What hardships did Charles Sturt face?

Answer 1

Charles Sturt, like all one Australian explorers, faced challenges they could not have imagined in the harsh, unforgiving land of Australia.

At one stage on Charles Sturt's expedition along the Murray River, the group narrowly avoided a confrontation with hostile Aborigines. Fortunately, Sturt was always generous towards the many Aboriginal tribes he encountered, readily sharing food and gifts with them. In January 1830, however, his party encountered a group of about six hundred hostile Aborigines on sandbanks of the Murray. His men loaded their guns and prepared for battle, but further action was unnecessary when an Aborigine whom Sturt had befriended days earlier appeared from the bushes and convinced the hostile Aborigines to leave Sturt's party alone.

Another common hardship was navigating his way through and around the many obstacles and snags which lay beneath the surface of the Murray River, particularly given that it was a flood year, and items such as trees and branches that would normally be exposed were submerged.

Sturt's return journey was arduous and exhausting. His party had to row back up the Murray River, against the current and the floodwaters heading downstream. The men rowed constantly, in shifts which lasted from dawn until dusk each day. They were low on rations, and it was the hottest time of the year. When they finally reached Wantabadgery Station, they were at the point of starvation, and had to spend some time recovering before returning to Sydney in May 1830. Because of the perpetual sun-glare on e Murray River, Sturt suffered a degree of blindness, from which he never fully recovered.

Later, whilst exploring the desert country of Central Australia, Sturt faced new challenges and hardships. Not expecting to take so long to long for this journey to "discover" the inland sea he was certain must exist, his party found themselves travelling through Australia's harsh interior in mid-summer. Daily temperatures in excess of 40 degrees Celsius took its toll on the men, and their hair and nails stopped growing. Although they are able to find sufficient water to sustain me, their diet in the deserts as very poor, and they were beset by scurvy. His assistant, James Poole, died in great pain from the effects of the disease. Add to that his ultimate disappointment in never finding any trace of an inland sea, as there was none.

Answer 2

making friends with the convicts was hard.