Central Mt Stuart

John McDouall Stuart reached this point in his explorations on 21 April 1860. He had calculated that he had reached the centre of Australia and named a nearby hill Central Mt Sturt after Charles Sturt, leader of the 1844-46 expedition into central Australia which Stuart had served on. Sturt had attempted to reach the centre of the continent himself but had been defeated by the sand dunes of the Simpson Desert. To commemorate his feat Stuart buried a note in a cairn on top of the hill, in which he clearly named the hill for Sturt. However popular appeal saw it named it for Stuart and it has always been known as Central Mt Stuart.

An account of all of Stuart's explorations was published in London in 1864, edited by William Hardman Explorations in Australia : the journals of John McDouall Stuart during the years 1858, 1859, 1860, 1861, & 1862... There are inaccuracies in the text and 'an attitude of lofty condescension towards all things colonial, and [Hardman] failed completely to grasp the magnitude of the work Stuart had performed or the great qualities of the man himself.' (Webster p. 259). The publishers had also been lent the drawings made by Stephen King on Stuart's last expedition. These were to be used by the artist George French Angas as guides to the country travelled through by the expedition. Despite having spent many years in Australia (but not in the outback or northern regions) Angas's drawings for the book bore little resemblance to King's on-the-spot drawings, as this one of Central Mt Stuart testifies.

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