However, while he was en route Pearl Harbor was attacked, and he was instead asked to travel to Palm Island, 65 km (40 mi) north-west of Townsville, on the east coast of Queensland, to relieve an ill priest for three months.
There, he taught the local population, which was a mix of Australian Aboriginals, Papuans, Samoans, Filipinos, Malays and Sinhalese.
On Hammond Island, Dixon designed and built a mortarless stone church with stained glass windows made from beer bottles.
had founded near Alice Springs, Santa Teresa (now Ltyentye Apurte Community), to serve the Arrernte Aboriginals.
The indigenous women and children were largely permanent residents at the mission, and most of the men moved around following seasonal work.
As many of the Aboriginals lived in huts made from corrugated iron, Dixon organised the local men to build houses to replace them.
Stuart had already visited with a Salvation Army officer and a Lutheran pastor when Father John O’Loughlin, the Adelaide Goal's junior Catholic chaplain, met him.
Stuart was not very communicative because of his limited English, which O’Loughlin mentioned to his friend, Father Tom Dixon, who lived in a presbytery in nearby Hindmarsh.
On 22 June Dixon contacted Dr. Charles Duguid, who ran the Aborigines' Advancement League, to discuss Stuart's situation.