Flinders Ranges | Dandenong Ranges | Waitakere Ranges | Transverse Ranges | Richard Graves MacDonnell | Peninsular Ranges | Everard Ranges | Strzelecki Ranges | Sorley Boy MacDonnell | Randal MacDonnell, 1st Earl of Antrim | Inner North Coast Ranges | Gawler Ranges National Park | Brindabella Ranges | Stikine Ranges | Ray MacDonnell | Randal MacDonnell | Queen Elizabeth Ranges | MacDonnell Shire | Lydd Ranges | Ford Ranges | Clive MacDonnell Dixon | Boundary Ranges | Alexander MacDonnell, 3rd Earl of Antrim |
The line proved an immediate success in opening the Northern Territory; gold discoveries were made in several places along the northern section (in particular Pine Creek), and the repeater stations in the MacDonnell Ranges proved invaluable starting points for explorers like Ernest Giles, W. C. Gosse, and Peter Egerton-Warburton who were heading west.
Nevertheless, they found a major watercourse in early April which Stuart named the Finke River, and followed it north-west over the South Australian border to the MacDonnell Ranges, which he named after Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell, Governor of South Australia, on 12 April 1860.