• Recognition
• Resumption
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Landing Place Reserve |
Resuption and Dedication
About 250 acres of land, including that on which the obelisk and Forby Sutherland's grave are situated, was resumed by the Government in 1899 and dedicated as the Captain Cook Landing Place Reserve for the use and enjoyment of the public for all time. A formal and public dedication by His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor, the Honorable Sir Frederick Darley, was to take place on the 28th April 1899 calendar date; and 29th April by the ship's log date, being the anniversary of Captain Cook's landing. Unfortunately the state of the weather necessitated a postponement until the 6th Maythe date on which Captain Cook sailed away from Botany Bay. |
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Steam ferries conveyed guests across Botany Bay and the party was escorted to a dais erected on the rise of the hill at the rear of the monument. After all the guests had assembled the ceremony began. The Lieutenant Governor, the Admiral and the Minister for Lands all delivered speeches. In his address Sir Joseph Carruthers, Minister for Lands, said ". this land is at last rescued from the hands of any private individual or land corporation. What blind folly ever induced the Government of New South Wales to part with this area of land for a paltry 1 per acre? It may be mere sentiment on my part to rescue this land as a national birthright!"
Dedication Ceremony
Sir Joseph Carruthers reminded the gathering that in 1861 twenty-year-old Henry Kendall visited Kurnell with Thomas Holt, who told the poet about his finding the bones of a white man. Fired by the significance of this discovery Kendall wrote: |
“There tread gently gently , pilgrim; there with youthful eyes look round;
Cross thy breast and bless the silence: lo, the place is holy ground!
Holy ground forever, stranger! All the quiet silver lights
Dropping from the starry heavens thro' the soft Australian nights
Dropping on those lone grave grassescome serene, unbroken clear,
Like the love of God the Father, falling, falling, year by year!
Yea, and like a Voice supernal, there the daily wind doth blow
In the leaves above the sailor buried ninety years ago.”
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