Old Photograph Pan Ha Dysart Fife Scotland

Old photograph of a man and woman outside a cottage in Pan Ha, Dysart, Fife, Scotland. John McDouall Stuart was born on 7 September 1815 in Dysart. Stuart was the youngest of nine children. His father William Stuart was a retired army captain serving as a customs officer. Stuart's parents died in his early teens and so he came under the care of relatives. He graduated from the Scottish Naval and Military Academy as a civil engineer before emigrating to Australia at the age of 23. In January 1839 he arrived aboard the barque Indus at the barely two-year-old frontier colony of South Australia, at that time little more than a single crowded outpost of tents and dirt-floored wooden huts. Stuart soon found employment with the colony's Surveyor-General, working in the semi-arid scrub of the newly settled districts marking out blocks for settlers and miners. Stuart led the first successful expedition to traverse the Australian mainland from south to north and return, through the centre of the continent. His experience and the care he showed for his team ensured he never lost a man, despite the harshness of the country he encountered. The explorations of Stuart eventually resulted in the 1863 annexation of a huge area of country to the Government of South Australia. This area became known as the Northern Territory. In 1911 the Commonwealth of Australia assumed responsibility for that area. In 1871–72 the Australian Overland Telegraph Line was constructed along Stuart's route. The principal road from Port Augusta to Darwin was also established essentially on his route and was in 1942 named the Stuart Highway in his honour, following a recommendation by Governor-General Gowrie. Many years of hard conditions combined with malnutrition, scurvy, trachoma and other illnesses had rendered him practically blind, in pain and in such poor health that he spent some of the return journey of his last expedition being carried on a litter between two horses. He never recovered his health. He prepared his diaries for publication and on 23 April 1864 left aboard Indus for Britain, initially to visit his sister in Scotland. He died in London on 5 June 1866, and was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery. The name " Pan " derives from the many salt pans that once lay nearby, and " Ha " is an abbreviation of the Scottish word, haugh, meaning a flat piece of land. The first record of the town was made in the early 13th century, its initial role being to settle civil matters between the church and landowners. During the middle of the 15th century, trade with the Low Countries began for salt and coal exportation. In the 16th and 17th centuries, trade expanded to the Baltic Countries. Dysart acquired two nicknames: Salt Burgh and Little Holland as a result. The harbour was later extensively rebuilt in 1829 with the assistance of Robert Stephenson, to include an inner basin with a nearby quarry at the harbour head and an extension of the east pier which would be raised and pointed southwards. The Outlander TV series filmed at the Inner Harbour. Of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to visit one day.



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