Ferdinand von Mueller

Telegram not found. For the text given here, see Daily telegraph (Melbourne), 4 August 1875, p. 3; the story was reprinted in Ballarat courier, 5 August 1875, p. 2, and Brisbane courier, 13 August 1875, p. 3. No date is given for the telegram but it was clearly intended to confirm an earlier message; see [E. Schneider] to M, 2 August 1875 (in this edition as 75-08-02a). The text is introduced with the following information: 'Baron von Mueller received a further telegram from Mr Schneider (not Schmidt, as printed yesterday), confirming the discovery of the remains of the Leichhardt party. Mr Schneider telegraphs from Clermont [Qld]—'.

A further report appeared in the Daily telegraph, 6 August 1875, p. 3: ‘A telegram from Brisbane says that no intelligence has been received at Tambo [Qld] as to the finding of relics of Leichhardt’s party’. This was elaborated upon the next day (Daily telegraph, 7 August 1875, p. 2) and repeated in the Ballarat courier, 9 August 1875, p. 2: ‘No further intelligence has been received from Mr Schneider… Mr Schneider is a surgeon, and the Baron von Mueller, who received the first telegram, is of opinion that, located as he is in the far country, the exigencies of his profession have prevented his sending further communications up to the present time.’

The Daily telegraph, 7 August 1875, p. 3, carried a second report on the same subject under the heading ‘The Leichhardt Relics’: ‘A telegram states that two graves have been discovered at Salters Creek [Qld]. The skeletons wre at first thought to be those of aboriginals, but afterwards presumed to be the remains of Leichhardt’s party’.

See also [E. Schneider] to M, 10 August 1875. The report appears to have been a hoax with the perpetrator making use of Schneider’s name.