Here are some facts for this day. You are welcome to log your interesting, quirky or fun fact/s with your log.
On This Day - January 14th
Australian History
1830 - Captain Charles Sturt discovers that the Murrumbidgee River flows into the Murray.
Captain Charles Sturt was born in India in 1795. He came to Australia in 1827, and soon undertook to solve the mystery of where the inland rivers of New South Wales flowed. Because they appeared to flow towards the centre of the continent, the belief was held that they emptied into an inland sea. Drawing on the skills of experienced bushman and explorer Hamilton Hume, Sturt first traced the Macquarie River as far as the Darling, which he named after Governor Darling.
Pleased with Sturt's discoveries, Governor Darling then sent Sturt to trace the course of the Murrumbidgee River, and to see whether it joined to the Darling. In November 1829 Sturt and his party reached the Murrumbidgee. Sturt followed the river in a whaleboat and, on 14 January 1830, discovered that the Murrumbidgee River flowed into the Murray (previously named the Hume). Sturt later went on to discover that the Darling River also flowed into the Murray, and that the Murray River flowed to the ocean, emptying out at Lake Alexandrina on the southern coast. Sturt's discoveries were significant, for they allowed for the development of paddle-steamer transportation of goods and passengers along Australia's inner waterways.