'Initially written for The Queenslander as The Burning Mountain of the Interior, this 'Australian tale of adventure' sees a party of explorers travel into the desert in search of gold, some alleged hot springs, and a volcano. The group also hopes to discover the fate of Ludwig Leichhardt expedition. 'After some travail, they discover an unknown race located in a fine-looking country commanding vast gold reserves. The members of this race are distinct from the Aborigines around them, and constitute the degraded remnants of an ancient civilisation once occupying the Australian interior. By the end of the novel, this unknown race is destroyed by [the] erupting volcano, and the explorers are left to inherit their wealth of gold.'
Source: Bellanta, Fabulating the Australian Desert.
There are besides some unusual cave paintings and bother traces of old Asian colony in central Australia including a well builkt tomb and some unidentified writing and metal objects. But the colonist vare long gone and the mystery unresolved. Not actually a lost civilisation plot (since they're no longer there to be found), much less science fiction (p.98).
'Inspired by the conference theme of ‘Looking Back to Look Forward’ this paper examines the multiple ways in which the Prussian explorer of northern Australia, Ludwig Leichhardt, provides possible new directions for rethinking contemporary concepts such as transnationalism and nationalism. While the paper in its genealogical fashion assumes that the past is not simply available to us to be looked upon but rather is made to appear to us through various, material and ideological productions; it is still inspired by the possibility that re-imagining the past in the present can produce alternative and better futures. ' (Author's abstract)
In this essay, the authors review 'a selection of the more influential writings about Leichhardt to demonstrate both the enduring
interest in his life and the vastly different perspectives held in the texts.' (537)