Newell Highway
The Newell Highway is a national highway in New South Wales, Australia. The route is signed as the A39, however before 2013 was signed as National Highway 39; the Newell Highway is an important road link for freight between Queensland and Victoria and regional centres in western NSW. At 1,058 kilometres in length, the Newell is the longest highway in New South Wales, passes through fifteen local government areas. Traffic volumes along the Newell Highway vary from around 1,200 to 4,000 vehicles per day in rural areas. In the urban centres such as Dubbo, average daily traffic volumes are in the order of 20,000 vehicles a day. A large number of heavy vehicles use the Newell Highway – on average, between 26 per cent and 52 per cent of all traffic on the route. At one point in the south west of the state, the highway carries 1,900 vehicle movements daily, of which about 32 per cent are heavy vehicles; the Newell Highway carries the National Highway 39 shield for its entire length. The highway is flat, with long, straight sections joined by the occasional curved section.
However, passing through the Warrumbungle Ranges, there are steeper grades and tighter curves than on the rest of the highway. Open road sections of the Newell Highway are 110 km/h zones; the Newell Highway serves as a major road link between Brisbane. The highway runs north-south, parallel to the eastern coast of New South Wales, about 400 kilometres inland, is the main inland direct road link from Victoria to Queensland, bypassing the more urbanised and congested coastal areas of the state. From its northern terminus at Goondiwindi in Queensland where it meets the Leichhardt Highway, the Newell runs to the south across the New South Wales and Queensland state border through Boggabilla, Narrabri, Gilgandra, Parkes, West Wyalong, Narrandera and Finley; the Newell meets its southern terminus at Tocumwal where the highway crosses the Murray River and adjoins the Goulburn Valley Highway in Victoria. The highway crosses eight major inland rivers, from north to south, the Macintyre between Goondiwindi and Boggabilla, the Mehi at Moree, the Namoi near Narrabri, the Castlereagh at Coonabarabran and at Gilgandra, the Macquarie at Dubbo, the Lachlan and Lake Forbes at Forbes, the Murrumbidgee at Narrandera, the Murray River at Tocumwal.
The Newell Highway is subject to periodic flooding north of Moree, at Dubbo, south of Narrandera. At various points on its route, the Newell shares part of its route with other highways including, from north to south, the Gwydir at Moree, the Kamilaroi near Narrabri, the Oxley and Castlereagh between Coonabarabran and Gilgandra, the Mitchell at Dubbo, the Mid-Western between Marsden and West Wyalong, the Riverina near Finley; the Newell was declared a State Highway in 1938, numbered No. 17, named in honour of H. H. Newell following his death in 1941. At the time of its gazettal, the Newell Highway followed existing roads as far as possible, the exceptions being between Narrandera and West Wyalong and from Coonabarabran to Narrabri completed during 1941-42 and 1946-49 as wartime and post-war defence projects. Between 1965 and November 1992 the Newell Highway carried the National Route 39 black and white shield and despite its misnomer as a national route, the highway was a patchwork of other national and state highways, funding of the highway was in the main the responsibility of the NSW Government.
Following the passage of the Australian Land Transport Development Act 1988 on 15 January 1993 the Australian Government gazetted the Newell as a national highway and assumed funding and administrative responsibility. A large number of non-reflective signs along the highway have reflective NH39 coverplates, a clear indication that they once showed NR39. Highways in Australia List of highways in New South Wales List of highways in Queensland Bland Creek Bridge "Draft Newell Highway Corridor Strategy". Roads & Maritime Services, Government of New South Wales. April 2014
Lands administrative divisions of Australia
Lands administrative divisions of Australia are the cadastral divisions of Australia for the purposes of identification of land to ensure security of land ownership. Most states term these divisions as counties, parishes and other terms; the eastern states of Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania were divided into counties and parishes in the 19th century, although the Tasmanian counties were renamed land districts in the 20th century. Parts of South Australia and Western Australia were divided into counties, there were five counties in a small part of the Northern Territory; however South Australia has subdivisions of hundreds instead of parishes, along with the Northern Territory, part of South Australia when the hundreds were proclaimed. There were formerly hundreds in Tasmania. There have been at least 600 counties, 544 hundreds and at least 15,692 parishes in Australia, but there are none of these units for most of the sparsely inhabited central and western parts of the country. Counties in Australia have no administrative or political function, unlike those in England, the United States or Canada.
Australia instead uses local government areas, including shires, districts and municipalities according to the state, as the second-level subdivision. Some other states were divided into land divisions and land districts. Below these are groups of land parcels known as registered plans or title plans. Queensland has registered plans. Land can be identified using the number of this plan of subdivision held with the lands department, rather than with a named unit such as a parish. Within these are individual land parcels such as lots; the various cadastral units appear on certificates of title, which are given volume and folio numbers. Detailed maps of these divisions have been required since the introduction of the Torrens title system of a central register of land holdings in South Australia in 1858, which spread to the other colonies. While cadastral data since the 1980s has been digitalised, there remain many old maps showing these divisions held in collections of Australian libraries such as the National Library of Australia, as well as in state libraries.
Counties were used since the earliest British settlement in Australia, with the County of Cumberland proclaimed by Captain Phillip on 4 June 1788. In 1804 Governor King divided Van Diemen's Land into two counties; the parishes date to the surveys conducted after 1825, with the instructions given to Governor Brisbane on 23 Jun 1825 to divide the colony into counties and parishes. At this time there were five counties proclaimed in New South Wales: Cumberland, Camden and Northumberland; the Nineteen Counties in south-eastern New South Wales were the limits of location of the colony in a period after 1829, with the area outside them divided into districts, also into counties and parishes. Counties were established soon after the foundation of other Australian colonies. Many of the counties have English names the names of counties in England, such as Devon, Dorset and Kent Counties in Tasmania. Less some have Aboriginal names such as the County of Yungnulgra in New South Wales, County of Croajingolong in Victoria.
The use of counties and parishes was popular in Australia in the 19th century, with many maps of Australian colonies showing these divisions, towns and cities listed in their county. Legal cases referenced counties, many genealogical records for Australia in the 19th century list the county and parish for location of birth and marriages; the 1911 Britannica describes Australian towns and cities as being in their respective county, including most of the capital cities: Melbourne, County of Bourke. However it is not mentioned that Perth was located in the County of Perth, as by this time county names were infrequently used in Western Australia, where they did not cover all of the settled areas, unlike the other states. Instead the system of land divisions and land districts was used, with most of Perth located in the land districts of Swan and Cockburn Sound, all in the South West Land Division of Western Australia. Counties and parishes are still referenced in property law, in industrial relations instruments, for example in a New South Wales award, which excludes people from the County of Yancowinna.
Similar award examples exist in the other states and territories that have been subdivided into counties. The County of Yancowinna is the only part of New South Wales, in a different time zone to the rest of the state, as mentioned in the Australian Standard Time Act of 1987. Counties are used on paperwork for mortgage securities in banks. Parishes and counties are mentioned in definitions of electoral districts. Counties have since gone out of use in Australia, are used or known by most of the population today. Part of the reason is that counties are based on the size of land, rather than population, so in a large country
Royal Doulton
Royal Doulton was an English ceramic manufacturing company producing tableware and collectables, dating from 1815. Operating in London, its reputation grew in The Potteries, where it was a latecomer compared to Royal Crown Derby, Royal Worcester, Wedgwood and Mintons, its products include dinnerware, cookware, glassware, jewellery, linens and lighting. Three of its brands were Royal Albert and Mintons; these brands are now owned based in Barlaston near Stoke-on-Trent. On 2 July 2015 the acquisition of WWRD by the Finnish company Fiskars Corporation was completed; the Royal Doulton company began as a partnership between John Doulton, Martha Jones, John Watts, with a factory at Vauxhall Walk, London trading as Jones, Watts & Doulton in 1815. After Martha Jones left the partnership in 1820, the trade name was changed to Watts; the business specialised in making stoneware articles, including decorative bottles and salt glaze sewer pipes. The company took the name Co. in 1853 after the retirement of John Watts.
By 1871, Henry Doulton, John's son, launched a studio at the Lambeth pottery, offered work to designers and artists from the nearby Lambeth School of Art. The first to be engaged was George Tinworth followed by artists such as the Barlow family, Frank Butler, Mark Marshall and Eliza Simmance. In 1882, Doulton purchased the small factory of Pinder, Bourne & Co, at Nile Street in Burslem, which placed Doulton in the region known as The Potteries; when the Anglican St. Alban's Church was built in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1887 with Alexandra, Princess of Wales as one of the driving forces, Doulton donated and manufactured an altarpiece, a pulpit and a font, they were executed in terra cotta with glazed details to the design of Tinworth. By this time Doulton was popular for stoneware and ceramics, under the artistic direction of John Slater, who worked with figurines, character jugs, decorative pieces designed by the prolific Leslie Harradine. Doulton products came to the attention of the Royal family.
In 1901 King Edward VII sold the Burslem factory the Royal Warrant, allowing the business to adopt new markings and a new name, Royal Doulton. The company added products during the first half of the 20th century while manufacturing fashionable and high-quality bone china; the headquarters building and factory of the Royal Doulton ceramics firm were in Lambeth, on the south bank of the Thames. This Art Deco building was designed by T. P. Bennett. In 1939 Gilbert Bayes created the friezes; the Lambeth factory closed in 1956 due to clean air regulations preventing urban production of salt glaze. Following closure, work was transferred to The Potteries; the factory building was demolished in 1978 and the friezes transferred to the Victoria & Albert Museum. The office building in Black Prince Road survives, complete with a frieze of potters and Sir Henry Doulton over the original main entrance, executed by Tinworth. In 1971, S. Pearson & Son Ltd, a subsidiary of the Pearson industrial conglomerate acquired Doulton & Co. Pearson & Son owned Allied English Potteries and merged operations into Doulton & Co.
All brands from Allied English Potteries and Doulton & Co. Ltd. including Royal Doulton, Beswick, Dunn Bennett, Colclough, Royal Albert, Royal Crown Derby, Ridgway, Queen Anne, Royal Adderley and Royal Adderley Floral were moved under the umbrella of Royal Doulton Tableware Ltd. Royal Doulton Tableware Ltd was a subsidiary of Co.. Ltd, itself a subsidiary of the Pearson Group Doulton & Co. became Royal Doulton plc in 1993. Pearson spun off Royal Doulton in 1993. Waterford Wedgwood completed a takeover of Royal Doulton in 2005, acquiring all brands. On 30 September 2005, the Nile Street factory closed. Royal Doulton Ltd. along with other Waterford Wedgwood companies, went into administration on 5 January 2009. Royal Doulton is now part of WWRD Holdings Limited; some items are now made in the parent company, WWRD Holdings Ltd in Barlaston, south of the Potteries Conurbation. Further production is carried out in Indonesia On 11 May 2015, in a deal expected to close July 2015, the Fiskars Corporation, a Finnish maker of home products, agreed to buy 100% of the holdings of WWRD.
On 2 July 2015 the acquisition of WWRD by Fiskars Corporation was completed including brands Waterford, Royal Doulton, Royal Albert and Rogaška. The acquisition was approved by the US antitrust authorities. In the comedy television series Keeping Up Appearances her Royal Doulton china was mentioned with great pride by the main character, Hyacinth Bucket. A Royal Doulton bowl features prominently in the 2018 film Mary Poppins Returns, is the basis for the song "The Royal Doulton Music Hall". Leslie Harradine Agnete Hoy Charles Noke Royal Doulton Bunnykins List of Royal Doulton figurines List of Bunnykins figurines John Bennett Media related to Royal Doulton at Wikimedia Commons Official Royal Doulton website Examples in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Census in Australia
The census in Australia, or the Census of Population and Housing, collects key characteristic data on every person in Australia, the place they are staying in, on a particular night. The census is the largest statistical collection compiled by the Australian Bureau of Statistics and is held every five years. Participation in the census is compulsory; the Australian Bureau of Statistics is legislated to collect and disseminate census data under the Australian Bureau of Statistics Act 1975, the Census and Statistics Act 1905. The first Australian census was held in 1911, on the night of 2 April and subsequent censuses were held in 1921, 1933, 1947, 1954 and 1961. In 1961 the five-year period was introduced. Censuses are held on the second Tuesday of August; the most recent was held on 9 August 2016 at a cost of $440 million. The census counts all people who are located within Australia and its external and internal territories, with the exception of foreign diplomats and their families, on census night.
For the first time, in 2016 Norfolk Island was included in the Australian census rather than being conducted by the Norfolk Island Government. The census examines data such as age, incomes, dwelling types and occupancy, transportation modes, languages spoken, religion; the census is collected and published against geographic areas defined by the Australian Standard Geographical Classification. The ASGC provides a set of geographic classifications for the dissemination of all ABS statistics. In 2007 the ABS published; the primary aim of mesh blocks is to provide a building block for constructing alternative and more relevant geographies. Only data on total persons and total dwellings is released at the mesh block level. Mesh blocks will form the basis of a new statistical geography, the Australian Statistical Geography Standard; the traditional concept of a Collection District is that it was the area that one census collector can cover in about a ten-day period. In the 2001 census, collectors may be allocated more than one urban collection district because of their size.
In urban areas collection districts average about 220 dwellings. In rural areas the number of dwellings per collection district reduces as population densities decrease. For the 2016 census there were 358,122'mesh blocks' and 57,523 spatial Statistical Area Level 1 regions defined throughout Australia; the Census and Statistics Act 1905 and Privacy Act 1988 guarantee that no personally-identifiable information is released from the ABS to other government organisations, or the public. However the ABS makes confidential census data available to researchers, who must make various legal commitments before being given access. In the 1970s there was public debate about the census. In 1979 the Law Reform Commission reported on the Census. One of the key elements under question was the inclusion of names, it was found. On 18 December 2015, the ABS announced that it will retain name and address data collected in the 2016 census for up to four years; this was an increase from 18 months in the 2011 censuses.
From 1971 to 1996 the ABS had a policy of destruction of the original census forms and their electronic representations, as well as field records. Prior to that it appears there was no explicit policy of destruction, but most material had been destroyed because of lack of storage facilities; however the 2001 census offered, for the first time, an option to have personal data archived by the National Archives of Australia and released to the public 99 years and in 2001 54% of Australians agreed to do so. Indigenous Australians in contact with the colonists were enumerated at many of the colonial censuses; when the Federation of Australia occurred in 1901, the new Constitution contained a provision, which said: "In reckoning the numbers of the people of the Commonwealth, or of a State or other part of the Commonwealth, aboriginal natives shall not be counted." In 1967, a referendum was held which approved two amendments to the Australian constitution relating to indigenous Australians. The second of the two amendments deleted Section 127 from the Constitution.
It was believed at the time of the referendum, is still said, that Section 127 meant that aboriginal people were not counted in Commonwealth censuses before 1967. In fact section 127 related to calculating the population of the states and territories for the purpose of allocating seats in Parliament and per capita Commonwealth grants, its purpose was to prevent Queensland and Western Australia using their large aboriginal populations to gain extra seats or extra funds. Thus the Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics interpreted Section 127 as meaning that they may enumerate "aboriginal natives" but that they must be excluded from published tabulations of population. Aboriginal people living in settled areas were counted to a greater or lesser extent in all censuses before 1967; the first Commonwealth Statistician, George Handley Knibbs, obtained a legal opinion that "persons of the half blood" or less are not "aboriginal natives" for the purposes of the Constitution. At the first Australian census in 1911 only those "aboriginal natives" living near white settlements were enumerated, the main population tables included only those of half or less aboriginal descent.
Details of "half-caste" (but not "ful
Anniversary
An anniversary is the date on which an event took place or an institution was founded in a previous year, may refer to the commemoration or celebration of that event. For example, the first event is the initial occurrence or, the inaugural of the event. One year would be the first anniversary of that event; the word was first used for Catholic feasts to commemorate saints. Most countries celebrate national anniversaries called national days; these could be the date of independence of the nation or the adoption of a new constitution or form of government. The important dates in a sitting monarch's reign may be commemorated, an event referred to as a "jubilee". Birthdays are the most common type of anniversary, on which someone's birthdate is commemorated each year; the actual celebration is sometimes moved for practical reasons, as in the case of an official birthday. Wedding anniversaries are often celebrated, on the same day of the year as the wedding occurred. Death anniversary; the Latin phrase dies natalis has become a common term, adopted in many languages in intellectual and institutional circles, for the anniversary of the founding of an institution, such as an alma mater.
In ancient Rome, the Aquilae natalis was the "birthday of the eagle", the anniversary of the official founding of a legion. Anniversaries of nations are marked by the number of years elapsed, expressed with Latin words or Roman numerals. Latin terms for anniversaries are straightforward those relating to the first twenty years, or multiples of ten years, or multiples of centuries or millennia In these instances, the name of the anniversary is derived from the Latin word for the respective number of years. However, when anniversaries relate to fractions of centuries, the situation is not as simple. Roman fractions were based on a duodecimal system. From 1⁄12 to 8⁄12 they were expressed as multiples of twelfths and from 9⁄12 to 11⁄12 they were expressed as multiple twelfths less than the next whole unit—i.e. A whole unit less 3⁄12, 2⁄12 or 1⁄12 respectively. There were special terms for quarter and three-quarters. Dodrans is a Latin contraction of de-quadrans which means "a whole unit less a quarter" (de means "from".
Thus for the example of 175 years, the term is a quarter century less than the next whole century or 175 =. In Latin, it seems that this rule did not apply for 1½. While secundus is Latin for "second", bis for "twice", these terms are not used such as in sesqui-secundus. Instead sesqui is used by itself. Many anniversaries have special names. Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home by Emily Post, published in 1922, contained suggestions for wedding anniversary gifts for 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 50, 75 years. Wedding anniversary gift suggestions for other years were added in editions and publications. Speaking, the longer the period, the more precious or durable the material associated with it. See wedding anniversary for a general list of the wedding anniversary symbols. Furthermore, there exist numerous overlapping contradictory lists of anniversary gifts, separate from the'traditional' names; the concepts of a person's birthday stone and zodiac stone, by contrast, are fixed for life according to the day of the week, month, or astrological sign corresponding to the recipient's birthday.
List of historical anniversaries Quinquennial Neronia Wedding anniversary
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state on the east coast of Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria to the south, South Australia to the west, its coast borders the Tasman Sea to the east. The Australian Capital Territory is an enclave within the state. New South Wales' state capital is Sydney, Australia's most populous city. In September 2018, the population of New South Wales was over 8 million, making it Australia's most populous state. Just under two-thirds of the state's population, 5.1 million, live in the Greater Sydney area. Inhabitants of New South Wales are referred to as New South Welshmen; the Colony of New South Wales was founded as a penal colony in 1788. It comprised more than half of the Australian mainland with its western boundary set at 129th meridian east in 1825; the colony included the island territories of New Zealand, Van Diemen's Land, Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island. During the 19th century, most of the colony's area was detached to form separate British colonies that became New Zealand and the various states and territories of Australia.
However, the Swan River Colony has never been administered as part of New South Wales. Lord Howe Island remains part of New South Wales, while Norfolk Island has become a federal territory, as have the areas now known as the Australian Capital Territory and the Jervis Bay Territory; the prior inhabitants of New South Wales were the Aboriginal tribes who arrived in Australia about 40,000 to 60,000 years ago. Before European settlement there were an estimated 250,000 Aboriginal people in the region; the Wodi Wodi people are the original custodians of the Illawarra region of South Sydney. Speaking a variant of the Dharawal language, the Wodi Wodi people lived across a large stretch of land, surrounded by what is now known as Campbelltown, Shoalhaven River and Moss Vale; the Bundjalung people are the original custodians of parts of the northern coastal areas. The European discovery of New South Wales was made by Captain James Cook during his 1770 survey along the unmapped eastern coast of the Dutch-named continent of New Holland, now Australia.
In his original journal covering the survey, in triplicate to satisfy Admiralty Orders, Cook first named the land "New Wales", named after Wales. However, in the copy held by the Admiralty, he "revised the wording" to "New South Wales"; the first British settlement was made by. After years of chaos and anarchy after the overthrow of Governor William Bligh, a new governor, Lieutenant-Colonel Lachlan Macquarie, was sent from Britain to reform the settlement in 1809. During his time as governor, Macquarie commissioned the construction of roads, wharves and public buildings, sent explorers out from Sydney and employed a planner to design the street layout of Sydney. Macquarie's legacy is still evident today. During the 19th century, large areas were successively separated to form the British colonies of Tasmania, South Australia and Queensland. Responsible government was granted to the New South Wales colony in 1855. Following the Treaty of Waitangi, William Hobson declared British sovereignty over New Zealand in 1840.
In 1841 it was separated from the Colony of New South Wales to form the new Colony of New Zealand. Charles Darwin visited Australia in January 1836 and in The Voyage of the Beagle records his hesitations about and fascination with New South Wales, including his speculations about the geological origin and formation of the great valleys, the aboriginal population, the situation of the convicts, the future prospects of the country. At the end of the 19th century, the movement toward federation between the Australian colonies gathered momentum. Conventions and forums involving colony leaders were held on a regular basis. Proponents of New South Wales as a free trade state were in dispute with the other leading colony Victoria, which had a protectionist economy. At this time customs posts were common on borders on the Murray River. Travelling from New South Wales to Victoria in those days was difficult. Supporters of federation included the New South Wales premier Sir Henry Parkes whose 1889 Tenterfield Speech was pivotal in gathering support for New South Wales involvement.
Edmund Barton to become Australia's first Prime Minister, was another strong advocate for federation and a meeting held in Corowa in 1893 drafted an initial constitution. In 1898 popular referenda on the proposed federation were held in New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania. All votes resulted in a majority in favour, but the New South Wales government under Premier George Reid had set a requirement for a higher "yes" vote than just a simple majority, not met. In 1899 further referenda were held in the same states as well as Queensland. All resulted in yes votes with majorities increased from the previous year. New South Wales met the conditions; as a compromise to the question on where the capital was to be located, an agreement was made that the site was to be within New South Wales but not closer than 100 miles from Sydney, while the provisional capital would be Melbourne. The area that now forms the Australian Capital Territory was ceded by New South Wales when Canberra was selected.
In the years after World War I, the high prices enjoyed durin
Charles Sturt
Captain Charles Napier Sturt was a British explorer of Australia, part of the European exploration of Australia. He led several expeditions into the interior of the continent, starting from both Sydney and from Adelaide, his expeditions traced several of the westward-flowing rivers, establishing that they all merged into the Murray River. He was searching to prove his own passionately held belief that there was an "inland sea" at the centre of the continent. Charles Sturt was born in Bengal, British India, the eldest son of Thomas Lenox Napier Sturt, a judge under the British East India Company. At the age of five, Charles was sent to relations in England to be educated, after attending a preparatory school he was sent to Harrow in 1810. In 1812, Charles went to read with a Mr. Preston near Cambridge, but his father was not wealthy and had difficulty finding the money to send him to Cambridge University, or to establish him in a profession. An aunt made an appeal to the Prince Regent and, on 9 September 1813, Sturt was gazetted as an ensign with the 39th Regiment of Foot in the British Army.
Sturt saw action with the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsular War and against the Americans in Canada during the War of 1812, returning to Europe a few days after the Battle of Waterloo. Sturt was gazetted lieutenant on 7 April 1823 and promoted captain on 15 December 1825. With a detachment from his regiment, Sturt escorted convicts aboard the Mariner to New South Wales, arriving in Sydney on 23 May 1827. Sturt found the conditions and climate in New South Wales much better than he expected and he developed a great interest in the country; the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Ralph Darling, formed a high opinion of Sturt and appointed him major of brigade and military secretary. Sturt became friendly with Allan Cunningham, Hamilton Hume and other explorers. Sturt was keen to explore the Australian interior its rivers. Sturt received approval from Governor Darling on 4 November 1828 to explore the area of the Macquarie River in western New South Wales, it was not, until 10 November that the party started out.
It consisted of his servant Joseph Harris, three soldiers and eight convicts. Hume's experience proved to be useful. A week was spent at Wellington Valley breaking in oxen and horses and on 7 December the real start into comparatively little known country was made. 1828–29 was a period of drought and there was difficulty in getting sufficient water. The courses of the Macquarie and Castlereagh rivers had been followed, though its importance was scarcely sufficiently realized, the Darling River had been discovered; the party returned to Wellington Valley on 21 April 1829. The expedition proved that northern New South Wales was not an inland sea, but deepened the mystery of where the western-flowing rivers of New South Wales went. In 1829 Governor Darling approved an expedition to solve this mystery. Sturt proposed to travel down the Murrumbidgee River, whose upper reaches had been seen by the Hume and Hovell expedition. In place of Hume, unable to join the party, George Macleay went "as a companion rather than as an assistant".
A whaleboat built in sections was carried with them, assembled, on 7 January 1830 the eventful voyage down the Murrumbidgee began. In January 1830 Sturt's party reached the confluence of the Murrumbidgee and a much larger river, which Sturt named the Murray River, it was in fact the same river which Hovell had crossed further upstream and named the Hume. Sturt's party encountered some hostility from the Aboriginal people, he remarked. Sturt proceeded down the Murray, until he reached the river's confluence with the Darling. Sturt had now proved that all the western-flowing rivers flowed into the Murray. In February 1830, the party reached a large lake. A few days they reached the sea. There they made the disappointing discovery that the mouth of the Murray was a maze of lagoons and sandbars, impassable to shipping; the party faced the ordeal of rowing back up the Murray and Murrumbidgee, against the current, in the heat of an Australian summer. Their supplies ran out and when they reached the site of Narrandera in April they were unable to go any further.
Sturt sent two men overland in search of supplies and they returned in time to save the party from starvation, but Sturt went blind for some months and never recovered his health. By the time they arrived back in Sydney they had rowed and sailed nearly 2,900 kilometres of the river system. Sturt served as Commander on Norfolk Island where mutiny was brewing among the convicts, but in 1832 he was obliged to go to England on sick leave and arrived there completely blind. In 1833 he published his Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia during the years 1828, 1829, 1830 and 1831, of which a second edition appeared in 1834. For the first time the public in England realized the importance of Sturt's work. Governor Darling's somewhat tardy but appreciative dispatch of 14 April 1831, his request for Sturt's promotion, had had no result, nothing came of the request by Sir Richard Bourke who had succeeded Darling that Viscount Goderich should give "this deserving officer your Lordship's protection and support".
Though it seems to have been impossible to persuade the colonial office of the value of Sturt's work his book had one important effect. It was read by Edward Gibbon Wakefield, led to the choice of South Australia for the new settlement in contemplation. In May 1834, in view of his services, Sturt appl
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