File:Unveiling statue of Captain Charles Sturt(GN01908).jpg

The statue of explorer Captain Charles Napier Sturt (1795–1869) was unveiled in December 1916. Captain Sturt was a soldier, explorer and public servant. He explored and documented the Murrumbidgee-Murray-Darling river system. Sturt is especially remembered as the first European to chart the Murray. He also led several expeditions to the interior of Australia starting from Sydney and Adelaide. The statue's designer was English sculptor Captain Adrian Jones (1845-1938) who was also a career soldier, veterinarian and painter. He had already produced the horse and rider of the South African War Memorial on the corner of North Terrace and King William Street (unveiled 1904). The statue was cast at the Frome foundry in Somerset, England. The bronze panels were made in South Australia. The base and pedestal of Murray Bridge granite and Angaston marble were carved by monumental masons GE Morgan of Adelaide.

Sturt's statue was completed in 1916 and shipped to South Australia free of charge by P&O Co. It arrived in July 1916 with a note from South Australia's Agent-General in London describing it as 'the most “alive” statue in Adelaide'. The statue was erected in the northwest of Victoria Square. London sculptor, Adrian Jones, etched Sturt in stone. Jones's design was much less formal than most statues of the time. Sturt is shown in explorers' clothes, wearing a broad hat and peering into the unknown distance.