Central Australia and reach the north coast. Among those in his party of seven was Fred Litchfield, taken because he was "generally useful". Also in the party was ex-policeman Bernard Shaw of Wellington who, like Tolmer, had served with Fred’s father. At that time there was fierce competition, notably with the privately sponsored party of John McDouall Stuart, to be first to succeed. Tolmer’s badly organised expedition was a costly failure, being abandoned just beyond the northern Flinders Ranges. Litchfield received expenses but no wages. Meanwhile, Stuart’s expedition went on to success and fame. Pastoralist Litchfield’s first experience of exploration having been a disappointment, he was again unemployed at Wellington, still looking for his own scrub run. 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. Their uncle, Thomas Reynolds, then Premier of South Australia, paid for the lease and stock. 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. Northern territory In 1864 the South Australian Government mounted an expedition to the Northern Territory for the purposes of survey and settlement. The leader was Boyle Finniss who, having been Commissioner of Police, knew Fred Litchfield’s late father well. 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. Tolmer had recommended him as a good worker. 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. During 1864–65 Litchfield’s reputation rose as he, initially with surveyor W. P. Auld, took part in, and then led, exploration parties in the Howard River, Darwin, Northern Territory, Batchelor, Northern Territory, Adelaide River, Finniss River, and Daly River regions. In doing so, Litchfield was among the first