Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Leichhardt (born October 23, 1813 in Sabrodt (later part of Trebatsch, today Dive), Mark Brandenburg, Prussia, † probably 1848 in Central Australia) was a German explorer, zoologist, botanist and geologist.
Leichhardt came to Australia in 1842, where he devoted himself to research into the fauna, flora and geology of the then largely unknown continent. Until the 1840s, the interior of Australia had not yet been explored. The largest part of New South Wales with today's Victoria, the coastal areas of Queensland to Brisbane and narrow outlying areas on the coasts of South Australia and Western Australia, north to about the Pilbara region were developed. Tasmania was already colonized. There were few branches on the north coast of the Australian continent, including the Port Essington military station.
Leichhardt undertook three expeditions. On his first expedition from 1844 to 1845, he made the first crossing from Queensland to Port Essington in the Northern Territory. Since he described extensively in his diaries the newly discovered area, climate and weather, the flora and fauna as well as the Aborigines, he made subsequent explorations and settlements possible. His second expedition from 1846 to 1847 was to lead from eastern Australia to the Swan River in Western Australia; she failed after five months. When he wanted to repeat this plan in 1848, he and his expedition team remained lost in the outback.
In Australia Leichhardt is well known because he is treated in history lessons. In Germany, one knows him less: While in the GDR his expedition diary appeared in 1951 and a biography from 1972 in six editions, emerged in the Federal Republic until the 1980s publications about him.
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