On January 5 1956, a man named John Stuart died in remote Southwest Tasmania on a climbing & exploration expedition into the region. Although it was summer, John died of exposure to freezing conditions 9 days into his journey, shortly after summiting Federation Peak & spending the proceeding 3 days walking through snow in cold & wet equipment. After suffering a fall & subsequent concussion, John's condition was deteriorating rapidly & in such conditions, turned life-threatening.
His condition worsened & despite their best efforts, his expedition partners were unable to bring his body temperature back to a reasonable level due to the extreme cold & poor equipment that was available at the time. John perished on Scoparia Saddle which was subsequently renamed Stuart Saddle in his memory. John Stuart just happens to be the great uncle of a good friend of mine & local South East Queensland rock climber, Rob Saunders.
Rob took it upon himself to research the history of his deceased relative and decided to embark on a journey to find John's grave (of which there is no recorded location) and pay his respects on behalf of four generations of his family, with a goal to ensure that this particular part of both his family history and the Australian climbing and bush walking history was not lost with time in the minds of the very few who knew about this tragedy.