Open Access

Martin Fallding, Doug Benson

• In January 1843, curiosity for natural history led a young German naturalist, Ludwig Leichhardt, to spend about three weeks exploring Mt Royal on the north of the Hunter Valley, about 70 km north west of Newcastle, New South Wales. This was a sidetrack on his journey from Newcastle, through the Hunter Valley and inland to Moreton Bay (Brisbane) and preceded the journeys for which he was to become famous; his 1844–45 overland journey from Moreton Bay to Port Essington (in Northern Territory) and his disappearance without trace in 1848 attempting to cross Australia. Using his Diary and herbarium records this paper brings together the chronological events of the 29 year old Leichhardt’s journey, the plant and animal species recorded, the specimens collected and his landscape descriptions and compares the 1843 landscape with the area today. Most of it is now in Mount Royal National Park, and part of the Gondwana Rainforest Reserves World Heritage Area. Using Mt Royal as an example of the richness of Leichhardt’s scientific legacy, we draw attention to the existence of a considerable number of Leichhardt’s plant specimens in herbaria in Sydney and Melbourne relating to his early collecting around Sydney and the little-known journey from Newcastle to Moreton Bay. Leichhardt’s visit to Mt Royal provides an insight into a gifted young naturalist coping with some of the hardships of nineteenth century botanical exploration, in a landscape which is easily recognizable and of which much is remarkably little changed since European settlement.