“It is remarkable how soon a man becomes indifferent to the niceties of food. Iguanas, opossums, and birds of all kinds, had for some time past been most gladly consigned to our stewing-pot, neither good, bad, nor indifferent being rejected.” —‑ from the facsimile copy of Ludwig Leichhardt’s Journal of an Overland Expedition, 1844 – 1845

IT IS almost beyond belief that in 1844 the German Ludwig Leichhardt who ha