Description:
The memorial is on the supposed site of Forby Sutherland’s burial, on the south-east shore of Botany Bay.
The plaque, with a rope image carved around it, sits on a small stone pillar.
It is sited along the Solander Drive Monument Track, Botany Bay National Park, Kurnell, 2231.
History:
It seems that the knowledge of the grave site was known to an old aboriginal woman who claimed to have seen Cook at Botany Bay. She had pointed out the site to a young boy by the name of Elias C Laycock who lived at Kurnell until the age of 12. It was in the early 1930s that Laycock, then a very old man, accompanied a committee of the Royal Australian Historical Society to point out the spot where the old aboriginal woman had told him “white man buried there”. It was on that spot that the Royal Australian Historical Society, placed the memorial. It sits just above the highwater mark.
The plaque was unveiled on Saturday 29th April 1933, which was almost 163 years after Forby Sutherland died of consumption. He was born in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, UK, and baptised at Stromness in 1736.
In 1819 Barron Field (1786-1846) an English lawyer, Judge, and poet was inspired to write the following lines for Australia’s first book of verse “First Fruits of Australian Poetry”:
Here fix the tablet. This must be the place
Where our Columbus of the South did land;
He saw the Indian village on the sand,
And on this rock first met the simple race
Of Austral Indians, who presum’d to face
With lance and spear his musket. Close at hand
Is the clear stream, from whence his vent’rous band
Refresh’d their ship, and thence a little space
Lies Sutherland, their shipmate; for the sound
Of Christian burial better did proclaim
Possession than the flag of England’s name.
These were the Commelinae Banks first found;
But where’s the tree with the ship’s wood-carv’d frame?
Fix, then, the Ephesian brass; ‘tis classic ground.
Inscription on plaque:
FORBY SUTHERLAND
A SEAMAN ON THE ENDEAVOUR
UNDER CAPTAIN COOK
THE FIRST BRITISH SUBJECT
TO DIE IN AUSTRALIA
WAS BURIED HERE
1st MAY (LOG DATE)
2nd MAY (CALENDAR DATE) 1770
R . A . H . S.
GPS Coordinates: -34.002653, 151.220603
References:
Cook’s Log, page 181, vol. 6, no. 1 (1983)
Cook’s Log page 578, vol. 11, no. 1 (1988)
Cook’s Log, page 30, vol. 40, no. 3 (2017)
Cook’s Log, page 43, vol. 40, no. 3 (2017)
Cook’s Log, page 22, vol. 42, no. 3 (2019)
Cook’s Log, page 80, vol. 43, no. 2(2020)
Endeavour Lines, pages 6-8, no. 44 (2005)
Endeavour Lines, page 9, no. 66 (2016)
Endeavour Lines, page 7, no. 70 (2018)
Website: http://monumentaustralia.org.au/display/21768-forby-sutherland
Image gallery (click to enlarge)