People at this time thought that Australia's inland rivers which flowed west, must have flowed into an inland sea. Another explorer, John Oxley had been stopped from going west down the Lachlan and Macquarie Rivers by a marsh which he thought was the edge of the sea. Sir Ralph Darling, Governor of New South Wales thought that it would be easier to travel in a drought (a long time without rain). This would mean the swamps and marshes would be dry. Darling put Sturt in charge. On 10 November 1828, Sturt and a group of 13 men, including explorer Hamilton Hume, went to find the path of the Macquarie River. They followed the Macquarie River, the Bogan River and the Castlereagh River and found the Darling River which he named after the Governor. They followed the river near from the present town of Bourke for about downstream towards the south west. They then went back to Sydney.