Background
Charles Sturt, the eldest son of an East India Company judge, was born in India on April 28, 1795.
(Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia -...)
Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia - Complete is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Charles Sturt is in the English language, and may not include graphics or images from the original edition. If you enjoy the works of Charles Sturt then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection.
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(In August 1844 a heavily-laden party led by Captain Charl...)
In August 1844 a heavily-laden party led by Captain Charles Sturt set out from Adelaide to head into the unexplored vastness of central Australia. Amongst their equipment was a boat: as well as carrying out his mission of scientific investigation and mapping the topography, Sturt was convinced he would find the inland sea that was reputed to lie in the middle of the continent and so make his reputation. This is the first full publication of Sturt's original journals of the trip. They record the hardships of the journeying through the parched landscape, but also show how his efforts helped reveal the nature of much of the mysterious interior of Australia, and how, in a manner uncharacteristic of his times, he established respectful and co-operative relations with the Aborigines he encountered along the way.
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(Complete Works of Charles Sturt Contains: An aesthetic...)
Complete Works of Charles Sturt Contains: An aesthetic cover page. A beginning click-able Table of Contents for all titles. Inner click-able Tables of Contents for all individual books with multiple chapters. Nicely organized chapters and text. Authors works include: AN ACCOUNT OF THE SEA COAST AND INTERIOR OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA NARRATIVE OF AN EXPEDITION INTO CENTRAL AUSTRALIA TWO EXPEDITIONS INTO THE INTERIOR OF SOUTHERN AUSTRALIA DURING THE YEARS 1828,1829,1830,1831
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Charles Sturt, the eldest son of an East India Company judge, was born in India on April 28, 1795.
He was educated at Harrow, and became an ensign in 1813.
After serving in the Peninsular War and the American War of 1812, he performed garrison duties in France and Ireland before acting as an escort in 1826 for convicts being transported to New South Wales. The discovery of inland rivers west of the Great Dividing Range in New South Wales had excited speculation about the existence of an inland sea which Capt. Sturt, now military secretary to Governor Sir Ralph Darling, was determined to find. In 1828, under conditions of considerable hardship, he led an expedition which discovered the Darling River, 500 miles inland, and he unraveled the main features of the northern river system in New South Wales. Sturt led a second expedition, in November 1829, to track the source of the Lachlan and Murrumbidgee rivers. In an epic return journey of some 2, 000 miles in 7 months, much of it in a 27-foot whaleboat, Sturt reached Lake Alexandrina at Encounter Bay on the southern coast, having outlined the huge internal river system which drains a vast area west of the Great Dividing Range and having found extensive pastures suitable for pastoral farming. His health impaired and sight failing, Sturt went on leave to England in 1830 and published Two Expeditions into the Interior of South Australia (1833). After resigning from the army, he married and returned to New South Wales as a settler with a 5, 000-acre land grant from the Colonial Office. Financial difficulties led him to become surveyor general in the new colony of South Australia in 1839. But his income and status as a public servant waned to such an extent that in order to restore his fortunes he sought permission from the Colonial Office to find an inland sea in the center of the continent. Sturt's third expedition, which left Adelaide in August 1844, lasted for 17 months. Trapped by drought, the party was marooned in temperatures above 100 degrees from January to July 1845 at an isolated water hole 400 miles inland. Subsequently Sturt made a 450-mile journey toward the center but failed to reach the Tropic of Capricorn or to cross the Simpson Desert. On his return to Adelaide Sturt became colonial treasurer. In 1853 he retired to Cheltenham in England, where he died on June 16, 1869.
(In August 1844 a heavily-laden party led by Captain Charl...)
(Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia -...)
(Complete Works of Charles Sturt Contains: An aesthetic...)
Quotations:
“Australia is properly speaking an island, but it is so much larger than every other island on the face of the globe, that it is classed as a continent in order to convey to the mind a just idea of its magnitude. ”
“Farming implements are as cheap in Sydney as in England. ”
“I had no inducement to proceed further into the interior. I had been sufficiently disappointed in the termination of this excursion, and the track before me was still less inviting. ”
“If we strike a line to the N. W. from Sydney to Wellington Valley, we shall find that little change takes place in the geological features of the country. ”
“In a colony constituted like that of New South Wales, the proportion of crime must of course be great. ”
“In this eventful period the colony of New South Wales is already far advanced. ”
“It is to be feared that those who emigrate to New South Wales, generally anticipate too great facility in their future operations and certainty of success in conducting them; but they should recollect that competency cannot be obtained without labour. ”
“Mount Harris is of basaltic formation, but I could not observe any columnar regularity in it, although large blocks are exposed above the ground. The rock is extremely hard and sonorous. ”
“Now it is evident that a little insight into the customs of every people is necessary to insure a kindly communication; this, joined with patience and kindness, will seldom fail with the natives of the interior. ”
“On the subject of emigration, it is not my intention to dwell at any length. ”
“One of the greatest objections which families have to New South Wales, is their apprehension of the moral effects that are likely to overwhelm them by bad example, and for which no success in life could compensate. ”
“The increasing importance of Sydney must in some measure be attributed to the flourishing condition of the colony itself, to the industry of its farmers, to the successful enterprise of its merchants, and to particular local causes. ”
When he returned to Adelaide, almost blind and broken in health, Sturt had abandoned his belief in the existence of a great inland sea. Like so many early explorers, he was disappointed by the hot, dry interior, which offered no prospects for farmers. But much of the area he crossed subsequently became a paradise for mineral prospectors.
On 20 September 1834 Sturt married Charlotte Christiana Greene, daughter of an old family friend.