Stuart reaches the coast

Creator: Stacy, R. S

Place of Creation: North Adelaide

Date of creation : ca. 1865

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Format : Photograph

John McDouall Stuart, holding the British flag on north coast of Australia. The background represents the shore of the Indian Ocean, as sketched by Mr. Stuart on the spot, on the 25th July, 1862.

This studio photograph shows Stuart posed, holding the British flag and against a backdrop that was based on a sketch by Stuart, and representing the shoreline of the point where he reached the Indian Ocean 24 July 1862.

The photograph was reproduced in the Illustrated London News of 11 April 1863, together with an article on Stuart's accomplishment. In his diary Stuart described the site where he reached the north coast as approached through a 'valley'. This term would cause confusion in future years as early settlers searched for the site. The ground is flat with a dense belt of scrub and mangroves. Webster suggests that perhaps this belt of trees created an impression of rising ground. As well, Stuart was perhaps influenced by the landscape gardening term of 'valley' to describe a 'walk bordered on both sides by dense masses of greenery' (Webster p. 272)

Whatever his reason for using the term, the photograph shows almost level ground with just a slight rise on either side. Interestingly it also shows Stuart wearing a sola topi, not the bush hat that he is depicted as wearing in the Penman and Galbraith lithograph. The site where Stuart reached the coast and his blazed tree would eventually be located in 1883, and Stuart's reputation, somewhat tarnished in the intervening years, restored.