Source.—Life of Charles Sturt (Mrs. N.G. Sturt), pp. 230-232, 264-267, 279-280
Observations of the migrations of birds convinced Sturt that there was good land in the interior of New South Wales, and in 1844 he set out to find it. His expedition failed because the season was exceptionally dry, and he was obliged to turn back before he had accomplished his object.
"If a line be drawn from Lat. 29° 30´ and Long. 140° N.W., and another from Mount Arden due north, they will meet a little to the northward of the tropic, and there I will be bound to say a fine country will be discovered." On what date Sturt pledges himself to the discovery of this fine country is not stated, but when later regretting his failure to reach the tropic and to set at rest his hypothesis of the better country to be found there, he briefly tells his reason for the
supposition.
"Birds observed east of the Darling in the summer of 1828 in about lat. 29° 30´ S. and long. 144° had invariably migrated to the W.N.W. Cockatoos and parrots, known while in the colony to frequent the richest and best-watered valleys of the higher lands, would pass in countless flights to that point of the compass. In South Australia, in lat. 35° and long. 138°, I had also observed that several birds of the same kind annually visited that Province from the north. I had seen
the Psittacus Novae Hollandiae and the shell parquet following the shoreline of St. Vincent's Gulf like flights of starlings in England. The different flights at intervals of more than a quarter of an hour, all came from the north, and followed in one and the same direction.
"Now although the casual appearance of a few strange birds should not influence the judgment, yet from the regular migrations of the feathered race, a reasonable inference may be drawn. Seeing then that these two lines (viz., from Fort Bourke about lat. 30° and long. 144° to the W.N.W., and from Mount Arden in lat. 35° long. 138° to the north) if prolonged would meet a little to the northward of the tropic, I formed the following conclusions:
"First, that the birds migrating on those lines would rest for a time at a point where those lines met.
"Secondly, that the country to which they went would resemble that which they had left, that birds which frequented rich valleys or high hills would not settle down in deserts and flat country.
"Thirdly, that the intervening country, whether owing to deserts or large sheets of water, was not such as these birds could inhabit. Indeed, such large migrations from different parts to one particular, argued no less strongly the existence of deserts or of sea to a certain distance, than the probable richness of the country, to which as to a common goal these migrations tended.
"On the late expedition, at the Depot in lat. 29-1/2° and long. 142°, I found myself in the direct line of migration to the north-west; and to that point of the compass, birds whom I knew to visit Van Diemen's Land would, after watering, pass on. Cockatoos, after a few hours' rest, would wing their way to the north-west, as also would various water-birds, as well as pigeons, parrots, and parquets, pursued by birds of the Accipitrine class. From these indications I was led to
look still more for the realization of my hopes, if I could but force my way to the necessary distance.
"I ran 170 miles without crossing a single water-course. I travelled over salsolaceous plains, crossed sand-ridges, was turned from my westward course by salt-water lakes; and at last, on October 19th, at about 80 miles to the east of my former track, I found myself on the brink of the Stony Desert. Coming suddenly on it I almost lost my breath. If anything, it looked more forbidding than before. Herbless and treeless, it filled more than half of the horizon. Not an object
was visible on which to steer, yet we held on our course by compass like a ship at sea.
"Poor Browne was in excruciating pain from scurvy. Every day I expected to find him unable to stir. My men were ill from exposure, scanty food, and muddy water; my horses leg-weary and reduced to skeletons. I alone stood unscathed, but I could not bear to leave my companion in that heartless desert.
"Finding myself baffled to the north and to the west, seeing no hope of rain, realizing that my retreat was too probably already cut off, I reluctantly turned back to the depot, 443 miles distant, and only through the help of Providence did we at length reach it."
Sturt, as he mounted to begin his retreat, was nearly induced to turn again by "a flock of parquets that flew shrieking from the north towards Eyre's Creek. They proved that to the last we had followed with unerring precision the line of migration."
Scope and Results of Central Expedition as Summed up by Sturt
My instructions directed me to gain the meridian of Mount Arden or that of 138°, with a view to determine whether there were any chain of mountains connected with the high lands seen by Mr. Eyre to the westward of Lake Torrens, and running into the interior from south-west to north-east. I was ordered to push to the westward and to make the south the constant base of my operations. I was prohibited from descending to the north-coast, but it was left optional with me to fall
back on Moreton Bay if I should be forced to the eastward. Whether I performed the task thus assigned to me or wavered in the accomplishment of it; whether I fell short of my duty, or yielded only to insuperable difficulties, the world will be enabled to judge. That I found no fine country is to be regretted; however, I was not sent to find a fine country, but to solve a geographical problem. I trust I am not presumptuous in saying that, from a geographical point of view, the
results of this expedition have been complete. If I did not gain the heart of the continent, no one will refuse me the credit of having taken a direct course for it. My distance from that hitherto mysterious spot was less than 150 miles. In ten days I should have reached the goal; and that task would have been accomplished had rain fallen when I was at my farthest north. Had I found such a river as the Victoria, I would have clung to it to the last; but those alone will
really know the nature of the country who shall follow me into it When I determined on turning homewards, with mind depressed and strength weakened, it appeared to me that I had done all that man could do. Now, under the influence of restored health, I feel that I did far too little. I can only say that I would not hesitate again to plunge into those dreary regions, that I might be the first to place my foot in the centre of this vast territory, and finally to raise the veil
which still shrouds its features, even though, like those of the veiled prophet, they should wither the beholder.
A Source Book of Australian History, 1919 |
