Redford knew the cattle would be recognised from their brands as being stolen if he tried to sell them in Queensland, so he headed for South Australia through the Channel Country and the Strzelecki Desert.

Only ten years earlier, explorers Burke and Wills had set out to cross the continent along the same track, and died in the attempt.

However, the jury members were so impressed by his achievements that they found him not guilty, whereupon the judge, Charles Blakeney, remarked, "Thank God, gentlemen, that verdict is yours and not mine!

"[2] In response to the verdict, in July 1873, the Government shut down the Roma District Criminal Court for two years but rescinded the order in January 1874.

In 1883, on behalf of Macdonald, Smith and Company, Readford drove 3,000 cattle which were the first mob taken to Brunette Downs near Corella Creek on the Barkly Tableland in the Northern Territory where he was the station manager.

[1] In 1901 Redford set off from Brunette Downs to explore Central Australia, but (in what one author would later describe as "one of the great ironies of the outback" [6]), the man who had guided so many travelers to safety drowned on 12 March of that year, while trying to swim across Corella Creek, which had flooded due to heavy rain.

[1] Readford became something of a national hero, and the character Captain Starlight in Rolf Boldrewood's book Robbery Under Arms was based in part on his exploits.