John McDouall Stuart - Places Named After John McDouall Stuart

Places Named After John McDouall Stuart

While Stuart was responsible for naming a large number of topographical features for friends, backers and fellow explorers, he was sparing in the use of his own name. Central Mount Stuart, which he reckoned to be the geographical centre of Australia, he had designated "Central Mount Sturt" to honour his friend Charles Sturt. Places named after John McDouall Stuart include:

• Stuart Street, an arterial road in the Canberra suburb of Griffith
• the Stuart Highway,
• Stuart Park, an inner Darwin suburb,
• Central Mount Stuart,
• the Electoral division of Stuart in the Northern Territory,
• an electoral division in South Australia, and
• the town of Stuart, which was changed to Alice Springs in 1933.

A statue honouring Stuart can be found in Victoria Square, Adelaide, while in Darwin, both a statue and a monument celebrate his achievements.

In March 2010, the Alice Springs Freemasons commissioned a 4 metre high ferro-concrete statue of Stuart for donation to the Alice Springs Town Council to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Stuart's fourth expedition, during which he had reached what later became the town of Alice Springs. The Town Council approved the project in breach of its own public art policy, sparking widespread public controversy; many locals objected to a memorial featuring a white man carrying a gun in a town where race relations between indigenous and non-indigenous communities remains a sensitive issue.