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On 23 October this year Australia and Germany celebrated the bicentenary of explorer Ludwig Leichhardt’s birth. The eccentric and enigmatic Ludwig Leichhardt became a legend in Australian history for his voyages of exploration and spectacular disappearance without trace while crossing the Top End in 1848.
Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Leichhardt (1813-1848?), naturalist and explorer, was born on 23 October 1813 at Trebatsch, Prussia
Leichhardt pursued knowledge for its own sake and not in preparation for any particular qualification or career.
To enable Leichhardt to fulfil his plan to study the natural sciences in a vast new field a friend, William Nicholson, paid his fare to Australia, provided clothes and necessities for the journey and gave him £200.
Leichhardt sailed from London in
October 1841 in the Sir Edward Paget and arrived in Sydney on 14
February 1842. His expressed intention was to explore the inland of Australia.
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