Memorandum on Central Mount Sturt |
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| Title : | Memorandum on Central Mount Sturt |
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| Creator : | Stuart, John McDouall, 1815-1866 | ||
| Source : | Stuart, John McDouall, PRG 833/3 | ||
| Date of creation : | 1860 | ||
| Format : | Manuscript | ||
| Catalogue record | |||
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| Copyright : | This item is reproduced courtesy of Ms Anne Bachelard. It may be printed or saved for research or study. Use for any other purpose requires written permission from Ms Anne Bachelard and the State Library of South Australia. To request approval, complete the Permission to publish form. |
| Description : |
The original note which was placed in a cairn on Central Mount Stuart in the Northern Territory and in which John McDouall Stuart named the hill Central Mount Sturt. It is signed by Stuart and by William Darton Kekwick and Benjamin Head, expedition members. Stuart reached this point in his explorations on 21 April 1860. He had carefully calculated what he believed to be the centre of Australia as halfway between Shark Bay (WA) and Brisbane in the east-west direction and 22 degrees south as the halfway point between the north coast at latitude 11 degrees 53 minutes and 32 degrees 7 minutes on the south coast. He blazed a tree and climbed the nearest hill to raise the flag and build a cairn in which he placed the note. He wanted this point on the Australian continent named in honour of Charles Sturt the leader of the 1844-46 Central Australian expedition on which Stuart had served. The government in Adelaide overruled him and it is known as Central Mount Stuart. This was Stuart's fourth expedition. Sturt had struggled to reach the centre of Australia himself but had been turned back by the sand dunes of the Simpson Desert, 150 miles short of his target. The note was retrieved from the cairn by John Ross one of the surveyors working on the Overland Telegraph Line in 1870-72. The actual centre of Australia is at 25 degrees 36 minutes 36 seconds South and 134 degrees 21 minutes 17 seconds East, and is called the Lambert Centre and is near Finke, home of the Aputula Aboriginal Community. |
| Subjects | |
| Related names : | Stuart, John McDouall, 1815-1866 Kekwick, William Darton Sturt, Charles 1795-1869 |
| Coverage year : | 1860 |
| Place : | Central Mount Stuart (NT) |
| Further reading : | John McDouall Stuart's explorations, 1858-1862: South Australian parliamentary papers 1858-1863 Adelaide: Friends of the State Library of South Australia, 2001 John McDouall Stuart [Carlton]: Melbourne University Press, 1958 Stokes, Edward Across the Centre : John McDouall Stuart's expeditions, 1860-62 St. Leonards, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin, 1996 Sturt, Charles Narrative of an expedition into Central Australia ..., New York: Greenwood Press, [1969] |
| Internet links : | |
| Exhibitions and events : | State Library of South Australia: Mortlock Wing. Taking it to the edge August 2004- |
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