The First Expedition
On 14 May 1858, with financial backing from William Finke, Stuart set off on the first of his six major expeditions. His aim was to find minerals, a land which the aborigines called Wingillpinin, and new grazing land in the north-west of South Australia. Stuart set out from John Chambers' station Oratunga, taking as companions two of Chambers' employees (a white man named Forster and a young Aboriginal man), half a dozen horses, and rations for six weeks, all provided by Chambers, a pocket compass and a watch. From the Flinders Ranges, Stuart travelled west, passing to the south of Lake Torrens, then north along the western edge of Lake Torrens. He found an isolated chain of semi-permanent waterholes which he named Chambers' Creek (now called Stuart Creek). It later became crucially important as a staging post for expeditions to the arid centre of the continent.
Continuing to the north-west, Stuart reached the vicinity of Coober Pedy (not realising that there was a fantastically rich opal field underfoot) before shortage of provisions and lack of feed for the horses forced him to turn towards the sea 500 kilometres to the south. A difficult journey along the edge of the Great Victoria Desert brought Stuart to Miller's Water (near present-day Ceduna) and from there back to civilisation after four months and 2,400 kilometres. This expedition made Stuart's reputation and brought him the award of a gold watch from the Royal Geographical Society.
Read more about this topic: John McDouall Stuart
Famous quotes containing the word expedition:
“Writing a novel is not merely going on a shopping expedition across the border to an unreal land: it is hours and years spent in the factories, the streets, the cathedrals of the imagination.”
—Janet Frame (b. 1924)