Between March 1842 and February 1848, Ludwig Leichhardt sent 17 letters back home from Australia. His letters document the period from his arrival on the continent until the disappearance of his final expedition; they are an important source of information about his experiences, plans, and everyday concerns, as well as securing his reputation as a scientist. Like Leichhardt’s correspondence with important scholars of the time, some of his letters to his family have also reached a wide audience. In 1907 the geophysicist Georg von Neumayer gave the collection of letters to the archive of the Deutsches Museum in Munich.

Leichhardt describes his voyage and his arrival in Sydney. He reflects upon daily life in the city, the significance of the harbor, the settlement’s past as a penal colony, and the type of society that grew out of it. He tells how he was welcomed into Sydney society, emphasizes his scientific aspirations and his desire to partake in an expedition into the interior of the continent.
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Leichhardt describes his infrequent encounters with the indigenous people, who had been forced inland, away from the colony on the coast. He discusses the accomplishments of the colony such as printing presses and steamships as well as its economic troubles. He has successfully begun to collect natural history specimens and mentions his desire to travel to Newcastle.
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Ludwigt is invited by settlers to travel towards Newcastle along the Hunter River north of Sydney, and further along the stretch of land known as New England.

Leichhardt becomes acquainted with the farming and livestock breeding in the vicinity of Newcastle, as well as the meager existence of the herdsmen, who lease and manage small parcels of land.
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After a number of weeks in Newcastle, Leichhardt sets out alone on horseback into the backlands. He describes his daily life and the natural world around him, as well as farming and working conditions in the immigrant society.
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Leichhardt finds lodging at a German mission in Moreton Bay. He describes his often isolated existence in the wilds while he collects specimens for his natural history collections. He reports on cattle and sheep ranching and on the conflicts between colonists and the indigenous population.
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Leichhardt lives at Durundur Station, run by the Archer brothers, and visits the Bunya Bunya district. The indigenous people have gathered here for generations when the bunya nuts become ripe, and Leichhardt provides a detailed description of these gatherings and the conditions in the colonies, based on both his own observations and reports of missionaries and settlers.
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Prevented from returning to Sydney due to heavy rains, Leichhardt describes a comet, the climatic conditions, peculiarities of fruit and vegetable cultivation, and the bush fires that occur in the region. He reports on his progress in collecting local wood, a commission from the natural history museum in Paris, and that his hopes of taking part in a government-sponsored expedition have fallen through.
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Leichhardt stops in Newcastle during his return trip to Sydney. He describes the coal deposits near Brisbane, the unusual bottle tree, and sheep herding on the Darling Downs. He is concerned with taxonomic questions posed by fossil bones he has found, and reflects upon the situation of the indigenous population.
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Leichhardt writes to his sister with enthusiastic passages on nature and his calling to be a naturalist. He explains his troubled relationship with his Prussian homeland, where he has been proclaimed a deserter because of his failure to fulfill his military service.
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While still in Sydney Leichhardt had organized his natural history collections and written a geological treatise before preparing for his overland expedition. Leichhardt describes his plans, the expedition party and equipment, as well as his deliberations over their route.
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While on the ship back to Sydney, Leichhardt writes his brother-in-law with a detailed report of his journey, including the regions he traveled through, daily life on the expedition, provisioning, and incidents that happened along the way.
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Back in Sydney, Leichhardt reports on the great honors that he has received, including music composed for him and a financial award, which he intends to use for his next expedition. Together with the cartographer Perry he works on creating a map of his journey.
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Leichhardt reports on the honor shown to him and on the manuscript of his travelogue, which he composed in English. He intends to send his botanical specimens to a friend in Paris before setting off again on a new journey: this time with the intent of crossing the continent from the east coast to Swan River Colony on the west coast.
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Leichhardt is nearly ready to depart on his transcontinental expedition. He describes his equipment, his companions, and his intended route, which he expects will take at least two-and-a-half years.
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Leichhardt voices his disappointment about the course of the last expedition. He describes the difficult weather conditions, sicknesses, and the loss of their pack animals. He blames his traveling companions for the failure of the expedition. His travelogue of the Port Essington expedition awaits printing in England.
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Leichhardt expresses his relief at the news that the Prussian government has pardoned him after treating him as a deserter on account of his failure to fulfill his military service. He writes about how Alexander von Humboldt and Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau have served as role models for him. He hopes to begin his expedition soon.
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Leichhardt is staying in Darling Downs; from there he plans to start his transcontinental expedition. He reports on the preparations that have been made and the most recent knowledge about the conditions of the interior. His botanical collections have arrived in Paris. Before his departure, he receives news of honors bestowed upon him, as well as a copy of the travelogue and the cartographic material of his Port Essington Expedition.
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At Macpherson’s Station, Leichhardt writes his last letters before departing into the interior of the continent. After this date there are no more traces of him or his expedition.