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Australian government rewarded the explorer with a large pastoral lease (later disputed). The 1858 expedition
determined Stuart’s future: it established the feasibility of crossing the continent, an achievement Stuart committed
himself to, in his words, ‘at whatever personal cost’.
James Chambers, then South Australia’s leading pastoralist, now joined William Finke in supporting Stuart’s
ventures. In 1859, he made two further preliminary expeditions, exploring the country south and west of Lake
Eyre from Maree to beyond Oodnadatta. These expeditions opened a safely watered route to the Centre, for Stuart
discovered and mapped the area’s numerous permanent artesian springs—the essential stepping-stones for each of
his subsequent journeys. William Kekwick, Stuart’s deputy on the second 1859 expedition, became his permanent
and much-trusted second-in-command.
Financed by Chambers and Finke, Stuart left Chambers Creek on the first of his three transcontinental
expeditions in March 1860, accompanied by Kekwick, a young bushman, Benjamin Head, and with only thirteen
horses. The party moved rapidly northward, passing the MacDonnell Ranges in mid-April. Central Mount Stuart
(originally named ‘Central Mount Sturt’ by Stuart after ‘my esteemed commander of 1844–45’) was reached on
22 April, but thereafter attempts to push north-west to the already discovered Victoria River met with defeat:
impenetrable scrubs, waterless country, diminished rations and scurvy weakened the party. Stuart finally turned
back after an almost fatal encounter with hostile Aborigines at Attack Creek (near Tennant Creek) in late June,
reaching South Australia’s settled districts after a harrowing retreat the following September. The expedition,
a feat of remarkable courage, vigour and endurance, secured Stuart’s reputation.
Adelaide honoured him as a returning hero: the veil’ over Central Australia had been lifted to reveal country
less forbidding than once feared. The Royal Geographical Society awarded Stuart its highest honour, the Patron’s
Gold Medal, and the South Australian government—spurred on by the recent departure of Burke’s transcontinental
expedition—voted immediately to finance a larger party.
Only 13 days after his arrival in Adelaide, the first of Stuart’s party of nine men and 45 horses set off. Stuart’s
second transcontinental expedition started from Chambers Creek on New Year’s Day 1861 and travelled steadily
northward Close to Stuart’s 1860 route. The party penetrated 250 kilometres beyond Attack Creek; two exhausting
months were spent trying to break through the depressed tracts of Sturt’s Plains, and at his furthest Stuart was
only some 200 kilometres from the headwaters of the Victoria River. (Ironically, while Stuart was conducting this
remarkably skilful and thorough exploration, Burke was perishing miserably, wandering aimlessly along Coopers
Creek’s prolific reaches.) Newcastle Waters was discovered, but once again virtually impenetrable scrubs, waterless
plains and depleted rations forced a bitter retreat. The expedition reached South Australia’s furthest outposts in
September 1861.
Within days of Stuart’s arrival in Adelaide, the government voted to equip another expedition. Despite his
own exhaustion, Stuart threw himself into the preparations—and, only a month after his arrival, the main party
departed. Stuart himself was delayed until early November by an injured hand, by which time news of Burke’s
death had reached Adelaide. Stuart then rode rapidly northward, leading 10 men and over 70 horses; once again
Sturt’s Plains delayed the expedition, but, after numerous scouting forays, an insignificant chain-of-ponds was
discovered leading northward. A month later the Roper River was crossed near Elsey Station, and beyond the
rugged Arnhem Land plateau Stuart reached his long-sought goal on 24 July 1862: the north coast, at Point Stuart,
close to the Mary River.
A more daunting journey than their advance awaited Stuart’s party on the north coast: their return over some
2 000 kilometres of now parched country, past Aboriginal tribes angered by repeated incursions, on short rations
and with rapidly weakening horses. Half paralysed by scurvy, Stuart was often agonised with pain and at times
close to death: ‘a sad, sad wreck of former days’, he wrote. Yet, at times carried in a litter, he masterminded a
four-month retreat.
Stuart reached Adelaide in December 1862, and was immediately lionised. ‘Stuart and Stuart alone wrested from
the interior its long hidden secret’, the Advertiser trumpeted. And, on 21 January 1863, the same day that Burke’s
remains were interred in Melbourne, Adelaide witnessed the greatest demonstration in its history—the public
welcome of Stuart and his gaunt companions. But for Stuart himself there was an underlying melancholy; James
Chambers, his patron and closest friend, was dead; and, with his goal achieved, Stuart was a directionless and
physically broken man.
The public applause, as Mona Webster observed, was ‘prompt, loud—and brief. Stuart was awarded
2 000 Pounds for reaching the north coast, but with his health ruined, the future was bleak. He attempted to
recuperate in South Australia during 1863, but in April 1864 he left for Britain—already a publicly forgotten man,
further saddened by Finke’s death a month earlier. In Britain Stuart oversaw the publication of his ‘Explorations in
Australia’ (18(A), and vainly sought a government pension. (The South Australian government grudgingly granted
Stuart a further 1000 Pounds in June 1865.) However, Stuart’s health never recovered, and—alone except for his
immediate family—he died at London on 4 June 1866.
Not a single life, white or black, had been lost during Stuart’s explorations. His men, who throughout their lives
proudly described themselves as ‘Stuart’s companions’, revered him. One, Pat Auld, was to write: ‘There is nothing
touches one more than the remembrance of the deeds of a truly brave man. We have had the honour of having
served one.’ Nor were the tracks of Stuart’s expeditions forgotten. He had seen the Centre in exceptionally good
seasons, and his judgement of its ‘splendid country’ was certainly overoptimistic—as his final drought-endangered
retreat suggested. However, alone amongst Australia’s inland explorers, Stuart had discovered a virtually
permanently watered route across the continent’s arid heart. ‘Stuart’s Line’ provided the key to the development
of the Northern Territory: first through the overland telegraph, and later through the road and rail links’ between
Adelaide, Alice Springs and Darwin.