Fred Litchfield of Litchfield Shire

The Litchfield Shire was named after Frederick Henry Litchfield, but who was Fred Litchfield?

Fred was 32 years old in 1864 when he arrived at Escape Cliffs as a member of Finniss’ survey and settlement party. He was born in India, where his father was a British Army officer, before the family came to Adelaide in 1839. In 1853 Fred Litchfield went to the Victorian gold diggings where he spent almost a decade before he returned to South Australia to join an exploring expedition led by Alexander Tolmer.

Litchfield performed well on this trip – Tolmer described him as a good worker. Perhaps that was Litchfield’s entrée to the Northern Territory expedition. Certainly, in the time he was in the Territory, Litchfield proved to be one of the most loyal, versatile and industrious of all Finniss’ men.

Litchfield had joined the expedition as a stockman and labourer, but it was as an explorer that he was to make his mark on Territory history. Finniss selected Litchfield to join him in a party which set out on 8 July 1864 to explore the region south west from the first temporary camp, toward the present Manton Dam locality.

On this trip Finniss found and area which he called Fred’s Pass. This was located on the western edge of the Adelaide River plain, at a point approximately 15 kilometres east of the present day intersection of the Stuart Highway and Livingstone Road. It is unclear whether Finniss named the area after Fred Litchfield (as is generally supposed) or after his own son Fred Finniss, who was also a member of the party.

In any case, the Fred’s Pass area was favourably spoken of and was later to be the site for the town of Daly, surveyed by Goyder in 1896 but never developed. However, Goyder’s men did survey a road from Port Darwin toward Fred’s Pass. They called this the Fred’s Pass Road, and this name for road south from Darwin was in use until the Stuart Highway was developed.

In early 1865 Fred Litchfield was a member of several more exploration parties, including one led by Pat Auld which crossed and named the Howard River and then moved Port Darwin where they met the ship Beatrice, which had been waiting for them at Stokes Hill. It was on this occasion that Litchfield became one of the first white men to walk around what is now the Darwin central business district and adjacent inner suburbs.

In May 1865 Fred Litchfield led a party of seven men which explored the headwaters of the Adelaide River and discovered the Finniss River. Then, in September 1865, he led a party which was away for two months, exploring in what is now the Batchelor, Finniss River and Daly River regions. On 22 September Litchfield won a lasting place in Territory history when he found specks of gold in the bed of the Finniss River. It was the first such discovery in the Territory, and Litchfield was sure that “there will be some rich deposits of gold found higher up this river.”

Litchfield was also very enthusiastic about the Daly River. “I have been down to Anson Bay and traced the Daly River up some distance, which river, I think, will stand second to none when more is known of it. We found plenty of fine country and more rivers a good deal larger than the Torrens … plenty of fine fish … a great variety of good and useful timber …”

Litchfield was one of the few men among Finniss’ party who was not discouraged by the starnge new land in which they found themselves. “Three quarters of the country I have explored lately is as fine a country as ever a man could wish to see. Rich soil, well grassed and well watered” he wrote.

However, after returning from his expedition to the Finniss and Daly River areas, Litchfield was summoned to Adelaide to give evidence to the Commission of Inquiry which had been set up to investigate Finniss’ management of the Northern Territory expedition. Litchfield never returned to the Territory. It is possible that he made himself lonely in Adelaide when he gave evidence which was supportive of the unpopular Finniss.

It is not certain, but it seems that Litchfield may have then gone to India and died there in the early 1870s, possibly as a consequence of a spear wound he had suffered at Escape Cliffs in August 1864. He had never married. Another Litchfield family which later became very well known in the Territory (and included the writer Jessie Litchfield) was not related to Fred Litchfield.