This Highway bears the name of John McDouall Stuart, who was the first European to cross the Australian continent in 1862. It's a 2700km long sealed ribbon linking Port Augusta in the South to Darwin in the North. Initially, people heading to Alice Springs would have used the Oodnadatta Track where water was available along the way, but with the discovery of opals in Coober Pedy in 1915, most of the traffic was redirected along the present route. In the 40ies, during the war, Stuart highway was sealed from Alice Springs to Darwin and it's only in 1980 that it was sealed from Alice Springs to Port Augusta.