Hi Peoples, just got back from another trip out towards Central Australia and its time to show off my photos ...
My old friend and I travelled out to Sturt's Stony Desert. Sturt was the first white explorer to travel to inland Australia.
He believed there was an inland sea in the heart of Australia. He was right, but he was 60 million years too late.
His expedition party suffered great hardship and the second in command, Poole, died. They were trapped for 6-7 months
in Sturt's Stony Desert, unable to break away from a single remaining billabong (a waterhole in a dry creek bed), and the
billabong was drying out.
Here is some of their story.
The Stony Desert is covered in vast Gibber plains. Gibber is the Aboriginal word for 'fist sized throwing rock'.
Animals will not walk on these plains unless forced, and to walk one or two kilometres is agony, I tried it.
Quote:=Sturt's Diary: The horses were limping and the stones wore down the hooves of the cattle and the sheep.
In the stony desert, where there are no gibber plains there are just bigger stones. If you find a place to stand where there
are no stones at all, then there are Bullock Head Burrs. These are small seed pods with 5-6 hypodermic needle points
sticking out, and due to the wonders of evolution in miniature, which ever way they land they always have one needle
sticking straight up. Their motto is simple ... 'I may be here a long time, and nothing may happen, but if it does I'm ready'.
They can drive up to 10mm into you and they inject a toxin that stings and the next day causes your arm or leg to throb.
If your not careful when you pull them out the tips break off and the toxin works for days. (This is evolution at its most
amazing. No doubt the animal picks up the burr, and after a while the toxin can be felt and the animal tries to scrub it off.
It falls in a new animal feeding ground. The seed pod has achieved its aim)
So, all in all, Sturt's stony desert is not right up there with the top tourists spots like Ayer's rock and the Tananmi.
Into this desert Sturt took the following:
Quote:=Charles Sturt's Diary....so that the expedition was now complete, and mustered in its full force for the first time, and consisted as follows of officers, men, and animals:--
Captain Sturt, LEADER.
Mr. James Poole, ASSISTANT.
Mr. John Harris Browne, SURGEON.
Mr. M'Dougate Stuart, DRAFTSMAN.
Mr. Louis Piesse, STOREKEEPER.
Daniel Brock, COLLECTOR.
George Davenport, Joseph Cowley, SERVANTS
Robert Flood, STOCKMAN.
David Morgan, WITH HORSES.
Hugh Foulkes, John Jones, Turpin, BULLOCK DRIVERS
William Lewis, SAILOR
John Mack, John Kerby, WITH SHEEP.
11 horses; 30 bullocks; 1 boat and boat carriage; 1 horse dray; 1 spring cart; 3 drays. 200 sheep; 4 kangaroo dogs; 2 sheep dogs.
Some of these men were colonial prisoners of the Crown, earning their freedom. Please note the boat. Mad dogs and Englishmen go
out in the noonday Sun. This party took a boat, weighing near a tonne, into the heart of the driest continent on earth in the
hope of sailing on an inland sea !!
Quote:=Sturt's Diary.....which I had vainly hoped would have
ploughed the waters of a central sea.
The rest of their tale is heart wrenching. They were hard tough men but they were in a desperate situation, attacked by
scurvy, and in temperatures that reached 57 C (135 F). The thermometers burst. The last billabong on Preservation creek
was evaporating. They had to keep their candles and ink buried in the creek bank to prevent them evaporating.
Quote:=Sturt's Diary .... I had violent headaches, unusual pains in my joints, and a coppery taste in my mouth.These symptoms
I attributed to having slept so frequently on the hard ground and in the beds of creeks, and it was only when my mouth
became sore, and my gums spongy, that I felt it necessary to trouble Mr. Browne, who at once told me that I was labouring
under an attack of scurvy, and I regretted to learn from him that both he and Mr. Poole were similarly affected, but they
hoped I had hitherto escaped.
We regretted to find that Mr. Poole was seriously indisposed. His muscles were now attacked and he was suffering great
pain,
Mr. Poole had gradually become worse and worse, and was now wholly confined to his bed, unable to stir, a melancholy
affliction both to himself and us, rendering our detention in that gloomy region still more painful.
Mr. Poole became worse, all his skin along the muscles turned black, and large pieces of spongy flesh hung from the roof of
his mouth, which was in such a state that he could hardly eat.
As Poole became worse it was determined to send a return party to Adelaide, at whatever cost or Poole would die. But the
return party had not gone far when Poole died.
Quote:=Sturt's Diary... About seven o'clock p.m. we were surprised by the sudden return of Joseph, from the home
returning party; but, still more so at the melancholy nature of the information he had to communicate. Mr. Poole, he
said, had breathed his last at three o'clock. ..... About a quarter before three he had risen to take some medicine, but
suddenly observed to Joseph that he thought he was dying, and falling on his back, expired without a struggle.
On the 17th the whole party, which had so lately separated, once more assembled at the Depot. We buried Mr. Poole
under a Grevillia that stood close to our underground room;
his initials, and the year, are cut in it above the grave, "J. P. 1845," and he now sleeps in the desert.
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