You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast.

Hello, and welcome to the Explorers Podcast.

Today we start a new series, this one on John McDool Stewart.

Now, most of you are probably saying things such as,

who or what did he do or never heard of him.

And I'll respond by saying it's a huge shame that people don't know more about John McDool Stewart

because he is probably the greatest explorer of the Australian Interior in history.

Stewart led six expeditions into the Australian Interior in the late 1850s and early 1860s,

and was a direct competitor of the famed Birken Will's expedition,

in a race to become the first people to ever cross the continent.

So what made Stewart such a great explorer?

Well, he not only got across the continent, he came back.

In all of this, he proved to be a clever and resilient man,

who survived despite terrible conditions, such as scurvy, extreme heat, and a hundred other challenges.

And in the process, he never lost a man under his command.

Some more fun stuff about John McDool Stewart, or simply McDool Stewart, as he was called,

was that the guy was a short, slight man with a history of health issues,

yet no one could equal the guy for stamina and determination.

Do we need more? Well, sure.

Stewart was also a social misfit, more at home in the wild than amongst other human beings.

He had this big, dark, bushy beard, unkempt hair, and wore rough frontier clothing.

He looked like a crazed prospector or preacher, such as John Brown.

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