INVESTIGATION BY STATE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19700, 4 August 1938, Page 7

INVESTIGATION BY STATE

DISCOVERY OF SKELETONS EXPEDITION PLANNED CENTRAL AUSTRALIA (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (Reed. Aug. 4, 9 a.m.) ADELAIDE, Aug. 3. The South Australian Government has decided to send a small expedition to Central Australia to check the discovery of the skeletons of eight humans, believed to be those of the explorer Leichhardt and his party who perished in 1848. The station-owner, Mr. Edwin Lowe, who reported the discovery as announced yesterday by, Sir George Ritchie, Chief Secretary in the Legislative Assembly, will accompany the expedition and guide them to the scene, which is about 300 miles west of Innamincka. Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Leichhardt (1813-1848) was born a.t Trebatsch (a viLlage 45 miles south-easi of Berlin) on Ootober 23, 1813, studied at Gottingen and Berlin, and with William Nicholson, of Clifton, travelled' in France, Italy and England. Having evaded military service, ana been proclaimed a deserter, he migrated in 1841 to New South Wales, and for two years investigated the petrology and botany of the More ton 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. An expedition to explore the northern parts of Australia having been projected, Leichhardt applied for the position of but the delays disappointed him and by means of orivate contributions and his own resources he succeeded in equipping an expedition. Man of Noble Aims The most remarkable feature of his first expedition was that it reached any destination at all. Ernest Favenc himself an explorer, describes Leichhardt as “a man whose character, .o judge from his short career, ) vas largely comprised of co-lradictions and inconsistencies. "Eager for personal distinction, with high and noble aims, he yet lacked that sympathy and feeling of comradeship that attracts men. Leichhardt's followers never desired to accompany him on a second expedition . . The journal of the trip reads to a man accustomed to bush life like the tale of the Babes in the Wood, yet he managed to blunder through.” On his last expedition, however (that of 1848), his luck failed him, perhaps because his companions were less experienced bushmen than usual. He wrote cheerfully on April 4 from a camp on the Cogoon River (Muckad 11-la Creek), and then vanished into the unknown western region. No authentic trace of him has ever been discovered, but endeavours to find rim were responsible for A. C. Gregory’s exploration of 1855-6. Before he died the King of Prussia had pardoned Leichardt, at. the request of Alexander von Humboldt, for desertion, and given him permission to return to Prussia; but it is uncertain whether the pardon ever reached its destination.