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There are several famous maps of Leichhardt's expeditions, but surprisingly few known to be drawn by the explorer.
Recently the National Library of Australia acquired a manuscript map, drawn and dedicated by Leichhardt to a squatter, Arthur Hodgson, owner of 'Eton Vale', the centre of Darling Downs society.
The map was not of his expedition from Moreton Bay to Port Essington, or the failed Swan River attempts, but outlined his examination of the course of the Balonne and Condamine rivers and the country between Thomas Mitchell's 1846 route and his own.
Drawn just prior to the second Swan River expedition, the map was bread and butter cartography, raising hopes of an expanded Darling Downs while funding Leichhardt's own final westward journey.
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