Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia — Volume 2Sturt, Charles
History
Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia — Volume 2
Sturt, Charles
New South Wales -- Discovery and exploration; Sturt, Charles, 1795-1869
Of course, where there is so much room for doubt, opinions will be
various. I shall merely review the subject, in order to connect
subsequent events with my previous observations, and to give the reader
a full idea of that which struck me to be the case on a close and
anxious investigation of the country from mountain to lowland. I
returned from the Macquarie with doubts on my mind as to the ultimate
direction to which the waters of the Darling river might ultimately
flow; for, with regard to every other point, the question was, I
considered, wholly decided. But, with regard to that singular stream, I
was, from the little knowledge I had obtained, puzzled as to its actual
course; and I thought it as likely that it might turn into the heart of
the interior, as that it would make to the south. It had not, however,
escaped my notice, that the northern rivers turned more abruptly
southward (after gaining a certain distance from the base of the
ranges) than the more southern streams: near the junction of the
Castlereagh with the Darling especially, the number of large creeks
joining the first river from the north, led me to conclude that there
was at that particular spot a rapid fall of country to the south.
The first thing that strengthened in my mind this half-formed opinion,
was the fall of the Lachlan into the Morumbidgee. I had been told that
Australia was a basin; that an unbroken range of hills lined its
coasts, the internal rivers of which fell into its centre, and
contributed to the formation of an inland sea; I was not therefore
prepared to find a break in the chain--a gap as it were for the escape
of these waters to the coast.
Subsequently to our entrance into the Murray, the remarkable efforts of
that river to maintain a southerly course were observed even by the
men, and the singular runs it made to the south, when unchecked by high
lands, clearly evinced its natural tendency to flow in that direction.
Had we found ourselves at an elevation above the bed of the Darling
when we reached the junction of the principal tributary with the
Murray, I should still have had doubts on my mind as to the identity of
that tributary with the first-mentioned river; but considering the
trifling elevation of the Darling above the sea, and that the junction
was still less elevated above it, I cannot bring myself to believe that
the former alters its course. It is not, however, on this simple
geographical principle that I have built my conclusions; other
corroborative circumstances have tended also to confirm in my mind the
opinion I have already given, not only of the comparatively recent
appearance above the ocean of the level country over which I had
passed, but that the true dip of the interior is from north to south.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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