He therefore retraced his steps up Sturt's Creek, and on the 28th of March arrived at his temporary depot, where he found the men all well and the horses much improved in condition.
On the 2nd of April, A.C.Gregory, taking his brother Henry, Baines, and one man, started on an excursion to examine the eastern tributaries of the Victoria, and was absent a little over a fortnight.

On their return, the whole of the members started for the landing-place on the Victoria, which they reached on the 9th of May.

After all arrangements and preparations had been completed, Gregory, with most of the party, started on the return journey overland to Moreton Bay.

The Tom Tough, now caulked and repaired, was to make her way to the Albert River in the Gulf of Carpentaria, where they would again probably meet.
Traversing the tributaries of the Victoria on his homeward way, Gregory met with no remarkable incident until his arrival on the Elsey, a tributary of the Roper River, which he named after the surgeon of the expedition.

It was here that he came upon the last authentic trace of Leichhardt.