Explorer-Surveyor – John McDouall Stuart

The John McDouall Stuart Society perpetuates the names and achievements of the famous explorer John McDouall Stuart and his Companions who, in 1862, completed the first European crossing of Australia from Adelaide to Van Diemen Gulf, passing through the centre and returning safely along the same route. Using horses and travelling lightly and quickly, Stuart established a ‘new’ method of exploration.

Portrait of John McDouall Stuart

Australia’s Greatest Inland Explorer

Stuart has been described as Australia’s greatest inland explorer. The noted latter day explorer and historian, Ernest Favenc, wrote:-

Stuart’s victory was all his own; he had followed in no other persons footsteps: he had crossed the true centre, and he had made the coast at a point much further north than his rivals.

Stuart reserved an explorer’s right to name the lands he found. He chose “Alexandra,” but the name never came into common useage.

Chambers Pillar, a well known landmark in Central Australia; discovered by John McDouall Stuart on April 6th, 1860.

Further Information on Stuart

Want to know more of Stuart and his Companions? The best way to help yourself is by joining the John McDouall Stuart Society Inc. Please click on the Membership link. Amongst other benefits, membership grants access to the regular newsletters, publications, addresses, and to Society functions, both formal and social.

It is the intent of this website to enable you to collect as much information as you can, for yourself. You are welcome to reproduce any material from this website, providing that acknowledgement is made. As the Society is entirely dependent upon volunteers, we are not able to perform research tasks.

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