The founding fathers of South Australia may have rejected a colony based on convict labour, preferring a planned settlement for freemen established on the principles of egalitarianism.  Nonetheless, the presence of a military force was welcomed as a means to maintain the peace, good order and advance the prosperity of the Province.  From 1841 to 1870 various regiments of British Imperial troops were stationed in Adelaide.  The ”Lobsters”  nicknamed by the Adelaide boys for their red coats, were initially better known for their drunken riots, forcing the police numbers to be increased to keep them under control.  However by their departure on 1st August 1870 the Governor was happy to praise their orderly and soldier-like behaviour and their ability to uphold the character of the British Army.

This booklet recalls the almost forgotten story of Governor Gawler’s expedition from ‘Currency Creek’ in ‘Lake Alexandrina’, to the ‘Great Nor-west Bend of the ‘Murray River. It was to end in tragedy with the death of young ‘Henry Bryan’, whose body was never found and had it not been for the intervention of Captain Sturt, might have also resulted in the death of the Governor himself.

A memorial to the life of Charles Sturt who numbered amongst those intrepid explorers of the 19th century whose discoveries opened up the continent of Australia and thereby shaped its future history.

Born in England on 25 October, 1815, he was the ninth son and the last of the 13 children born to Thomas Lennox Napier Sturt and his wife Jeanette (nee Wilson). He arrived in the Colony of New South Wales in October 1836, aged 21 years, like many young men of his era, seeking fame and fortune. He went on to become a pioneer and pastoralist, attain high public office and in 1854, to play a major role in the events associated with the Ballarat riots and the subsequent rebellion at the ‘Eureka Stockade’, thereby earning his place in the colonial history of Australia.

George Davenport remains an enigmatic figure because the alleged reasons for his transportation to the penal colony at Norfolk Island do not seem to accord with the military history of the time. This coupled with the confusion in the spelling of his name, suggests that something is missing. Recent research supports this hypothesis because it reveals he was transported for ‘Highway Robbery’, not military cowardice. He was to prove a constant and resilient man who survived the harshness of the convict system, endured the dangers of Sturt’s 1844-1846 Central Australian Expedition, and died at age 69, a prosperous and respected citizen of the City of Adelaide.

This is the story of a remarkable man who as a 5 year old child arrived in the colony of South Australia in December 1849. His father was John Berry, who in 1850 was employed by Captain Sturt as his gardener at “Grange’, the home built by the explorer in 1840. Here the Berry family were to live until 1853 when the Sturt family returned to England. Henry was to prove himself a man of many talents and unshakeable integrity. He married well and had 9 children. When he died in 1933, at the ripe old age of 88, he had outlived all his sisters and brothers, his wife and all but 3 of his children. He was also by repute the last person alive in South Australia who had personally known Captain Charles Sturt, his wife and their children who had been his playmates.