page_title: Charles Sturt
section_title: A break from exploring
hierarchical_section_title: Charles Sturt / A break from exploring
caption_attribution_description: Charles Sturt Monument, Merbein
context_page_description: Charles Napier Sturt was a British officer and explorer of Australia, and part of the European exploration of Australia. He led several expeditions into the interior of the continent, starting from Sydney and later from Adelaide. His expeditions traced several of the westward-flowing rivers, establishing that they all merged into the Murray River, which flows into the Southern Ocean. He was searching to prove his own passionately held belief that an "inland sea" was located at the centre of the continent. He reached the rank of Captain, served in several appointed posts, and on the Legislative Council.
  Born to British parents in Bengal, British India, Sturt was educated in England for a time as a child and youth. He was placed in the British Army because his father was not wealthy enough to pay for Cambridge. After assignments in North America, Sturt was assigned to accompany a ship of convicts to Australia in 1827. Finding the place to his liking, he made his life there.
context_section_description: Sturt briefly served as Commander on Norfolk Island, where mutiny was brewing among the convicts. Because of his ill health, he went to England in 1832 on sick leave, arriving there almost 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 realised the importance of Sturt's work. Governor Darling's somewhat tardy but appreciative dispatch of 14 April 1831, and his request for Sturt's promotion, had had no result. Sir Richard Bourke, who had succeeded Darling, was also unsuccessful in persuading Viscount Goderich to give "this deserving officer your Lordship's protection and support". Though the colonial office did not seem to recognise the value of Sturt's work, publication of his book was important because it captured the attention of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who read it. He chose  South Australia for a new settlement then being contemplated by the government. In May 1834, based on his services, Sturt applied for a grant of land in Australia, intending to settle on it.
  In July instructions were given that he was to receive a grant of 5,000 acres (2,000 ha); in exchange, Sturt agreed to give up his pension rights. On 20 September 1834, Sturt married Charlotte Christiana Greene, daughter of a longtime family friend. Soon afterward, the couple sailed for Australia.
caption: Charles Sturt monument in Merbein, Victoria.
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