Sturt's House at Grange: Keith examines the life and times of an earlier explorer in the Adelaide City region of South Australia
A statue in Adelaide's Victoria Square depicts Captain Charles Sturt surveying all before him. The imposing figure is of one of our greatest explorers who made a name for himself charting Australia's inland rivers including the Murray all the way to the sea. But he didn't stop there - he was convinced that somewhere in our vast continent there was an inland sea - and he was the man to find it.
He left on that expedition from his house in suburban Grange. Built in 1840, the house sits peacefully by a creek. It was a mixed farm in an area known as the Reed Beds. The marshlands fed by the Torrens are long gone but you still get a sense of what it must have been like when Sturt likened the giant redgums to the Oaks of his mother England.
Arthur Jeeves, 'The Grange' curator: "Sturt was very proud of this place. He described it as the 'most English looking place in the Province'. And that's what it was - in nautical terms it was his safe anchorage in life…"
Arthur Jeeves is the keeper of The Grange and he sees it as a bricks and mortar tribute to not just Sturt the explorer but Sturt the family man. It was home to Sturt, his wife Charlotte, their three sons and their only daughter Charlotte Eyre Sturt. She was born here and in her bedroom there's a beautiful pastel of the little girl known throughout life as Missie.
At the other end of the house, a tribute to Charles Sturt's many and significant achievements… It includes an incredibly detailed model of a campsite on the1829 expedition to trace the course of the Murrumbidgee and other rivers - which led to his discovery of the Murray Darling system.
Arthur Jeeves, 'The Grange' curator: "They made camp, assembled the whale boat which they had in pieces on the back of a wagon. It was built in the Sydney dockyards, disassembled and placed on a wagon and Clayton the convict carpenter reassembled it and painted it."
It was a true voyage into the unknown and one well documented in a special audio visual display.
Audio Visual display: "It was not a big boat - just an open whale boat, 8 metres long propelled by a small sail and the rowing power of an 8-man crew. But this small boat made a very great journey and solved one of the major riddles of the Australian continent…."
It did that alright - unlocking the secrets of Australia's major river system and Sturt's reports about the Murray gave impetus for the new Colony of South Australia. But Sturt wasn't done yet - he was determined to find his fanciful inland sea.
Arthur Jeeves, 'The Grange' curator: "The Colonial Government in London approved of an expedition into the interior and so he left in August of 1844 to go to the interior. He believed there was an inland sea and he took a boat to sail on it."
On the 10th August, he set out from The Grange and his departure from Adelaide was a gala occasion and declared a public holiday. The party included 200 sheep, 30 bullocks, horses, drays and of course that boat. Northward they slogged - taking copious notes along the way. In January, the height of summer in 1845, Sturt and his party arrived at what he called Depot Glen. They were in a bad way and the spring fed water hole was their savior.
Arthur Jeeves, 'The Grange' curator: "It was very harsh. The ground temperatures and the ambient temperatures were fierce. Sturt had thermometers that peaked at 120 degree Fahrenheit and he records on one occasion they set one up under a tree to assess the ambient temperature and it burst."
They camped at Depot Glen for six months making a number of sojourns into the burning interior only to be pushed back. Sturt found rolling waves alright - but they were waves of sand dunes in the Simpson Desert - not water. At midnight on 19 January 1846, a year and a half after leaving Adelaide, Sturt returned a broken man.
Arthur Jeeves, 'The Grange' curator: "He arrived home very late at night and he was in a pitiful state. When Charlotte Sturt saw him she fainted. It was such a shock."
You can see the master bedroom at the Grange where Sturt spent a long time convalescing after the horrific effects of the central Australian Expedition. Another display includes the very flag Sturt carried with him to unfurl at the centre of Australia. He never made it - he fell 240 miles short of his objective.
More than explorer, Sturt was also an accomplished artist. He did hundreds of watercolours, some of which are on display at the grange. There's also a bracelet he made for his daughter, Missy out of quandongs he collected on the near fatal expedition into Central Australia.
The museum at the Grange proves that Sturt was one of the great Australian explorers but you also get a sense of the family man. To his three boys, little Missy and his wife Charlotte he was a distinguished figure in history - but most of all he was dad. He was a devoted family man and the Grange was home.
The Grange museum is open every first and third Sunday of the month from 2pm to 5pm. Or you can book group tours at other times by appointment. If you have any further questions please email info@postcards-sa.com.au
The Grange
Charles Sturt Museum
Jetty St
Grange
Open 1st & 3rd Sunday 2pm-5pm
Bookings (08)8356 8185Published 6th June 2010
