Country Near the Mouth of the River Murr…

Map showing the bottom of Fleurieu Peninsula and part of Kangaroo Island in 1833.

In 1829 Governor Darling approved an expedition to be led by Captain Sturt to travel down the Murrumbidgee River, whose upper reaches had been seen by the Hume and Hovell expedition. In January 1830 Sturt’s party reached the confluence of the Murrumbidgee and a much larger river, which Sturt named the Murray River. Sturt then proceeded down the Murray, until he reached the river’s confluence with the Darling. In February 1830, the party reached a large lake which Sturt called Lake Alexandrina and a few days later, 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.