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Progress Report of Captain Sturt’s Expedition down the Murrumbidgee The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser 6 March 1830 |
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Government
Order, Colonial Secretary's Office, (No, 2) March 3d, 1830. His
Excellency the Governor has been pleased to direct that the following
Communication, dated 4th January last, from Captain Sturt, of the 39th
Regiment, who is employed in an exploring Expedition into the Interior of the
Country, be published for general Information. By His Excellency's Command,
Alexander M'leay. “Depot
on the Murrumbidgee, January 4th, 1830.
Long. 143 ° 57' East. Lat. 34 15 South. Sir,
I
do myself the honor to acquaint you, for the information of His Excellency
the Governor, that I arrived at this position on the
27th ultimo, after a long, and in some respect, a fatiguing journey of
thirty-two days, since that on which I made the Murrumbidgee. The
more minute detail of my proceedings is noted in the accompanying copy of my
journal; and I trust it will be found sufficiently explicit to convey to the
mind of His Excellency a general idea of the country through which the
expedition has passed, and of the river which I was directed to trace. I
am to state to you, that, if the latter did not in the first instance meet my
expectations, its appearance has been such, during the subsequent stages of
my journey, as to encourage a hope that it will eventually be found to
discharge itself into some larger stream, or basin; since I cannot for a
moment imagine that it meets the fate of the more northern streams. At
our depot it is from two hundred to two hundred and fifty feet broad, with a
depth that varies from twelve to twenty. Its banks are about nine feet high,
and its current is at about a mile and a quarter per hour. Indeed,
excepting under the firmest impression on my mind that it carries an
uninterrupted channel below the marshes that are in front of us, which I
previously examined, I should not have ordered the large boat to be built. I
am not under any apprehension that our progress down, the river will speedily
terminate. I
cannot write in too high terms of the upper branches of the Murrumbidgee. With
beautiful scenery they combine richness of soil, a sufficiency of water, and
excellent grazing tracts. Alluvial
flats continue for more than one hundred and forty miles below Kudgiong, the station of Mr. O'Brien; and, to that
distance, there is an abundance of pasture behind them. Below the flats,
however, the plains take up the character of the more northern interior. Their
depressed situation causes those droughts under the effects of which
vegetation has perished upon them. The only favourable
point in which that country can be viewed, is, that the river gets a deeper
bed and becomes more navigable in flowing, through it. The
soil of this remote interior is of the first description, and is certainly
preferable to, that which intervenes between it and the upper districts; but
it is to the issue of this journey only that; we must look for the importance
that is to be attached to any local advantages on the Murrumbidgee, which,
unfrequented and unimproved, is still a noble feature in the country. I
beg you will inform His Excellency that I have passed on the best of terms
with the natives, and that I expect every facility will be afforded by them
to the party about to return. I
observe that they suffer extremely from cold, and that the country does not
afford them the means of procuring skins, there being few animals in it; if
therefore it were possible to distribute a few blankets among them, I am sure
they would be most welcome presents for well-meant services to me. I have the honour
to be, Sir, your most obedient servant, (signed) Chas. Sturt, Captain, 39th Regiment.
The Hon. the Colonial Secretary, &c.
&c. &.” |