Ludwig Leichhardt's lost expedition
Last seen on 3 April 1848 near Roma, Queensland, explorer Ludwig Leichhardt set out to cross the continent to the Swan River with four Europeans, two Aboriginal guides and dozens of animals. The whole party vanished.
1848 CE · -26.57, 148.79 · status: unexplained
The account
Searches continued for over a century; a brass nameplate marked 'Ludwig Leichhardt 1848', found on a burnt gun by an Aboriginal stockman around 1900 near Sturt Creek on the WA–NT border and authenticated in 2006, suggests the party reached the western deserts. Aboriginal accounts of the party's fate were recorded by later searchers.
The sceptical view
There is nothing supernatural: drought, conflict or illness in the interior are the likely causes. Only the location remains unknown.
The researched reading
An explorer and his party vanished in the Australian interior. Drought, illness or conflict explain it.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A known natural phenomenon | 40% | Drought, lack of water and illness in the interior were deadly; a brass nameplate inscribed with his name, found on a burnt gun near Sturt Creek and authenticated by the National Museum of Australia in 2006, suggests the party crossed about two-thirds of the continent. |
| Undetermined | 23% | The share the reading had given to fabrication on doubt rather than evidence: the record does not settle it either way. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 15% | Conflict with Aboriginal people or within the party is a deliberate-human-act explanation supported by some oral traditions. |
| A cultural story | 14% | His disappearance became a national legend, with many claims of relics and survivors. |
| Perception, memory or mind | 4% | Leichhardt was a poor bushman and his men were disaffected. |
| Something in the surroundings | 2% | Nothing beyond the harsh interior. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 2% | An expedition lost in the desert needs no strange cause. |
Official position: Several search expeditions found no conclusive trace; the 2006 authentication of the nameplate is the strongest evidence.