| Australian Explorers Tuesday, February 9, 1830. : Captain Sturt discovers Lake Alexandrina, near the mouth of the Murray River. Captain Charles Sturt was born in India in 1795. He came to Australia in 1827, and soon undertook to solve the mystery of where the inland rivers of New South Wales flowed. Because they appeared to flow towards the centre of the continent, the belief was held that they emptied into an inland sea. Drawing on the skills of experienced bushman and explorer Hamilton Hume, Sturt first traced the Macquarie River as far as the Darling, which he named after Governor Darling. Pleased with Sturt's discoveries, Governor Darling then sent Sturt to trace the course of the Murrumbidgee River, and to see whether it joined to the Darling. In November 1829 Sturt and his party reached the Murrumbidgee. Sturt followed the river in a whaleboat and discovered that the Murrumbidgee River flowed into the Murray (previously named the Hume), and that the Darling also flowed into the Murray. Sturt continued to trace the course of the Murray southwards. On 9 February 1830, the whaleboat sailed into what Sturt descibed as "a beautiful lake ... a fitting reservoir for the noble stream that had led us to it". He had discovered Lake Alexandrina, from which he could see the open sea of the southern coast. Sturt's discoveries were significant, for they allowed for the development of paddle-steamer transportation of goods and passengers along Australia's inland waterways. |
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