Joseph Hawdon and Charles Bonney arrived in Adelaide on 3 April 1838 with the herd of some 300 cattle that they had overlanded from New South Wales. Prior to this time all livestock had been brought to South Australia by ship - either from Tasmania or the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. Hawdon's successful venture led to many others following his example including Edward Eyre and Charles Sturt.

Hawdon discovered Lake Victoria from which flowed Sturt's River Rufus. He also discovered Lake Bonney which he named for his companion Charles Bonney; he did however record the Aboriginal name for the lake. Hawdon writes of the birdlife on the lake and describes the way in which the Aboriginal people acted as ambassadors to the next community, just as they had done for Charles Sturt in 1830.

The first overlanders, Hawdon and Bonney: their accounts of the first cattle drive from New South Wales to Adelaide 1838 edited by Kevin K. Kain. Ridgehaven, S. Aust.: K. Kain in association with Gould Books, c1991

'Importations of the first stock overland from New South Wales'. [Describes the journeys of Messrs Hawdon, Eyre and Sturt with cattle from New South Wales in 1838] (reprinted from the South Australian Gazette, 1838) Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia. South Australian Branch, 17 (Session 1915-1916), pp.99-107

Packard, Brian Joseph Hawdon: the first overlander [West Pymble, N.S.W.: Brian and Dorothy Packard,] 1997

Australian dictionary of biography online: Hawdon, Joseph (1813-1871)

Australian dictionary of biography online: Bonney, Charles (1813-1897)

State Library of South Australia: Treasures of the State Library: Overlanders crossing the Murray