Who was John McDouall Stuart?
When the 23-year-old Scottish draftsman John McDouall Stuart, arrived in South Australia in 1839, it was a very young colony and Adelaide was just a rough settlement, barely two years old, consisting of a collection of tents and wooden huts with earth floors and thatched roofs.
McDouall Stuart was bitten by the explorer’s bug after joining Captain Charles Sturt’s expedition in search of an inland sea in 1844.
He went on to conduct several expeditions into the centre of Australia, ultimately, in 1862, unlocking the riddle of the geographical nature of the centre of Australia and blazing a route from south to north.
Stuart aimed for maximum speed on his expeditions, with no slow moving wagons or travelling stock for rations. Horses were his only means of transport – camels were not considered. His only navigational instruments carried were the sextant, artificial horizon, watch and prismatic compass.
As Aeneas Gunn, a well-known pioneer of the Northern Territory recorded:
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“His expeditions were undertaken without ostentation. He took no theatrical risks nor hazardous shortcuts and he came through his journeys without tragic failures or dramatic incidents to mark them for public concern.”
Today, McDouall Stuart’s name is perpetuated by the Stuart Highway linking Adelaide to Darwin and his statue is in Victoria Square.
McDouall Stuart received a gold watch from the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) in London after his first expedition in 1858, covering some 2,400 kilometres, when he made the European discovery of Chambers Creek (now called Stuart Creek). This expedition established his reputation as an explorer and bushman of outstanding ability.
The Society then awarded him its Patron’s medal following his fourth expedition in 1860, when his achievement in reaching the geographical centre of the continent was acclaimed as equal to Speke’s discovery of the source of the Nile.
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For the first time Europeans gazed upon the ‘red centre’ and the small party went on to discover other geographical features including Chambers Pillar, the Finke River, the James, Waterhouse and MacDonnell Ranges.
John McDouall Stuart’s great ambition in life was achieved in July 1862, nine months after leaving Adelaide. His party successfully crossed Australia from Adelaide to Van Diemen Gulf, passing through the Centre of the Continent, returning along the same route without loss of life.
The return journey of 3400 kilometres rates as one of the greatest feats of survival in Australian European exploration.
Following this achievement, the Overland Telegraph Line, linking Adelaide to the world via Darwin, was constructed along his route, and the original Central Australia Railway (Ghan) from Adelaide to Alice Springs was constructed along a similar route.
Control of the Northern Territory was transferred to South Australia, which then established settlement on the north coast near Darwin. Vast areas of the north were opened up for pastoral and mineral development.
Stuart had given everything he had to give to achieve his aim. In poor health, he returned to the UK where he died, aged 50, in 1866, having spent half his life, 25 years, in South Australia, which he called his “adopted country.”
