While travelling yesterday i stopped at Pooles grave 300 klms north of Broken Hill.
Grab a pic to show the resting place of James Poole member of Charles Sturt expedition team.
Heres an extract.
This was Sturt's fourth major expedition and began in August 1844, when he was almost 50 years of age. Three hundred men applied to join the expedition. Sturt chose 16 including James Poole, the second-in-command and set off together with 11 horses, 300 sheep, 32 bullocks, six dogs and an assortment of carts and wagons.
Early in the trip he was confronted again with hostile aboriginals, but managed to reason with them. The party passed through today's Broken Hill, but failed to recognise the valuable minerals in the ground. Further north, at Rocky Glen (near the present town of Milparinka), a large stretch of deep water, they were trapped for 6 months by the extreme heat and the lack of water ahead. The party came down with a disease called scurvy because of the lack of fresh food. Poole's skin turned black and large pieces of flesh peeled off the inside of his mouth. It had become so hot that the thermometers were bursting - up to 67 degrees Centigrade and the river was almost dry. It was so hot it made screws drop out of boxes, lead fell out of pencils and the men's nails became as brittle as glass.
My hats off to the explorers of yesterday.
Cheers Kev.
