CAPTAIN CHARLES STURT'S JOURNAL & The Grange

On August 10th, 1844 the locals gathered en masse to farewell Captain Charles Sturt and his men as they left Adelaide on what would become one of the most harrowing tales of Australian exploration. Sturt had already made a name for himself exploring many of the country's inland rivers including the Murray which he'd followed all the way to Goolwa and its eventual meeting with the southern ocean.

His journal from that epic trip in 1830 would later provide the impetus for a colony called South Australia. But throughout these earlier expeditions Sturt had clung to the ope of discovering what many suspected dominated Australia's interior.

"He still dreamed about this big expedition; he always wanted to get out into the middle of Australia and find the inland sea and all that great farm land; he expected it should be around it".

For Dr Richard Barnes the epic saga of Sturt's journey into the heart of Australia is one we should all read and that's why he's reprinted the Captain's journal. It tells of how Sturt and his party, which included another legendary explorer John McDouall Stuart, first made their way to Moorundi on the banks of the Murray, the home of Edward John Eyre another key figure in Australian exploration. Here they picked up supplies and headed north across land.

"Well he took 200 sheep with him. He took a whale boat with him because he was going to sail on this sea when he found it and unfortunately he hit drought. He arrived in summer near Tibooburra where Depot Glen is and because of the arduous drought he was stuck. He stayed put where he was and ofcourse the sheep died, the cattle he took with him died and the men were in dire straits for months".

They stayed at Depot Glen, an oasis in the desert, for six months waiting for the drought to break. But for one of Sturt's party, James Poole, what had by now become an eleven month ordeal, proved too much.

"They think it was scurvy. The description in Sturt's book says he tongue went black and his teeth dropped out. It sounds pretty revolting. The poor fellow slowly passed away".

"So they were really in dire straits. I mean they were stuck in this place for six months?"

"Yeah, in fact in Sturt's diary he sought of expects that they will probably die".

In Sturt House at Grange, a plank from the whale boat is now on display along with other relics left in the wilderness. Ironically the whale boat was wrecked in a later flood at Depot Glen where Sturt had left it. With death looming large, Sturt wrote a letter to his 8-year-old son, Napier. In it he writes

"I suppose you will have grown into a little man by this time and that I shall not know you again".

"There was a time when all the men including Charles Sturt would have been wondering if they would ever see their families again".

Most would have turned back. Sturt pressed on into some of the harshest country on the planet. He headed northwest into what would later be named Sturt's Stony Desert and then onto the Simpson in temperatures that set the mercury soaring. Finally, beaten and exhausted, Sturt and his men turned back, within 120 miles of the centre of the continent with no inland sea to show for their labours and with friends back home convinced they were dead.

"They held a memorial service in Adelaide for them thinking that they had perished".

But rumours of Sturt's death were premature. At midnight on the 19th January 1846 he'd returned to the comfort of his home at Grange, a full 18 months since the party first left Adelaide.

"It was to Sturt House or The Grange as he called it, that Charles returned to work on his notes before having his journals published in London. And when he returned he was partially blind because the sun's glare on his epic journey's down the Murray and into the deserts of Australia had done irreparable damage to his eyes".

Now his journal is available to us all, thanks to Richard Barnes and Corkwood Press. It's available from all major bookstores. Sturt House is located at Jetty Street, Grange and is open Fridays and weekends by appointment. If you have any further questions please phone 8356 8185 or email info@postcards.sa.com.au