They established camps on Kangaroo Island in 1802 and then around Encounter Bay, Port Elliot and the Coorong. Using their longboats they would make sorties along the coastline.
Captain Charles Sturt
The Goolwa - Discovery Exploration & Settlement
Sealers and Whalers
Sealers and whalers were the first Europeans to engage with the Indigenous communities.
They established camps on Kangaroo Island in 1802 and then around Encounter Bay, Port Elliot and the Coorong. Using their longboats they would make sorties along the coastline.
​
The violence of their daily work, in hand with isolation and payment in rations of alcohol, by their merchant masters, produced lawless and brutal conduct.
“ The sealers of the Bass Strait and the South Australian coast were notorious for evil”.
​
Indigenous people were particularly vulnerable to abuse, exploited for labour by capture and coercion and exposed to disease and violence.
" whalers on the coasts of Australasia were little short of pirates, always ready to indulge in drunken sprees, and…frequently absorbed in other orgies"
The South Australian Company and captain John Blenkinsopp stage whaling rivalry in Encounter Bay in 1837. George French Angas's lithograph of Encounter Bay and Victor Harbor in 1846. Inset: An artist's impression of the South Australian Company's whaling station at the Bluff in 1837.
Exploration and Settlement
In the 1620s, Dutch explorers charted the west coast of Australia but turned back after reaching the arid lands of the Great Australian Bight.
​
It was not until 1802, at the direction of the NSW Governor, that British explorer Matthew Flinders mapped the South Australian coastline – the first recorded circumnavigation of Australia.
​
On April 8, 1802, Flinders was surprised to meet the French explorer Nicolas Baudin off the coast near present-day Goolwa, leading to the naming of Encounter Bay.
​
The NSW Governor was concerned about reports of sealing and whaling and foreign ambitions.
By the early 1800s, over 200 French and American sealing and whaling ships were working along the southern coasts of Australia and New Zealand.
British concerns led to the decision in London to expand exploration and settlement, which led to the colonisation of South Australia in 1836. Unlike other colonies, South Australia was established as a "free settlement" without convict transportation.
In the 65 kilometres of river in South Australia, between Walker Flat and Wellington, there were five groups: Nganguruku, Ngaralta, Yarildekald, Portaulun, and Warki. The confederation of the Ngarrindjeri people inhabited the region of the southern lakes and Coorong, and included the Yarildekald (Yaraldi), the Portaulun (Portawulun), the Warki, and the Raminyeri who occupied the tip of Fleurieu Peninsula rather than next to the river itself.
.jpg)
Angas-river-murray-above-moorundi Angus George French 1847
Charles Sturt's Exploration of South Australia
​
In early 1830, Captain Charles Sturt embarked on his epic expedition to trace the Murrumbidgee River, believing it might lead to an inland sea. Sturt travelled down the Murrumbidgee in a whaleboat and discovered the Murray River. He continued down the Murray, reaching Lake Alexandrina and the Murray Mouth on February 12, 1830.
​
Sturt discovered the mouth of the Murray was a maze of lagoons and sandbars, with questionable use for shipping.
With worries about safety, failing health and little food, Sturt and his exhausted crew turned their whaleboat around and rowed 1,500 kilometres upstream.​​
Map of the Murray Mouth by B douglas 1857
Captain Charles Sturt and the Ngarrindjeri People -
First Contact
​
Sturt's journals are the first record of contact with the Ngarrindjeri people. He observed smoke signals along the river, which he recognized as a form of communication. He described Ngarrindjeri men watching the boat’s progress and gathering near the water’s edge to observe the strange visitors. Sturt’s crew were likely the first Europeans the Ngarrindjeri had seen and while interactions were often cautious, they were generally peaceful.
Sturt noted their canoes and fishing practices, describing how the Ngarrindjeri skilfully used the river and lakes for food and travel.
​
“Their canoes appeared admirably adapted for the rivers… they floated lightly and were propelled with great dexterity by their occupants.” Sturt 1830
​
Sturt’s journey confirmed the Murray River’s economic and agricultural potential, leading to European settlement in the region within 10 years. “It is to be feared that the simple habits of these people will ill prepare them for the consequences of European intrusion.” Sturt 1830
​
In 1831 Captain Collet Barker was asked to further explore the coast and Murray Mouth. He climbed Mount Lofty, found Adelaide`s future port and named the nearby Sturt River. From Yankalilla Bay he went overland with a party to Encounter Bay where he swam the Murray mouth and disappeared on 30 April 1831. Ngarrindjeri men were seen and his death was most likely due to the conduct of sealers.
Settlement and Displacement
​
The influx of settlers from 1836 brought a completely different worldview based on agricultural practices, land acquisition and ownership that altered the landscape. The Murray River and the surrounding Goolwa area would soon become a focal point of settlement and agriculture.
The arrival of paddle steamers and boom in the river trade led to rapid expansion. The Ngarrindjeri were forced from their country.
The new colonies' need for sheep, cattle and horses was met by “Overlanders” who drove herds of livestock from the eastern colonies to South Australia in the late 1840s. Their conduct was also brutal and violent. The coastal route was favoured with the Coorong regarded as “a long paddock”. The country at the heart of the Ngarrindjeri for 60 centuries was empty within 20 years.
Panorama of Goolwa 1854 from the water. By Adamson, J. H ,The scene showing small dinghies under sail in the foreground and the steamer Lady Augusta in the distance (bottom left); on the land there are both tents and simple houses for the settlers, and Aboriginal people and Europeans at the water's edge.
“The past is not dead, it is living in us, and will be alive in the future generations.”
WILLIAM FAULKNER