Exploration - 1864 and 1865
The area which now comprises the Litchfield Shire was the first region in the Northern Territory to be intensively explored by Europeans.In 1864 a survey and settlement party was sent north from Adelaide, under the leadership of B.T. Finniss. His instructions were to establish a settlement based on Escape Cliffs, at the mouth of the Adelaide River, unless a better site could be found. The search for a better site was the main catalyst for a number of explorations in the years 1864 - 1867.
Finniss at first established a camp upstream in the Adelaide River from Escape Cliffs because he believed that Escape Cliffs itself had insufficient fresh water. However, when more water was later found at Escape Cliffs, Finniss had no hesitation in establishing the base there, from August / September 1864.
In the meantime, from 8 July 1864, Finniss himself, leading five other men, set out to explore south westerly from the first camp. They reached the locality which Finniss called Fred's Pass and a little beyond, then returned to the camp.
Finniss then sent several parties out to the east of the Adelaide River to try to find the tracks of John McDouall Stuart, who had written of travelling down the Adelaide in 1862 and finding good country along it. It later emerged that Stuart had been mistaken in thinking that he was on the Adelaide. He was in fact on the Mary, the next major river to the east.
By the end of 1864 the area around the Adelaide was becoming fairly well known, not only as a result of formal exploration and survey work, but also as a result of parties searching far afield for straying livestock. However, at the same time there was disenchantment in Adelaide with the Escape Cliffs site, and in early 1865 Finniss was ordered to find somewhere better, possibly in Port Darwin, or even as far away as the Victoria River. Finniss was given the vessel Beatrice to help with the search for a new site.
In April 1865 Finniss sent a land party, under Patrick Auld, west from the Adelaide to travel toward Port Darwin. This land party was to rendezvous in Port Darwin with Finniss himself, who would come around the coast in the Beatrice.
On 21 April the land party reached Stokes Hill, in Port Darwin, where the Beatrice awaited. After a day exploring the locality which is now the inner Darwin area, the land party began the return to the Adelaide River. Finniss, while he had been waiting for the land party, had undertaken detailed exploration of Darwin harbour, especially into Middle Arm.
Finniss commented that he still preferred Escape Cliffs to Port Darwin, but his observations regarding anchorages and the availability of water were to be important in the later decision to base a settlement on Port Darwin.
Over the next few months Finniss sent Fred Litchfield out on two expeditions, exploring overland toward the Finniss and Daly Rivers. Finniss himself set sail in the Beatrice in August 1865, bound for the Victoria River and with the objective of exploring all possible sites around the coast.
On this expedition Finniss investigated and named Fog Bay, discovered and named the Daly River and explored Port Keats. He was not impressed with the Victoria River which he considered for navigation "one of the worst and most unsafe on the coast" and "could not recommend the formation of a capital of a first settlement" on its banks.
Lieutenant Howard, Captain of the Beatrice, who had visited the Gulf of Carpentaria, had told Finniss that the mouths of the rivers in the area of the Roper River were difficult to access. Other areas to the east were to be negated by the experiences of the explorer John McKinlay.