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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-05-03 Daily Xml
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JOHN MCDOUALL STUART SOCIETY

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg) (11:31): I move:

That this house congratulates the John McDouall Stuart Society for celebrating the 150th anniversary of John McDouall Stuart's successful expedition that crossed the Australian continent from south to north, passing through the centre, and returning without loss of life.

Members may be aware that the John McDouall Stuart Society Inc. is run by a voluntary committee in South Australia. It has a number of members across Australia and, in fact, in Scotland, England, USA, Canada and Hong Kong. Members who follow this society may also be aware that there is a 'Stuart Collection' located at the Masonic Centre at 254 North Terrace, Adelaide, and tours are conducted there every Thursday. There is also a remembrance ceremony held annually on 25 July at Stuart's statue in Victoria Square, Adelaide. I commend that event to members if they wish to attend, which I think is important.

I will read now from John McDouall Stuart's story, as published by the society. As I said, it is the 150th anniversary this year since John McDouall Stuart and his party arrived at the north coast of Australia in July 1862, so it is a year of celebration. Their summary of his life and the results of his expeditions I think are worthy of note by this chamber. Stuart was born in Scotland in 1815 and arrived in South Australia in January 1839. He was employed as a surveyor's labourer in the government's survey department. I quote:

In August 1844 Stuart joined Captain Charles Sturt's expedition to explore Central Australia and determine the nature of the country in that region.

In 1858 Stuart embarked upon the first of three expeditions (as leader) primarily to search for new grazing land, for minerals and to survey leases for his sponsors, James and John Chambers and William Finke. Then followed three successive attempts to cross the continent...Over three transcontinental expeditions, Stuart finally created a route across Australia's arid heart and reached the north coast in July 1862.

There are many arduous stories and I will not recount them today, but his achievement was hailed by the Adelaide press on his triumphant return in December 1862. On 21 January 1863, Stuart and his companions were feted by the greatest public demonstration in Adelaide's history to that date—and I will identify them, because it is often the leaders that get recognised in history and some others are overlooked. Some names may be familiar to members: William D. Kekwick, the second-in-command; Francis W. Thring, third officer; William P. Auld, assistant; Frederick W. Waterhouse, naturalist; Heath Nash, cook; John McGorrery, shoeing-smith, Stephen King Jnr; James Frew; and John W. Billiat.

Sadly, Stuart's reward had effectively amounted to nothing, so there was no great financial benefit as, I suppose, one enjoys in exploration today. Sadly, he died at the age of 50 on 5 June 1866 in virtual poverty in London. I think that, other than the provision of a headstone by his sister, his funeral party consisted of just seven people, so a sad end. These are the achievements, which I think we need to recognise, of this extraordinary feat. As a result of Stuart's expeditions:

the riddle of the geographical nature of the centre of Australia was solved;

South Australia gained control of the area now known as the Northern Territory;

South Australia established a settlement at Darwin, and vast areas of the north were opened for pastoral and mineral development;

the Overland telegraph line, linking Australia's isolated colonies to the rest of the world via Port Darwin, was constructed along Stuart's route;

the original Central Australia Railway (the Ghan) and the new line to Darwin followed a similar route; and

the Stuart Highway, linking Adelaide to Darwin, was constructed and named in his honour.

Members, I also draw to your attention that the patron for the John McDouall Stuart Society is none other than South Australia's most famous current explorer, namely, Dr Andrew Thomas AO, who, of course, ventures into space now via—

Mr Pengilly: The shuttle.

Ms CHAPMAN: —the shuttle, but courtesy of USA government funding. Nevertheless, he is South Australia's own and he is a revered patron of the society. I have grown some affection for the great stories of John McDouall Stuart because as I grew up I spent many occasions in my maternal grandmother's art gallery and bookshop in the Northern Territory. She always proudly displayed, for 50 years, the books about the story of John McDouall Stuart and the significance he had for both South Australia and the Northern Territory.

We know, of course, that it had much greater significance in linking Australia with the rest of the world through the telegraph at the time. My grandmother held him in great esteem, as do our fellow Australians in the Northern Territory. This is a very significant part of our history. Some members will know that I am a great advocate of renewing the relationship with the Northern Territory and restoring our rightful partnership as a central state; however, it will be probably a long time before we see that come to fruition. I think we need to recognise the importance of John McDouall Stuart.

My maternal grandmother has since passed away, but I just record, for her great commitment to this extraordinary explorer, that when she was very sick and in the nursing home a number of our family were at her bedside and we were talking about the gallery and the things that she had done, and this came up. One of my family said, 'Yes, but what about John McDonnell Stuart? She used to go on about him.' She was laying in bed and she said, 'It's John McDouall Stuart.'

I was used to her correcting my grammar and so on from time to time, but she actually said this and corrected us, as really some of the last words she spoke to all of us, to make sure that this fine explorer is properly remembered. Although he had a lonely ceremony at his parting from the world, he will be forever remembered in this state.

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (11:39): John McDouall Stuart is arguably Australia's greatest inland explorer. The noted latter day explorer and historian, Ernest Favenc, wrote:

Stuart's victory was all his own. He had followed in no other person's footsteps: he had crossed the true centre, and he had made the coast at a point much further north than his rivals.

Having read that, I noted with some interest that Ernest Favenc had a role in the life of the noted female explorer—in fact, the only female Australian explorer—Emily Caroline Barnett, who was born in 1860 and died in 1944. She was born on 1 November and married an Irishman, Harry Alington Creaghe. In December 1882, she and her first husband, Harry, left Sydney by steamer to join Ernest Favenc and his wife on Thursday Island. Favenc planned to explore a region in the Northern Territory bounded by the Nicholson River, Powells Creek and the McArthur River. The two women were to be a part of that expedition.

Travelling by sea, the party landed at Normanton on 17 January 1883. There Elizabeth Favenc became ill, and her husband escorted her to Sydney, while Caroline accompanied Harry and four other men on a 200 mile (322 kilometre) ride south-west of Carl Creek station, which they reached at the end of the month. One man died of sunstroke en route. Ten weeks later, they retraced their steps as far as Gregory Downs Station, where Favenc and Lindsay Crawford were waiting.

On 14 April, the explorers set out westwards. Battling thirst and flies, with food supplies dwindling, they were frequently exhausted and occasionally in fear of attack by Aborigines, but they reached the telegraph station at Powells Creek on 14 May. After a few days rest, Harry and Caroline, who was pregnant, drove the weaker horses through to Katherine Telegraph Station. Favenc and Crawford pushed east to inspect the country near the McArthur River. Accompanied by Alfred and Augusta Giles of Springvale Station, the Creaghes made a leisurely journey then to Port Darwin and left for Sydney by sea on 22 August. From 1 January 1883, Caroline kept a diary of her adventures, which contained descriptions of topography and vegetation, observations of frontier life and comments on the relations between white people and Aborigines. It is very good reading. It has been edited by Peter Monteath, and it is available through Adelaide's Corkwood Press.

With regard to the significance of the last of Stuart's expeditions, I note that Stuart's successful north-south crossing of the continent, without the loss of life of any of his party, was a significant achievement in itself, opening up the lands, which we have just heard other people have also traversed. It stands as a contrast to the tragic outcomes of the rival expedition of Burke and Wills, which left from Melbourne. It also paved the way for the survey and construction of the Overland telegraph line a decade later, a development which placed Adelaide at the hub of colonial communications with the rest of the world. Stuart's route became 'the track', an enduring communication and transport route, which positioned South Australia as the base for colonial expansion into Central Australia, notably in the areas of mining and pastoral settlement. History SA has a significant collection of items relating to Stuart and others of his party. They will be shown in an exhibition later in the year.

The John McDouall Stuart Society is celebrating the 150th anniversary with special tours of the society's collection during the About Time: South Australia's History Festival, and a number of commemorative events throughout the year. The society itself has an interesting history. In July 1962, the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (South Australian Branch) organised Stuart Week, a program of events to commemorate the centenary of Stuart's raising the flag on the north coast of Australia. Walter McDouall Stuart placed a wreath on Stuart's statue in Victoria Square, while at the same time wreaths were laid on the Stuart monument in Darwin, Alice Springs and Port Lincoln. Wreaths were also placed on many of the companions' graves and on the grave of our little hero, at Kensal Green in London. Following the major events of Stuart Week, the Royal Geographical Society held a lecture that featured the story of William Patrick Auld's life.

On 23 July 1963, Mercia King, the granddaughter of Stephen King Junior, penned a letter in which she said:

I think it would be a very good idea if the descendants (old, young and middle aged) of the successful McDouall Stuart expedition could get together and do something to perpetuate their memory annually—a meeting or small function could be held around....25 July, to commemorate their tremendous feat.

As indeed it was, so the John McDouall Stuart Society was born, within 12 months of Mercia King's letter. In particular, Patrick Howard Auld had a wish for an organised society to remind us all of the exploits and achievements of Stuart and his brave and hardy followers. On 25 July 1964, about 100 men, women and children gathered sedately at the Masonic Hall in Tusmore, Adelaide to create their own piece of history by forming a society. E.G. Waterhouse moved that this meeting of decedents, relatives and friends of those men who accompanied John McDouall Stuart across Australia, or who were associated with the expedition, form a society to be known as the John McDouall Stuart Society in order to perpetuate the name and achievements of this great explorer and those who accompanied him.

As the member for Bragg has said, Andy Thomas, our own modern-day explorer, is the patron. He carried artefacts from Stuart's 1861-62 crossing of the continent with him when he was in the spacecraft Endeavour. The society, as she said, has members all over the world—Australia, Scotland, England, USA and Hong Kong. The John McDouall Stuart Society, importantly, does acknowledge that a rich Aboriginal culture existed on the Australian continent before European settlement. References in the society's publications to 'unknown territory, discoveries, explorers and expeditions' are therefore from a European perspective. Their work is really important.

Other organisations presenting programs to acknowledge the Stuart expedition this year through the History Festival will be the Royal Geographical Society, which is presenting an exhibition from May to October. Also included in the festival, the State Library of South Australia is presenting a display from June to August. The Burra Regional Gallery is presenting an exhibition from July to August, as well as a series of commemorative events, and History SA, which intends to present an exhibition from December 2012, will include interpretive material on the new history hub website.

With this much information available, there is really no excuse for people not to embrace the important journeys these people made in such terrible conditions. I know I visited the telegraph stations in inland Australia, and I have marvelled at how anyone could survive that terrain and indeed their contribution to our society is enormous, and I commend the motion.

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg) (11:47): I thank the honourable member for indicating her support for the motion. It is important that that information about future events this year, as we approach History Month, be made available, and I thank her for bringing that to the attention of the house and, in addition, recognising the considerable sacrifice that was undertaken by other members of Stuart's party in his expedition through such hardship. We today have been the beneficiaries.

I thank the member kindly for bringing that further information to the house. I hope that this has a successful and unanimous carriage through the house and that all members will ensure that his legacy is remembered with reverence so that future generations will appreciate the sacrifice made. I commend the motion.

Motion carried.

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