at wellington, fred was to again cross paths with alexander tolmer, whose police career was ignominiously over. tolmer was now a settler there, but still had grand ambitions. in september 1859, with partly sa government support, tolmer commenced an exploration expedition to cross central australia and reach the north coast. among those in his party of seven was fred litchfield, taken because he was "generally useful". also in the party was ex-policeman bernard shaw of wellington who, like tolmer, had served with fred’s father. at that time there was fierce competition, notably with the privately sponsored party of john mcdouall stuart, to be first to succeed. tolmer’s badly organised expedition was a costly failure, being abandoned just beyond the northern flinders ranges. litchfield received expenses but no wages. meanwhile, stuart’s expedition went on to success and fame.