Proud Intrepid Heart Leichhardt's first attempt to the Swan River 1846-47

Hardcover

Signed , Limited Edition - This is number 421/600

Ludwig Leichhardt's 3,000 mile overland journey of 1844-1846 from the Darling Downs in Queensland to Port Essington was a tremendous success and placed his name high amongst the greats of Australian land exploration. By a marked contrast his second expedition, which commenced in October 1846 and which had as its destina- tion nothing less than the Swan River settlement of Western Australia, was an abject failure. Leichhardt returned to the Downs in July 1847 (having reached only the Peak Range in central Queensland), his men sick, dispirited, defeated and divided in their loyalties, their stock and provisions largely abandoned, and Leichhardt's 'Grand Plan' in tatters.

Members of his party, led by John Frederick Mann, made damaging statements against their leader, and these began a long and persistent process of denigration of Leichhardt both as an explorer and as a man. Later, other critics joined in the chorus, with a result that, even today, the popular view is that Leichhardt's success on his first expedition was accomplished in spite of many defects of character and leadership.

Leichhardt's journal of the Peak Range expedition and that of one of his protagonists, Hovenden Hely, have never been published. They are here presented in full. Moreover, although there have been some narrative accounts of the expedition in books having a wider purpose, there has yet to be a systematic attempt to analyse the reasons for the abandonment of the expedition. Why did it fail? Must the blame be laid at Leichhardt's feet, and to what extent? What does a close examination of events tell us about Leichhardt the man? The aim of this book is to present