Murrumbidgee River

“ The expedition actually turned back when within twenty miles of the then unknown Murrumbidgee river, and once again struck upon the Lachlan. From this the party began the ascent until in August they came upon the Macquarie, near the Wellington Valley, reaching Bathurst by the end of the month, having traversed twelve hundred miles in nineteen weeks under most trying conditions. His next instructions placed him under Lieutenant King of the Mermaid, 85 tons, on a surveying expedition to the north-west. ”

“ The Murray, thus combining within its basin nearly the entire drainage of the province of Victoria, with a large portion of that of New South Wales, and much of the eastern part of South Australia, appears to have been unknown to British Colonists before 1830, when Captain Charles Sturt, of the 39th Regiment—one of the most ardent and intrepid explorers the world has ever seen—whilst tracing the source, or rather course, of the Murrumbidgee, by order of the Sydney Government, came upon this noble river ”

“ With the Murrumbidgee still occasionally in view we pursued the road which led towards Sydney. Each meadow was already covered with the lowing herds for which it seemed to have been prepared; and the traces of man's industry were now obvious in fences, and in a substantial wooden house and smoking chimney, usually built in the most inviting part of each cattle run. All the animals looked fat and sufficiently proved the value of the pasturage along this river. ”

“ Sturt had a strong presentiment that the Murrumbidgee would join some other river, and hoped to find it navigable for his boat during the remainder of its course. On the following day a serious mishap occurred. The skiff was sunk by a snag, and the provisions, after being much damaged, had to be recovered by diving. The enterprise was a hazardous one at the best. What with rapids at one time and snags at another, their lives on several occasions were in real jeopardy. But the longest lane has its turning, and this tortuous channel also had an end. ”

“ The discovery of such a large river as the Darling, augmented by the Macquarie and Castlereagh, and (so people then thought) in all probability the Lachlan, naturally inflamed public curiosity as to the position of the outlet on the Australian coast. All the rivers that had been tried as guides to the hidden interior having failed to answer the purpose, the Murrumbidgee -- the beautiful river of the aboriginals -- was selected as the scene of the next attempt. ”

“ McCullum’s station (Wella) , where there are 13,000 sheep, pursued our onward course towards Swan Hill.
From the junction of the Murrumbidgee, or rather of the Logan or Wakool, [16] up which we steamed a short distance, the volume of the Murray diminishes, and its sinuosity increases; but the steamer made good progress on her way, anchoring about half-past twelve a.m., on Thursday morning, the 15th September, in mid-channel, with a strong tide running. ”

“ The beautifully-timbered plains, or the limestone cliffs of the noble Murray—the naked plains that bound on either side the strip of forest-trees of huge dimensions, by which the Lachlan is bordered,—the constantly full stream, the water-worn and lightly-timbered banks, the clear open space between the river and its distant margin of reeds, which mark the character of the Murrumbidgee,—the low grassy banks or limestone rocks, the cascades and caverns, the beautiful festoons of creeping plants, the curious form of the duck-billed platypus, [18] which are to be found on the Glenelg ”

“ From the number of huts along the riverbank it was obvious that the inhabitants were numerous, and I was therefore the more surprised that our depot could have continued so long near them without their discovering it. After following the river upwards of eight miles without meeting with the Murrumbidgee I came to a place where it seemed to have formerly had a different channel, and to have left a basin where the banks of the stream were of easy access, the breadth being only 110 yards. ”

“ The second, the Lachlan, rising in the Blue Mountains, near Bathurst, trends to the north-west, but eventually unites with the main river, about 200 miles in a south-easterly direction from the junction of the Darling, and after having been previously swelled by the waters of the Murrumbidgee for a distance of 150 miles. ”

“ The expedition left Sydney, in full force and high spirits, on the 8rd November, 1829. Goulburn Plains were reached by the 15th, and on the 25th the Murrumbidgee was struck, not far from Jugiong. The appearance of the stream was quite up to Sturt's expectations, but the rugged country on its banks delayed the passage of the drays, and their progress was not very rapid. In a little time they reached the junction of the Dumot (Tumut) River, which considerably increased the volume of the Murrumbidgee, and this addition was accepted as a good omen. ”

“ The former scrambled up the vessel, but the female was compelled to swim to the shore. The man being asked why he had not attempted to assist his dusky helpmate, answered, with the utmost composure, “Plenty cold; black lubra walk well!” So much for native gallantry. The blacks on the Murray are not now so numerous as formerly, infanticide prevailing among them, it is said, to a great extent; indeed, we observed but one child in our passage up to the Murrumbidgee. ”

“ We came thus upon some rainwater in the clay of the plains which, being sufficient to satisfy the bullocks, we gladly availed ourselves of the opportunity it afforded of watering them without unyoking. After proceeding about three miles further we saw a lagoon between us and the Murrumbidgee. It resembled a bend of the river, and contained abundance of water on which were three pelicans and a number of ducks. When we had travelled nearly far enough to encamp, we came on two other lagoons of the same kind, similarly situated and both containing water. ”

“ Captain Sturt’s means of transport were comprised in a whale boat and small skiff, built in seven days on the Murrumbidgee, and with these means and a stock of provisions barely sufficient, it afterwards appeared, for subsistence, this determined man did not hesitate to follow the course of the Murray to its mouth ”

“ Another fish of the family of perches is also caught in the Yas, Murrumbidgee, and other large rivers in the colony: it is called the “perch” by the colonists, and “Kupé” by the natives. I preserved a specimen, caught in the Murrumbidgee, measuring seventeen inches in length, and six inches at its greatest breadth, containing a fine roe: [181] twenty inches was the greatest length they had as yet been taken in this river; but, like the “river cod,” it increases more in breadth, in proportion to its weight, than in length. The colour of the Kupé was inclining to bronze ”

“ Where the waters which must in winter be collected over the great surface of the interior, discharge themselves is yet to be accounted for. It has been almost demonstrated that there is no large river along the whole line of south coast from the Murrumbidgee to Cape Leeuin. The Blackwood, which is supposed to be the largest, scarcely deserves the name of a large river. The expedition which is now exploring will give us more information on that point. Coming northward from Cape Leeuin, the first river of any importance is the Murray. ”

“ Oxley reached; and it seemed the more probable as during a flood the deep and narrow gully extending between the river and the field of polygonum must have then been under water, and a most discouraging impediment to the traveller. I place this spot in latitude 33 degrees 45 minutes 10 seconds South; longitude 144 degrees 56 minutes East. The natives further informed me that three white men on horseback who had canoes (boats) on the Murrumbidgee had visited this part of the Lachlan since, and that after crossing it and going a little way beyond, they had returned. ”

“ The Murray is a noble stream; but, at the present day, not a particularly interesting, or, at any rate, a highly picturesque river. The banks throughout are pretty, sometimes even romantic, but from the sameness of the forest trees—consisting chiefly of gum tree glades—and the expanse of flooded surface through which, at this season, the vessel passed, the scenery cannot but be regarded as generally tame. ”

“ The Morumbidgee appeared, on examination, to have increased in breadth, and continued to rise gradually. It is certainly a noble stream, very different from those I had already traced to their termination. The old black informed me that there was another large river flowing to the southward of west, to which the Morumbidgee was as a creek, and that we could gain it in four days. ”

“ The districts along the banks of the Hunter, Hawkesbury, and Shoalhaven Rivers have been especially liable to destructive inundations; and, from time to time, the people of Sydney have been obliged to send up lifeboats for the purpose of releasing the unfortunate settlers from the roofs and chimneys of their houses, where they have been forced to seek refuge from the rising waters. The Murrumbidgee also used occasionally to spread out into a great sea, carrying off houses and crops, cattle, and, oftentimes, the people themselves. ”

“ The course of rivers is in general conformable to the direction of ranges or the position of those hills which bound the valley or basin, however extensive, in which they flow. As this range fell off to the north-west, opposite to where the course of the Murrumbidgee had continued south-west, it was less probable that the Lachlan would unite with the main stream there than if the range had approached, or had even continued parallel to it. ”

“ To myself personally, the discovery of this river was a circumstance of a particularly gratifying nature, since it not only confirmed the justness of my opinion as to the ultimate fate of the Morumbidgee, and bore me out in the apparently rash and hasty step I had taken at the depot, but assured me of ultimate success in the duty I had to perform. We had got on the high road, as it were, either to the south coast, or to some important outlet; and the appearance of the river itself was such as to justify our most sanguine expectations. ”

“ The Murray, when flooded from the eastward, will doubtless carry a boat safely down its channel, but as a navigable river at all seasons, it is, like the Macquarie, and indeed every other western stream, useless to the colonists. ”

“ Two creeks lay in our way and, from the flood then in the Murray, it was likely that they might be full of water, and the savages prepared to take advantage of the difficulty we should then experience in crossing them. The first channel we arrived at, which was quite dry when we formerly crossed, was now brimful of the muddy water of the Murray and before we reached its banks we heard the voices of natives on our right. We forded it however without annoyance, the water reaching only to the axles of the carts, but the current was very strong and FROM the river, that is to say, upwards. ”

“ The country, as we approach South Australia, is now improving in appearance, as the waters having receded, the forest appears more open, and even the “Mallee scrub” is less monotonous than before. We learn, however, that this subsidence has not taken place on the upper part of the river, the Murray having risen some feet at Maiden’s Punt, probably from the floods on the Campaspe and Goulburn, for as yet the Alpine snows have not contributed their quota to the stream. ”

“ Rain must fall simultaneously in the S.E. angle of the island in the inter-tropical regions, and at the heads of all the tributaries of the main stream, ere its effects can be felt in the lower parts of the Murray. If the valley of the Murray is not subject to flood, it has only recently gained a height above the influence of the river, and still retains all the character of flooded land. In either case, however, it contains land that is of the very richest kind—soil that is the pure accumulation of vegetable matter, and is as black as ebony. ”

“ The Morumbidgee, where we struck it, by its increased size, kept alive our anticipations of its ultimately leading us to some important point. The partial rains that had fallen while we were on its upper branch, had swollen it considerably, and it now rolled along a vast body of water at the rate of three miles an hour, preserving a medium width of 150 feet; its banks retaining a height far above the usual level of the stream. A traveller who had never before descended into the interior of New Holland, would have spurned the idea of such a river terminating in marshes ”

“ The Murray, fed by the lofty mountains on the east, carries to the sea a body of fresh water sufficient to irrigate the whole country, which is in general so level even to a great distance from its banks that the abundant waters of the river might probably be turned into canals for the purpose either of supplying deficiencies of natural irrigation at particular places, or of affording the means of transport across the wide plains.
The high mountains in the east have not yet been explored but their very aspect is refreshing in a country where the summer heat is often very oppressive. ”

“ Every variety of feature may be seen in these southern parts, from the lofty alpine region on the east, to the low grassy plains in which it terminates on the west. The Murray, perhaps the largest river in all Australia, arises amongst those mountains, and receives in its course various other rivers of considerable magnitude. These flow over extensive plains in directions nearly parallel to the main stream, and thus irrigate and fertilise a large extent of rich country. ”