Hunt for descendants of forgotten Scots explorer

Friday 8 March 2013

HE is a derring-do figure honoured and celebrated Down Under as the first white man to walk across Australia.

TRIBUTE: John McDouall Stuart is honoured by a statue in Adelaide, left, but his birthplace in Dysart, Fife, has been converted into a holiday home. Main picture: Getty Images

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But Scottish explorer John McDouall Stuart – who also mapped the centre of the continent – remains virtually forgotten in the land of his birth.

Now the hunt is on for descendants of the adventurer to come forward to help mark his birthplace in Fife.

Stuart was born in Dysart on September 7, 1815. Both his parents died during his teens, leaving him in the care of his relatives and friends.He moved to Australia at the age of 23 after graduating from the Scottish Naval and Military Academy as a civil engineer.Stuart went on to secure a job as a surveyor and was noted for his extraordinary and impeccable accuracy.It then took him five years and six attempts to cross the centre of the continent on horseback between 1858 and 1862.Along with nine other explorers and 71 horses, Stuart finally succeeded in crossing Australia from south to north on his final attempt.The 1900-mile started on October 23, 1861, from North Adelaide and ended on July 24, 1862, just east of Chambers Bay (present day Darwin) in the Northern Territories.However, the trip left him with health problems. After returning to the UK he died in London in 1866, aged 50.Despite his obscurity in Scotland, Stuart is celebrated by Australians as their greatest inland explorer.In March 2010, the Alice Springs Freemasons commissioned a 13ft-high statue of Stuart to mark the 150th anniversary of his fourth expedition, when he reached what is now Alice Springs. The statue stands proudly in Victoria Square in the centre of Adelaide.Among Stuart's fans is TV adventurer and explorer Ray Mears. The presenter recreated the Scot's journey as the first explorer to traverse Australia in the BBC show Ray Mears Goes Walkabout.William Hardman, editor of The Journals of John McDouall Stuart, published in 1864, wrote: "The explorations of Mr John McDouall Stuart may be said, without disregarding his brother explorers, to be among the most important in the history of Australian discovery."His birthplace was used as a museumuntil three years ago, when a lack of visitors encouraged the owner, Fife Historic Buildings Trust, to convert the building into a modern holiday home. However, the trust cannot find any long-lost relatives of the adventurer – who was the youngest of nine children – to attend the opening of the property this spring.Alan Lodge, manager of Fife Historic Buildings Trust, said: "We're really keen to find anyone connected with John McDouall Stuart so that they can join us when we celebrate the opening of the apartment and help us learn more about this amazing character."We know that Stuart was the youngest of nine children so he may well have some living descendants in Fife and further afield."After three years of renovation works, the ex-museum is now an apartment that occupies two floors of the three-storey building.An external staircase grants access to a living/dining area and kitchen. There is also a double bedroom and bathroom on the upper level. A bronze plaque – in the shape of Australia – will be put up in a garden opposite the flat to acknowledge Stuart's achievements.Sam Whyte

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Hunt for descendants of forgotten Scots explorer

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