Looking-into-Leichhardt_catalogue_Oct2013_Gannon+friends

III COCKATOO CHRISTMAS ON THE COMET December 1844 Now travelling north along the Comet River (so named because of a comet sighting), on 20th December the expeditioners made an early Christmas meal of one of their bullocks. By now their meals were increasingly bush-based. Under Leichhardt’s encouragement they had learned to dine on emu, kangaroo, bandicoots, goanna, various‘green picks’, native lime, honey, fish and birds. Young John Murphy and Fisher would often hunt with their dogs and both were good shots when it came to birds. Leichhardt went on a reconnaissance trip until late Christmas Day, whilst back at Camp No. 50 the others dined on 'stewed cockatoo and suet pudding' at Brown's Lagoon under a 'cloudy and sultry' sky.

80 x 120 cm oil on board 2013

Leichhardt's 1844-45 route

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