there was a lot of support for an expedition to cross australia. in melbourne, the biggest exploring expedition in australian history, the victorian exploring expedition, was being organized for the crossing. this became known as the burke and wills expedition, named after its two leaders, robert o'hara burke and william john wills. stuart knew that he would be able to travel further and faster by only going with a small group. in march 1860, with kekwick, benjamin head and 13 horses, stuart left chambers creek and headed north. they were the first europeans to enter central australia. they reached the finke river, the macdonnell ranges, and the strange rock formation stuart called chambers pillar. on 23 april, stuart worked out that they were at the very centre of australia. he named a small hill near the spot mount sturt, after charles sturt. stuart and kekwick climbed the hill and raised the british flag. stuart wrote that the flag would be a sign to the aborigines "...that the dawn of liberty, civilization, and christianity is about to break upon them." the name was later changed to central mount stuart. from here stuart tried to go northwest to reach the victoria river. this took them into the tanami desert, but they could not find water and were forced to go back.