Charles Sturt prefaces his account of Collet Barker's exploration of the region around Cape Jervis with a map, which includes the location of an inlet he saw, Sturt River, Ponkepurringa Creek (Onkaparinga River) and the country inland from his anchorage in Yankalilla Bay.

View a "zoomable" version.

Captain Collet Barker was returning to Sydney from his posting in King George Sound in Western Australia when he was asked to explore the eastern shore of Saint Vincent Gulf and look for an alternate exit for the River Murray, discovered by his friend and fellow officer Charles Sturt in 1830. Barker arrived at Cape Jervis on 13 April 1831 and extensively explored the coast. He found no alternative outlet for the River Murray but did find the Sturt and Onkaparinga Rivers, as well as the Port River, with the Barker Inlet. Barker and his men then explored across the Fleurieu Peninsula to the Murray Mouth, and Barker, the only swimmer in the group crossed to the other side and was never seen again.

Charles Sturt recorded Barker's discoveries on the peninsula in his account of his exploration of the Murrumbidgee and Murray Rivers. The map prefaces this account.

Aboriginal peoples (Australians)

Sturt, Charles, 1795-1869

Barker, Collet, 1784-1831

Fleurieu Peninsula

Sturt, Charles, Two expeditions into the interior of southern Australia, during the years 1828, 1829, 1830, and 1831: with observations on the soil, climate, and general resources of the Colony of New South Wales North Adelaide: Corkwood Press, 1999

Barker, Collet, Commandant of solitude: the journals of Captain Collet Barker, 1828-1831 edited John Mulvaney and Neville Green Melbourne: Melbourne University Press at the Miegunyah Press, 1992

Cleland, J. B. (John Burton), Sir, Inaccuracies in the memorial to Captain Collet Barker at Mount Barker [Adelaide: Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (S.A. Branch), 1945?]

Mulvaney, D. J. The search for Collet Barker of Raffles Bay Darwin: State Library of the Northern Territory, 1994

State Library of South Australia: Mortlock Wing. Taking it to the edge August 2004-