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Explorers of
Australia:
John McDouall Stuart 1815
- 1866
There were many great
explorers of inland Australia, but John McDouall Stuart was one
of the greatest.
Stuart was born
on 7 September 1815 in Scotland. After his schooling he graduated
as a civil engineer and worked for a while as a clerk in a shipping
office, but he hated working indoors doing paperwork. He was a
small man (168cm tall and 54kg) and his health was not strong.
Some historians think he may have suffered from tuberculosis.
At the age of 23, he sailed from Scotland bound for South Australia,
arriving in January 1839. Adelaide had been established just two
years earlier and was at that time an isolated settlement of tents
and thatched wooden huts with earth floors. The colony was planned
by the Systematic Colonisers, a group of people in England led
by Edward Gibbon Wakefield. Captain Charles Sturt was the Surveyor-General,
and employed Stuart in the Survey Staff. However, in 1842 the
staff was cut in size and Stuart lost his job, so he worked as
a private surveyor. Together with James Sinclair, who had come
to South Australia on the same ship, he began sheep farming in
the Mount Lofty Ranges.
Stuart surveyed land for clients in the Flinders Ranges and Gawler Ranges, that Eyre had explored years earlier, concluding that these were barren areas. He even named some of the places accordingly: Despair, Deception and Hopeless. Stuart found that with good rain, these places were actually excellent land for grazing and his clients bought land there, including William Finke, with whom Stuart became good friends. William Finke, after whom the Finke River was named, was a wealthy man through land deals with James Chambers, another good customer of Stuart's. These two men provided the money for Stuart's expeditions.
In 1844, Stuart joined Charles Sturt's last expedition into the interior of Australia. Stuart was a draughtsman on the trip. This expedition brought them the closest of any other Europeans to the centre of Australia. After this, Stuart was filled with desire to cross the continent. By the end of the expedition, Stuart had become the second in command. Both Sturt and Stuart were suffering from scurvy, a disease caused by lack of vitamin C, on their return. Stuart was ill for more than a year, during which time he moved to Port Lincoln to live in a bush environment.
Because of John Stuart's explorations:
*The western border
of South Australia was moved to its current position;
*The geography of the centre of Australia became known;
*Control of the Northern Territory was transferred to South Australia;
*The Overland Telegraph Line, linking Adelaide to Europe via Darwin,
was constructed along his route;
*The original Ghan train route from Adelaide to Alice Springs followed
his route;
*South Australia established a settlement on the north coast at
Darwin ;
*Huge areas of the north were opened up for pastoral and mineral
development.
Today, Stuart's name and achievements are commemmorated by:
*The Stuart Highway, also known as 'Explorer
Highway, starting at Port Augusta in the south and going north
for 1227km to Alice Springs.
*Geographical features named in his honour. *A statue in Victoria
Square, Adelaide.
*Memorials and plaques in South Australia and the Northern Territory.
Stuart's Expeditions:
1...2...3...4...5...6
If you use any part of this
in your work, acknowledge it in your bibliography like this:
John McDouall
Stuart (2002).
[Online], Available: www.kidcyber.com.au
Explorers of Australia
Bass & Flinders ... Burke
& Wills... Blaxland, Lawson
& Wentworth ...Eyre ...
Hume & Hovell ... Leichardt
... Mitchell ... Oxley
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