Description

Charles Sturt (1795-1869) was a British soldier, sent to New South Wales in charge of convicts in 1826. In 1827 Governor Darling appointed him to lead the first of two expeditions into the interior, in search of pastoral land for settlement and a navigable river system. Sturt's two-volume account of his journeys was published in 1833. Volume 2 describes how in November 1829 Sturt left Sydney to trace the Murrumbidgee River, which led him to the Lachlan, and ultimately the Murray. The ship which was supposed to be waiting for the party on the south coast had left, and the explorers were forced to row 900 miles back up river on low rations, an experience which permanently damaged Sturt's health. Despite these hardships, Sturt made careful records of the topography and flora of the region, as well as his encounters with the local, occasionally hostile, Aboriginal tribes.