.

A message from Perth states that the late Dr. C. W. Laver, who during his lifetime was an explorer, had said that natives once told him they had discovered relics of a bullock wagon and bullock horns in Central Australia, near the South Australian border. Dr. Laver often speculated as to whether they were all that remained of the ill-fated Leichhardt party.