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Central Mount Stuart
Introduction | Special Dates | Centenary of Federation
Aboriginal Connections | Connecting the Kids

Explorer John McDouall Stuart successfully crossed Australia opening the way for the construction of the Overland Telegraph Line. On April 23, 1860 Stuart located the geographical centre of Australia, near a mountain he named Central Mount Sturt after Charles Sturt, who he had joined on his failed expedition of 1844 to find the centre. Later it became known as Central Mount Stuart.

Charles Ross, the surveyor for the Overland Telegraph line followed much of Stuart's route and on January 3, 1871 sighted the mountain and the following day, began the climb to look for the bottle that had been left there by Stuart.

They found the cone of stones that Stuart had built and what was left of the flagpole. The bottle contained a note describing the raising of the flag to commemorate the event and a description of the location of the exact centre of Australia;

'The Centre is about 2 miles south, south west at a small gum creek where there is a tree marked facing south.'

It was fitting that the telegraph expedition should be first to visit the mountain after Stuart, who had done so much to make the present work possible. But it also reminded the surveying party of their isolation, for as they stood on the mount, for a thousand miles all around them, not one white human being existed. Neither did a town, house, fence or indeed any sign of civilisation.

It was indeed prophetic to the hardship they would suffer in the making of the line. Just seven months later, a teamster called Palmer died of consumption, a long way from medical help.

Happily, there is a brighter end to the role Central Mount Stuart played. For it was here on August 22 1872 that Charles Todd made camp at the foot of the mount and clipped his pocket relay to the line after the northern and central sections of the line had been linked for the first time. Fittingly, the whole of Adelaide wanted to congratulate the man who had given them the means of talking to the world. The messages went on long into the night until Todd, huddled on the ground in the bitter cold could send no more. With his job done, at last he could rest.