Frederick Henry Litchfield

Charles William Litchfield and family (including six-year-old Fred) embarked at London on the D’Auvergne, arriving at Adelaide on 22 March 1839.

Upon arrival at Adelaide, Dr Litchfield immediately commenced practice as a consulting physician, subsequently became the first Inspector of Hospitals in South Australia, and later moved to Canada where he died in 1869.

This was offered as a managed trust, rather than an outright gift, but it was refused by the widow on grounds that she wished to control her own financial destiny.

[12] In 1851 Fred's sister, Agnes Theresa, married to mounted police Corporal George Ezekiel Mason, stationed at Wellington, South Australia, on the River Murray.

In September 1859, with partly SA Government support, Tolmer commenced an exploration expedition to cross Central Australia and reach the north coast.

On 21 October 1860, in partnership with his half-brother John Munro Litchfield, he took out an annual Crown Lands lease on a sheep run of some 42 square miles.

This mallee scrubland run was located east of the River Murray near Wellington but was without water, which the brothers immediately began to sink for.

[18] Controversially, another half-brother, William Litchfield, who falsely claimed in the Insolvency Court that he also shared an interest in this run, was appointed Crown Lands Ranger at Wellington, which resulted in very public libel litigation by Thomas Reynolds against the Northern Star newspaper.

Having struggled to make a success of his pastoral run, Litchfield relinquished the lease to join the Finniss party of some forty officers and men as a stockman and labourer.

Finniss, who was instructed to examine the Adelaide River and environs, chose a settlement site at Escape Cliffs.

Litchfield was 32 years old when he arrived by sea in the Northern Territory, which he was immediately enthusiastic about, despite being speared at Escape Cliffs in August 1864.

Over time the decisions of Finniss became so criticised that the South Australian Government recalled the party with the intention of holding an inquiry into his conduct.

In December 1865 the barque Ellen Lewis left the Northern Territory carrying Finniss and most of the witnesses, including Litchfield, to arrive back at Adelaide in February 1866.

[23] Soon afterward, Fred Litchfield promptly left Adelaide to travel to Bengal to join his younger brother George who was interested in tea plantations, thereby returning to the place of his birth and infancy.

As a tragic but somewhat connected postscript, in 1875 his aunt and uncle, Anne and Thomas Reynolds, who were his resolute supporters, were returning from the Northern Territory to Adelaide when they were lost in the wreck of the SS Gothenburg.