Charles Sturt, Narrative of an Expedition to Central Australia,1849

RGSSA catalogue rgsp 919.42042 S936 (2 vols.)

This was Charles Sturt's third and last major expedition into the interior of Australia in search of an inland sea. The party left Adelaide in August 1844 and comprised 16 men including Captain Sturt Leader, James Poole, Assistant, John Harris Browne Surgeon, Louis Piesse Storekeeper and John McDouall Stuart draftsman along with 11 horses, 30 bullocks, 1 boat and boat carriage, 1 horse drey, 1 spring cart, 3 drays, 200 sheep, 4 kangaroo dogs and 2 sheep dogs.

After leaving Adelaide they travelled north along the Murray and Darling Rivers until they reach a location near the future Broken Hill. They then travelled on to Milparinka establishing a base at Depot Glen where there was permanent water. Here they were delayed for six months from January to July due to drought and extreme high temperatures. Sturt recorded "-the heat as being so intense that his finger nails became brittle, and the ink dried on his pen almost before he had time to use it". Some of the party contracted scurvy including James Poole who became critically ill. Sturt arranged for him and others of the party to be taken back to Adelaide but Poole died on the day after they set off. (The painting of Poole's grave is another RGSSA Treasure).

When the rains finally came in July Sturt moved further north to Fort Grey and from there made various exploratory trips including a major one of 450 miles to the Simpson desert.

Sturt, although in very poor health and also suffering from scurvy, survived the return journey to Adelaide with the professional skill and loyalty of John Browne - who had taken over the leadership - arriving 19 January 1846.

Charles Sturt (1795-1869) was born to British parents in India and at five years old was sent to school in England completing secondary school at Harrow. He joined the British Army at the age of 18 and served in Spain, Canada France and Ireland. He was promoted to captain in December 1825 and in 1826 embarked with a detachment of his regiment on the Mariner in charge of convicts arriving in Sydney 23 May 1827.

Initially Sturt was appointed military secretary to the governor of the new colony but his interest was in exploration and in November 1828 he received approval to trace the course of the Macquarie River. This was his first major expedition and he followed the Macquarie River though the Macquarie Marshes and the Bogan River system into far north-eastern New South Wales until he reached the previously unknown Darling River.

Sturt's second expedition left Sydney In November 1829 and set out to discover where the western flowing rivers of New South Wales discharged. A whaleboat was taken in sections and in this they journeyed down the Murrumbidgee until they reach a large river Sturt named the Murray River. They continued on down the Murray until it was joined by the Darling River. Sturt had thus shown the western flowing rivers of New South Wales flowed into the Murray River. Continuing their epic journey, in February 1830, they reached a large lake Sturt named Lake Alexandrina and discovered the Murray mouth. After many hardships, including rowing the Murray River upstream against the current, they arrived back in Sydney 25 May 1830 having sailed or rowed 2,900 kilometers.

Sturt then returned to England on sick leave almost totally blind. He did not return to Australia until 1835 having married Charlotte Greene in September1834. He was then granted land near present day Canberra which he named Belconnen.

In February 1839 Sturt moved with his family back to Adelaide after being offered the position of surveyor general.

The cottage named the "Grange" was built for him and his family in 1840 -1841 near Adelaide and the coast on a property of 390 acres. This was in the area known as the Reed Beds which were part of the upper reaches of the Port River Creek.

The position of surveyor general did not eventuate and after a series of misfortunes Sturt decided the only way to reclaim his position was through exploration. It was then that he embarked on his third expedition in 1844 which is the subject of these two volumes.  He resigned as registrar general and colonial treasurer in Adelaide in 1851 due to ill health and in 1853 returned to England for the education of his children.

Sturt's Narrative of an Expedition into Central Australia is unusual in that it contains a number of coloured lithographs by John Gould the famous "bird man". Sturt had met Gould several times and in June 1839 John Gould went to Adelaide collecting bird specimens in the area. During this visit, in mid-June 1839, he went with Charles Sturt on an excursion to the "Murray Scrubs" north east of Adelaide to the River Murray.

In the Notice at the beginning of Volume 1 of the Narrative is the following tribute by Sturt-

To my heart-warmed friend, Mr Gould, whose splendid works are before the Public, and whose ardent pursuits in furtherance of his ambition, I have personally witnessed, I owe the more perfect form in which my ornithological notice appears.

In the Appendix to Volume 2 is a list of 141 birds including pictures of Geohaps plumifra, Peristera histironica Gould, Cinilosoma Cinnamoneu Gould, Milvus Affinis Gould and, under Animals, a picture of the Mus Conditor, Gould.