Author(s): Rosemary Cadden

Biography | South Australian Authors

McDouall Stuart hitches a ride is part rollicking road trip, part migrant memoir. Rosemary Cadden and nineteenth-century explorer John McDouall Stuart come from the same hometown in Scotland. They both arrived in South Australia looking for adventure, a new life, a new beginning. He has been called a pisspot. Rosemary has been known to have a wine glass in her hand. He seemed a natural choice to lead her through the country she's called home for five decades.Through the explorer's journals and extensive research, McDouall Stuart hitches a ride weaves a strong historical thread, from the settler-colonial beginnings of South Australia and the Northern Territory to events in more recent years.Readers get a front-seat view as Rosemary tackles sand dunes and dingoes, then leeches, storms and unexpected encounters. They also eavesdrop on her chats with pastoralists, remote nurses and First Nations people she met along the way - and conversations with McDouall Stuart who has decided to tag along for the ride. They are a tetchy couple.As Rosemary looks up, up, up at the lanky statue of the diminutive explorer in Alice Springs, her road trip to follow his tracks through the centre of Australia almost comes unstuck. There's been a protest calling for that statue to be removed midst escalating accusations suggesting he committed massacres. Who is this man she's travelling with?The real journey is just beginning as Rosemary learns more than she bargained about herself and this country, as she faces the truth about the legacy of settler colonialism.