ISBN: 1876780 878

Author: Ivan Rudolph

Size: B5

Format: Paperback

RRP: $36.95

Special price for direct sales to individuals: $30 plus $5 p&h

The author draws the reader into Sturt’s 1844 expedition thrusting towards the Red Centre by quoting freely from eyewitness accounts. You ride into the fierce, blazing deserts with them, feel what they felt and picture what they saw. It has been carefully researched from original material that is cluttered by a great deal of extraneous detail. The author highlights important details missed by other writers, such as the progressive influence of scurvy on the personalities of the leaders and Browne’s conjecture that Lake Torrens was not a single lake at all. Rudolph gives an empathetic account of the men, one that appreciates their courage and achievements, while not glossing over their weaknesses. It is a readable book for all Australians: the man or woman in the street, in the bush and on properties.

Charles Sturt was Australia’s greatest explorer, having already discovered the Murray and Darling rivers. Highly respected, his recommendations were influential in the establishing of Adelaide and South Australia.  In 1844, approaching 50 and visually impaired, a doting father of four young children, he set off from Adelaide with sixteen men who ranged from a young doctor to rough ex-convicts, from profane alcoholics to a zealous Christian. He selected his men making courage the dominant criterion, knowing the hardships they would face. His goal? To discover a watershed in the Inland nurturing rich agricultural lands, hoping thereby to rescue the South Australian economy that was sliding towards bankruptcy. Sturt dreamt of finding more than this, of an inland sea, and dragged a cumbersome whaleboat into the fierce, blazing deserts on a dray. In this book we accompany Sturt’s lumbering party up the Murray and towards the Red Centre. With them we face the challenges – hostile Aborigines, personal conflicts, exhaustion, inadequate rations, scurvy, searing heat, raging thirst. One perished; the spectre of death beckoned to the rest.

Sturt emerges as a strong leader with lightning moods, but whose expertise in making the Big Decisions was extraordinary. Sturt’s openness to intuition at moments of crisis is unexpected, while his shortcomings on the level of mundane daily planning is disappointing.

The malign influence of Flood, his stockman, on Sturt causes problems for the men, as does the arrogance of his deputy Poole and the favouritism practised by Piesse, the storeman. All in all, interpersonal relationships threaten the harmony of the expedition and are difficult, in particular for the sensitive Brock, an enthusiastic Christian. Fortunately the intelligent young Medical Officer, Browne, plays a conciliatory role during the most tense of the standoffs. To be effective as an intermediary, he must remain carefully subservient to Poole’s leadership. When the expedition rides towards destruction in the pine forest, only Browne can lead them through, but to do so he would have to usurp Poole’s authority, which he will not do….

Under the progressive attack of scurvy, Sturt lost the use of his legs and had to be carried about like a baby. He lost more than his mobility; he lost the equilibrium of his temper. Yet the men trusted him alone to lead them to safety and waited expectantly each day for his orders.

What were the outcomes of this superb yet terrible feat of exploration? Sturt’s expedition encouraged others to explore the Inland. Prospectors took up pick and pannikin and followed his routes, as did selectors looking for land and squatters seeking good pastures. As an example, the Cooper and associated river systems that he discovered opened a practical way into the interior. While the inland regions he discovered have never been easy country, they support vast numbers of sheep and cattle today as well as providing mineral wealth. He blazed the trail followed by hundreds of successful pioneers, miners and graziers.