Lumholtz travelled to Australia in 1880, where he spent ten months from 1882 to 1883 among the Indigenous inhabitants of the Herbert-Burdekin region in North Queensland.

He wrote a book about his experience, Among Cannibals: An Account of Four Years' Travels in Australia and of Camp Life with the Aborigines of Queensland, first published in 1889.

[3] Lumholtz later travelled to Mexico with the Swedish botanist C. V. Hartman He stayed for many years, conducting several expeditions from 1890 through to 1910 which were paid for by the American Museum of Natural History.

He described archaeological sites, as well as the flora and fauna, of the northern Sierra Madre region called the gran Chichimeca.

Lumholtz started an expedition in 1914 to explore the mostly unknown lands of Dutch Central Borneo, currently part of Indonesia.

His primary focus was to interact with the indigenous peoples to learn about their culture and habits, although he also was interested in the flora and fauna of the area.

[7] They also played an important part in Lumholtz's expedition, by making camps and snares for catching wildlife, and carrying supplies for him.