On his fourth expedition in 1860 John McDouall Stuart named a hill near his calculated position for the centre of Australia Central Mount Sturt. His former leader Charles Sturt had attempted to reach the centre in his expedition of 1844-46, but fell short of it by about 150 miles, stopped by the dunes of the Simpson Desert. Back in Adelaide the government changed the name to Central Mount Stuart. The illustration is by George French Angas, an accomplished artist noted for his folio volume South Australia illustrated.

Stuart had reached this point on 22 April and raised a flag and blazed a tree at what he calculated to be the centre of the continent. The following day he climbed a nearby hill and raised a cairn of stones in which he buried a note 'John McDouall Stuart and party, consisting of two men and himself, arrived from Adelaide in the Centre of Australia on Saturday evening, the twenty first day of April, 1860, and have built this cone of stones and raised the flag to commemorate the event, on top of Mt Sturt. The Centre is about two miles south-south-west, at a small gum creek...' From here Stuart and his party continued north but on 26 June, some 200 miles short of the north coast of Australia he turned back to Adelaide, following an attack by some Aboriginal people and with evidence of in the men.