[3] Ludwig Leichhardt and his team were the first Europeans to explore the area on 4 May 1845 on his expedition from Moreton Bay to Port Essington (now Darwin).

Leichhardt was very impressed with the area saying:[4] "About five miles north-west by west from our camp, we discovered an en extensive valley with large lagoons and lakes, and a most luxuriant vegetation, bounded by blue distant ranges, and forming the most picturesque landscape we had yet met with.

... Water, grass, hills, mountains, plains, forest land; all the elements of a fine pasturing country, were here united."

A partnership formed between Walter Jervoise Scott, his brother Arthur, Dalrymple and Robert Herbert (then Premier of Queensland) financed the acquisition of the leasehold.

[1] The 36.4 square kilometres (14 sq mi) area of wetlands[8] is on a basaltic plateau covered by an inland flood plain that hosts several large off-channel lakes that provide a permanent aquatic habitat.