finniss, who was instructed to examine the adelaide river and environs, chose a settlement site at escape cliffs. litchfield was 32 years old when he arrived by sea in the northern territory, which he was immediately enthusiastic about, despite being speared at escape cliffs in august 1864. during 1864–65 litchfield’s reputation rose as he, initially with surveyor w. p. auld, took part in, and then led, exploration parties in the howard river, darwin, northern territory, batchelor, northern territory, adelaide river, finniss river, and daly river regions. in doing so, litchfield was among the first europeans to walk the area that became the streets of darwin, northern territory. having had experience on the victorian goldfields, it was at the finniss river that the presence of gold arrested his attention; hence litchfield went down in history as the man who discovered gold in the northern territory.