(1795 - 1869)

Charles Sturt was born in 1795, and was one of thirteen children of an English judge stationed in Bengal. The young Sturt joined the army and served in the Peninsular War, and saw service in Ireland, France and Canada. He arrived in Sydney in 1827 as captain of the Mariner, a convict vessel. His adventurous spirit and the discoveries of John Oxley led him to persuade Governor Darling to allow him to head an expedition to search for an inland sea.

This expedition commenced in 1827 and surveyed the Macquarie, Castlereagh and Bogan rivers. Sturt discovered the Darling River, but instead of exploring the course of the new find in a follow up expedition in 1829 he was ordered instead to explore the Lachlan and Murrumbidgee rivers.

Sturt duly obeyed and explored the Murrumbidgee until its confluence with the Lachlan. In January 1830, he continued down the Murrumbidgee, and within a week had entered the Murray River. The expedition explored right up to the mouth of the Murray before returning to Sydney in May of 1830.

Sturt returned to England, but was soon back in Sydney, having been granted land in 1838. He ran into financial difficulties and accepted the position of surveyor-general in South Australia, but upon arrival found someone else elected to the post.

He accepted a position of registrar-general, and remained in South Australia until 1844, when he was commissioned to embark on another expedition to discover the fabled "inland sea". The expedition travelled along the Barrier Range, Lake Frome and Cooper Creek before finally reaching the Simpson Desert. This expedition finally dispelled any theory of an inland sea. Sturt arrived back in Adelaide in 1846.

He was elected colonial treasurer but retired the post in 1851, returning to England in 1853. He died in 1869 having mapped much of the outline of eastern Australia's river system.

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