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and shortly afterward two more. Several of the party searched but were unsuccessful. Goyder later substantiated
Litchfield’s gold claim and verified his description of the country.
Litchfield found and named many creeks and mountains, including Haywards Range (after his brother-in-law),
Mason’s Plains (after another brother-in-law), Reynolds River (after his uncle), as well as Mount Litchfield and
Mount Tolmer. The party was away for two months. Shortly after their return, some members of the Finniss
Expedition, including Litchfield, were recalled to Adelaide for an inquiry into Finniss’s handling of the settlement
of Escape Cliffs.
Some criticism was made of Litchfield; that he had been employed as a labourer, advanced to storekeeper,
then made Inspector of Police at an increase in pay, and also that he was not suitable to lead an exploration party.
Therefore, it was said, his evidence at the inquiry should be received with caution as he had been, in a manner,
paid for it. His uncle, the Honourable Thomas Reynolds defended Litchfield by saying, ‘The late Chief Secretary,
Mr Hart and present Treasurer, Mr Duffield, have each complimented him and one personally thanked him as one
of the few men who had done his duty to the Government in the Northern Territory.’
Fredrick Litchfield did not marry, and the date of his death is uncertain. Reynolds suggested late in 1866
that Litchfield was upset by comments made about him and that ‘he was no longer with us’. By 1873, Reynolds
referred to him as the ‘late F Litchfield’. In 1914, his cousin stated in a letter to Stephen King that Litchfield had
died in Calcutta, India, from an old spear wound received in the Northern Territory, which broke out and turned
gangrenous. According to this source, he was on board ship at the time and was taken to hospital in Calcutta,
but did not recover.
A Tolmer, Reminiscences of a Chequered Career, 1882; Information supplied by Lyle Litchfield, Marree, SA, from Birth, Death and Marriage
Certificates, SA newspapers, shipping lists; Police records, SA; Biography of G E Mason, SAA; Finniss Diaries, SAAI 12 M, 49 M;
NT Expedition journal, SAA, D6031(L); Letter from Maria Mail to Stephen King, 1914, SAA; SAPP 1864, no 89, 1865/66, no 15 83, 1866/67
no 17, 1807, vol 2, no 16, 1870, vol 3, no 157, 1873, no 55; SA Register, October 16 & 17, 1866.
JANET DICKINSON, Vol 1.LITCHFIELD, GLADYS (GLAD) nee BURLING (1911– ), businesswoman and community worker, was born
at Upper Orara, near Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, on 25 March 1911. She was the eldest of seven children
born to Henry Burling and his wife Nell, nee Denning. The family lived on a dairy farm and had a piggery.
Litchfield attended the Upper Orara Primary School and then the Canterbury High School after the family moved
to Sydney. She left school at the age of 16, becoming apprenticed to a milliner and at the age of 19 in 1930 opened
her own shop in Pitt Street, Sydney. She married Boyne Litchfield, a Northern Territory lad who was doing a
diesel engineering course in Sydney, in April 1937. Their first two children were born in Sydney. When his course
was completed, Boyne was offered a job back in Darwin and had been sent the money for the family to fly up but
instead Litchfield went out and purchased a car so they could drive. Petrol was rationed because of the Second
World War, but they had been given special permits to travel.
Litchfield, along with her husband, two babies and two passengers made an epic journey by road from Sydney
to Darwin via Broken Hill and Port Augusta in February 1941. She was six months pregnant. The journey, mostly
over dirt tracks in the heat of summer and with millions of flies, took six weeks. On the way through the Territory,
they passed convoys of military vehicles heading north as well as personnel working on the road and building
bridges. It was the middle of the Wet Season. At Daly Waters Litchfield and the two children flew to Darwin while
her husband waited for the floods to subside. They boarded with her sister in law Betty Dangerfield on Railway
Hill near the present Northern Territory News office in Darwin. The family later moved into a rented house
above the railway line near Daly Street Bridge. The baby was born in Darwin six weeks later. Life in Darwin was
anything but dull at that time. There were black outs at night and air raid drills; the women even had to learn how
to use guns to protect themselves. Litchfield’s husband was managing a garage in Mitchell Street for ‘Bogger’
Young, and since employees were in short supply, the only workers were soldiers who would attend after their
day’s duties. One of Litchfield’s chores was to feed the men because they missed their meal at the Army Mess.
What an introduction to the Territory!
The stay in Darwin was short lived: Glad Litchfield, with hand held luggage only, was compulsorily evacuated
with her three children back to New South Wales on 20 December 1941 on the ill-fated Zealandia, which, on its
return, was sunk in the harbour when Darwin was bombed on 19 February 1942. Litchfield’s husband was directed
to work on the railway crew between Katherine and Darwin. The journey was a nightmare; there was not enough
food for all the women and children who were crowded 10 and more to a four-berth cabin. Some Japanese prisoners
of war were taken on board at Thursday Island, which added to the over crowding, and there was a rumour that a
Japanese submarine was following the ship. Finally, they arrived in Sydney but were held up at the Heads because
of another submarine alert. When the ship finally docked, Litchfield’s family, who had gone to meet the ship, got
tired of waiting and left, so, with her last five Pound note she hired a taxi to her parents’ house. Four extra mouths
to feed at that time of scarcity were not welcome so Litchfield soon found other accommodation.
Litchfield received no money from the Territory because her husband’s wages had been garnisheed to pay bills
that had mounted up from having to set up house as well as feeding the workers in Darwin. She had to take jobs to
support herself and three children. Litchfield saw her husband only once in the two years she was away. She and
the children returned to the Territory in 1944 by train via Port Augusta to Alice Springs and then in the back of
an Army truck to Pine Creek. They were allowed no further. There they lived, in a corrugated iron shed, for the
next two years along with many other returnees and military personnel. Litchfield’s fourth child was born while
they waited. They returned to a bombed and looted Darwin in February 1946 to start over again. All their personal