Stuart, John McDouall (1815 - 1866)

Summary

John Stuart migrated to South Australia in 1839 and soon after joined C. Sturt's expedition to Central Australia in 1844. After working as a surveyor 1846-1858 he led a number of expeditions through the colony and eventually crossed the continent in 1862.

Details

Born Dysart, Scotland, 7 September 1815. Died 5 June 1866. Educated Scottish Naval and Military Academy, Edinburgh. Arrived Australia 1839, joined a surveying party, explored the centre of Australia with Charles Sturt 1844-45, surveyor, then estate agent 1846-58, explored beyond Lake Torrens and Lake Gairdner looking for grazing land 1858, expedition 1859 finding a trail with sufficient water for a permanent route north 1859, expedition to the Davenport Range finding signs of gold 1859, expedition to the Macdonnell Ranges, Tennant Creek, and Central Mount Stuart 1860, expedition to Attack Creek and Sturt's Plain 1861, expedition through the centre of Australia right to the Indian Ocean 1862, returned to Scotland 1864 and later went to London. Gold medal, Royal Geographical Society 1861.

Related entries

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

• Australian Botanists - Biographies, MS 064; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection

• John McDouall Stuart - Records, 1848, MS 1185; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details

State Library of South Australia, Mortlock Library of South Australiana

• John McDouall Stuart - Records, 1860, PRG 833; State Library of South Australia, Mortlock Library of South Australiana. Details

State Records of South Australia

• John McDouall Stuart - Records, 1863 - 1865; State Records of South Australia. Details

Published resources

Books

• Ashenden, Dean, Telling Tennant's story: the strange career of the great Australian silence (Collingwood, Vic.: Black Inc., 2022), 338 pp. Details
• Auld, W. P., Recollections of McDouall Stuart (Adelaide: Sullivan’s Cove, 1984), 86 pp. Details
• Bailey, John, Mr Stuart's Track: the Forgotten Life of Australia's Greatest Explorer (Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia, 2006), 335 pp. Details
• Bailey, John, Mr Stuart's Track: the Forgotten Life of Australia's Greatest Explorer (Sydney: Picador, 2007), 335 pp. Details
• Gee, Philip, 150 Years on: a Look Back at Stuart's Incredible 1858 Explorations (Adelaide: John McDouall Stuart Society, 2008), 12 pp. Details
• Hankel, Valmai, John McDouall Stuart's explorations, 1858 - 1862: South Australian parliamentary papers 1858 - 1863 (Adelaide: Friends of the State Library of South Australia, 2001), 396 pp. Details
• Jones, Philip G., Smoke, Spears and Mirrors: Stuart's Aboriginal Encounters (Adelaide: John McDouall Stuart Memorial Address, 2012), 12 pp. Details
• Linn, Rob: introduction by Valmai Hamkel, Sketching with Stuart: John McDouall Stuart's expedition of 1861-62 seen through the sketches of Stephen King (Adelaide: Friends of the State Library of South Australia Inc., 2017), 77 pp. Details
• Mudie, Ian, The heroic journey of John McDouall Stuart (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1968), 279 pp. Details
• Pike, Douglas, John McDouall Stuart (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1958), 30 pp. Details
• Strehlow, T. G. H., Comments on the Journals of John McDouall Stuart (Adelaide: 1967). Details
• Stuart, John McDouall, Explorations in Australia: the journals of John McDouall Stuart during the years 1858, 1859. 1860, 1861 & 1862, when he fixed the centre of the continent and successfully crossed it from sea to sea, edited from Mr Stuart's manuscript by William Hardman (London: Saunders, Otley and Co., 1864), 511 pp. Details
• Stuart, John McDouall, Fourth expedition journal, March to September 1860 (Adelaide: Sullivan's Cove, 1983), 92 pp. Details
• Threadgill, B., South Australian Land Exploration 1856 to 1880 (Adelaide: 1922). Details
• Webster, M. S., John McDouall Stuart (Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press, 1958), 319 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Morris, Deirdre, 'Stuart, John McDouall (1815-1866), explorer' in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Bede Nairn, ed., vol. 6 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1976), pp. 214-215. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A060231b.htm. Details
• Webb, Martyn, 'John McDouall Stuart, 1815-1866' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). Details

Conference Papers

• Cummins, Adrian, 'John McDouall Stuart Expeditions 1858-1862', in FIG Congress 2010: Facing the Challenges - Building the Capacity, Sydney, Australia 11-16 April 2010: TS 6M History of Surveying (2010), p. 15., http://fig.net/pub/fig2010/papers/ts05/ts05f_cummins_4160.pdf. Details

Journal Articles

• Cameron, A. R., 'The story of the Overland Telegraph Line - Part 1', Telecommunication Journal of Australia, 5 (4) (1945), 189-98, http://www.coxhill.com/trlhistory/media/Telecommmunication%20Journal%20of%20Australia/The%20Telecommunication%20Journal%20of%20Australia%20Vol%205,%20No%204%20JUNE%201945.pdf. Details
• Webster, M. S., 'John McDouall Stuart: his character and personal qualities', Proceedings Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, South Australian Branch, 62 (1961), 37-45. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q503832. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/5037849. Details
• 'Stuart, John McDouall (1815-1866)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-531718. Details

See also

• Engineers Australia ed., Wonders never cease: 100 Australian engineering achievements (Barton, Australian Capital Territory: Institution of Engineers, Australia, 2019), 236 pp. pp.52,66,118. Details
• Nettelbeck, Amanda (and others), The Overland Telegraph Line: A Transcultural History, [web resource; undated], South Australian Government, South Australia, 2023. https://otlhistory.sa.gov.au/. Details
• Serle, Percival, Dictionary of Australian biography (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1949). Details