The explorer Ludwig Leichhardt had greater association with the Maranoa region than is usually appreciated.  It is well known that Leichhardt's 1848 expedition was last heard of in correspondence from Macpherson's Mount Abundance Run, but his 1847 visit to the area is less publicised.

Following on from his 1845-46 expedition from the Darling Downs to Port Essington, Leichhardt decided to cross Australia, to the Swan River, from east to west.  He attempted this in 1847, retracing his Port Essington route as far as the Mackenzie River, when further progress was impossible.  The party returned to the Darling Downs.  At Cecil Plains, Leichhardt broke the party up, and with a small group he opted to travel westward to examine the country around Fitzroy Downs, examined by Major Mitchell in 1846.  This journey took the party all the way to the Maranoa River, where they located trees marked by Mitchell.

The following year, 1848, saw Leichhardt's last expedition, again an attempt to cross the continent east to west, setting out from the Downs, on a  more direct course to Mount Abundance.  It was from an outstation of that Run, on Muckadilla Creek, that Leichhardt's party set out to the westward, establishing a mystery as to his fate, which lasts to this day.