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His next expedition was in 1829 when
he persuaded Governor Darling to allow him to follow the
Murrumbidgee, which had been discovered by Hume and Hovell.
The party set out with a whaleboat
on a horse-drawn dray and arrived at the Murrumbidgee. Here Sturt divided
his party and headed downstream. It was a dangerous journey along the
fast-flowing river, with the boat often smashing against hidden rocks and
trees. When the wind was blowing the right direction, they used sails,
otherwise they rowed. In January, they came upon a huge expanse of water,
which he named the Murray River. While it was not "ten times as broad
as the Murrumbidgee" as Sturt declared, it certainly was a large
stream, nearly seven metres deep in most parts. The party followed the
Murray, accompanied by a party of friendly aboriginals they had met.
Sturt, in all his expeditions treated the aborigines with kindness and
avoided violence. However, the next day, Sturt saw a large
group of hostile aboriginal warriors who were angrily shaking weapons. The
explorers tried to make off in their boat, but the tribesmen moved to head
off the boat as it approached a narrow stretch of water.
Sturt ordered his men to load their
guns ready for war, when he noticed another party of aboriginals plunge
into the river from the opposite bank and swim towards the hostile
natives. These were the same friendly aboriginals who had travelled with
Sturt for the past few days, and they were able to make peace. The
explorers were then able to proceed.
Before long, Sturt discovered the
lower reaches of the Darling, which was now in full flow, unlike the
previous year. This meant that at last the mystery of the inland rivers
was solved. Sturt proved that the west-flowing rivers eventually turned
south to the ocean and there was no inland sea.
On February 4 1830, the party
sighted seagulls. Aboriginals told them that the ocean was nearby and on
February 9, they sailed into a lake which Sturt named Alexandrina. A few
days later, they found the point where the Murray flowed into the sea and
since they could not sight any ships which might take them back to Sydney,
they started their long journey rowing back to their depot on the
Murrumbidgee.
Unfortunately, when they arrived
there, the rest of the party had abandoned it. This was very serious as
their supplies were low and the river was in flood. The men were dropping
from exhaustion and pain from the never-ending rowing and pulling their
boat against the roaring current. One of the convicts went insane during
the ordeal.
Finally, on 11 April they reached
one of their old sites at Narrandera and here Sturt abandoned the boat and
pitched camp. He sent two men, Hopkinson and Mullholland, overland in
search of the rest of their party and the supplies. These two men managed
an incredible feat - covering the 140 kilometres in three days. They found
the remainder of the party and the supplies.
Such had been their ordeal, that
Sturt went blind for many months. He was to suffer eye problems for the
rest of his life. He returned to England for a couple of years, and in
1834 was given 50 000 acres of land near Mittagong in New South Wales.
Because of his explorations, the city of Adelaide was settled.
In 1838, he made another famous
overland trek from Sydney to Adelaide, taking a herd of much-needed
cattle. This time the journey took just 40 days and he proved that the
Hume and the Murray were one and the same river. He then settled in South
Australia and was appointed surveyor general and later registrar general.
In 1838, he again decided to explore
the inland of Australia, trying to reach the exact centre of the
continent. While he no longer believed there was an inland sea, he thought
there could be one or more big lakes. He had noticed birds heading north
from Adelaide every autumn and returning in good condition each spring. He
thought therefore that there must be good feeding grounds to the north.
This was Sturt's fourth major
expedition and began in August 1844, when he was almost 50 years of age.
Three hundred men applied to join the expedition. Sturt chose 16
including James Poole, the second-in-command and set off together
with 11 horses, 300 sheep, 32 bullocks, six dogs and an assortment of
carts and wagons.
Early in the trip he was confronted
again with hostile aboriginals, but managed to reason with them. The party
passed through today's Broken Hill, but failed to recognise the valuable
minerals in the ground. Further north, at Rocky Glen (near the present
town of Milparinka), a large stretch of deep water, they were trapped for
6 months by the extreme heat and the lack of water ahead. The party came
down with a disease called scurvy because of the lack of fresh food.
Poole's skin turned black and large pieces of flesh peeled off the inside
of his mouth. It had become so hot that the thermometers were bursting -
up to 67 degrees Centigrade and the river was almost dry. It was so hot it
made screws drop out of boxes, lead fell out of pencils and the men's
nails became as brittle as glass. The men built an underground room to
shelter in. They suffered also when winter came, due to the bitter cold.
Sturt's eyes began to fail once again.
When everything seemed hopeless,
rain fell and the condition of the men and animals improved.
Unfortunately, Sturt's first assistant Poole died of scurvy and was buried
under a tree. (Poole's horse, which was turned loose in the desert, was
amazingly found alive and well 15 years later.) Sturt was saddened by the
death of Poole, but had to go on. He sent 9 men back to Adelaide and moved
onwards with the rest of the party. They crossed the Strzelecki Creek and
Cooper's Creek and pushed on until they reached a wilderness which they
named Sturt's Stony Desert. The horses were limping and the stones wore
down the hooves of the cattle and the sheep. This desert was 80 kilometres
wide. They crossed the desert and came to the Simpson desert where they
were faced with sand ridges 30 metres high. Sturt soon realised they could
go no further.
Sturt had to make a very hard
decision. He was only 240 kilometres from the centre of Australia, but for
the safety of his party, he was forced to turn back to Fort Grey. They had
travelled 1500 kilometres and were completely exhausted.
Sturt decided to make one last try
to find an inland sea. He took with him three men and this expedition was
a dreadful ordeal. The heat was so intense, it burst their thermometers.
The country was gripped by drought and the waterholes were drying up.
Sturt became ill and they were forced to turn back. Sturt was in fact, so
ill, that they had to carry him in a dray. The ground was very rough and
this caused him a lot of pain. Eventually they arrived at Moorundie where
Sturt's health gradually improved. Soon he was able to ride a horse again
and travelled back to Adelaide. He had been away a year and five months.
Sturt was treated as a hero and given a gold medal.
He was very disappointed, but at
least he had found a route to the centre of Australia and had pioneered an
overland route to Adelaide. Sturt had explored the inland of Australia,
north to Adelaide, adding much to people's knowledge of the interior of
Australia.
Sturt returned to England in 1851
where he died in 1869.
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