Where’s Mr Stuart?

Stuart Traynor’s weekly catch-up with John McDouall Stuart as he made his way to Central Australia 150  years ago

East of the Davenport Range, south-east of Oodnadatta

The three explorers spend this week on the eastern side of the Davenport Range. It was here that Stuart had surveyed a pastoral run before Christmas for Philip Levi, the Adelaide merchant and friend of Stuart’s backers Chambers and Finke. Until the Overland Telegraph Line is built in 1870-1872, the Mount Margaret run will be the most northern outpost of white settlement in South Australia.

After a week on the track, young Benjamin Head is realising that neither Stuart nor Kekwick are great conversationalists. He is also beginning to experience the hunger pains that will trouble him throughout the 8 months of the expedition. He’ll lose an enormous amount of weight on Stuart’s meagre nightly ration of a few strips of dried meat boiled up with some water and flour to make a thin soup.

Stuart, Kekwick and Head camp at Milne Springs on the night of 9 March. (It is east of Edward Creek, another railway siding on the old Ghan line.) Rain begins falling around 11 pm and continues for the next two days. They are flooded in and forced to seek refuge on the top of a small hill. They remain here until the morning of 13 March when they move north towards Mt Denison and then on to the Peake. However, the river is running and they were unable to cross it. So they camp there for three nights: 13, 14 and 15 March.