Commemorates the one hundred and twenty-one people who perished in the wreck of the Dunbar in 1857.  It contains the remains of 22 of those who died, along with the victims from the wreck of the Catherine Adamson which sank in the harbour two months later.

The Melancholy Wreck of the 'Dunbar'.
On 20 August 1857 The Dunbar was wrecked near the entrance to Sydney Harbour. With the loss of 121 passengers and crew, the wreck is one of Australia's worst maritime disasters in peacetime.

On 31 May 1857 the ship departed Plymouth for its second voyage to Australia, carrying 63 passengers, 59 crew and a substantial cargo, including dyes for the colony's first postage stamps, machinery, furniture, trade tokens (coins privately issued by traders and manufacturers as change and to promote their business), cutlery, manufactured and fine goods, food and alcohol. Many of the first-class passengers were prominent Sydneysiders, local 'currency' that had made it in the colonies and who, after a visit 'home' to England, were returning to Australia.

Dunbar's master Captain Green was a veteran of eight visits to Sydney, as first mate aboard the Agincourt and Waterloo, then as commander of Waterloo, and again commanding Vimeira and Dunbar. After a relatively fast voyage of 81 days, Dunbar arrived off Port Jackson on the night of Thursday, 20 August 1857, with a rising gale and bad visibility. The Macquarie Light on the cliff top a mile south of South Head was seen between squalls, although the night was dark and the land was invisible. Shortly before midnight Captain Green estimated the ship's position off the entrance to the Heads and changed course to enter, keeping the Macquarie Light on the port bow.

Captain Green then ordered a blue light to be burnt to summon the Sydney Harbour pilot. According to the only survivor – a sailor on watch at the time who became the sole source of information about events on board – the urgent cry of 'Breakers ahead!' was heard from the second mate on the forepeak. Captain Green gave the order 'Port your helm!' to swing the ship to starboard while the watch braced the sails.

It was already too late. Captain Green's orders instead drove the vessel broadside onto the 50-metre-high cliffs just south of the signal station at South Head, midway between the Macquarie Lighthouse and The Gap. The impact brought down the topmasts, mounting seas stove in the lifeboats and the Dunbar heaved broadside to the swells. Lying on its side, the ship began to break up almost immediately. The mizzen and main masts crashed over the side but the foremast remained standing.

One crewman, James Johnson, found himself in the poop clinging to the mizzen chains. Unable to cross the deck, which was being swept by each successive wave, he went below and made his way forward before climbing out of a cabin skylight and onto the chain plates of the surviving foremast. When the foremast finally gave way, Johnson was hurled onto the cliffs where he managed to gain a finger hold. Scrambling higher, he became the sole survivor amid a sea of bodies. All 63 passengers and the remaining 58 crew perished in the disaster.

When dawn came, Johnson found himself on a rocky ledge some 10 feet above the wreck, surrounded by wreckage and dead bodies. From here he climbed up out of the reach of the waves and remained on the cliff face until being rescued on 22 August.

Dawn had unveiled the enormity of the event to the community of Sydney. Thousands were drawn to the scene of the wreck over the ensuing days to watch the rescue of Johnson, the recovery of the bodies and the salvage of some of the cargo. For days afterwards the newspapers, journals and local guides were filled with graphic descriptions of the wreck – and of the public's interest in the horrible 'spectacle'.

The rumours as to the fact of a dreadful shipwreck having just occurred soon assumed distinct shape and certainty. At length it generally became known in Sydney that numerous dead and mutilated bodies of men, women and children were to be seen floating in the heavy surf at the Gap thrown by immense waves at a great height; and dashed pitilessly against the rugged cliffs, the returning water sweeping them from the agonised sight of the horrified spectators ...2

To some, this spectacle would have been one of morbid curiosity, something to record in a diary or in a letter home to relatives in Europe, but to many, many others, once the wreck had been identified as the Dunbar, it would have been the need to identify or possibly recover the body of a father or mother, sister or brother or friend, that drew them to the scene of the disaster.

For the Dunbar was not just another ship carrying unknown immigrants starting a new life in Australia. On board were many local residents returning to the colonies after a visit to the old country, including eight members of the Waller family; Mr and Mrs Peek; Mrs Egan, the wife of the Sydney MP Daniel Egan; and Mr and Mrs Cahuac, son and daughter-in-law of the former Sheriff of Sydney.

Also on board were family members migrating from Europe to join family members in Australia such as the two Miss Hunts, the only sisters of Robert Hunt, the First Clerk of the Sydney Branch of The Royal Mint, who was a well-known colonial scientist and photographer.

Seventeen bodies, including some mutilated by sharks, were recovered on the north shore of Sydney Harbour from the Mosman Spit around to Taylors Bay. Some were identified immediately by names on their clothing or by personal appearance. But others were so badly mutilated they could not be recognised.

At Middle Harbour, the majority of the wreckage of Dunbar appeared to have drifted ashore, along with several bodies. Never before, and probably never since, had a shipwreck off the coast of New South Wales had such a traumatic and long-term effect on the people of the colony.

The victims of Dunbar were buried at Camperdown Cemetery in O'Connell Town (near Newtown). The bodies of some unidentified victims were placed in a mass grave funded by the colonial government. Some 20,000 people lined George Street for the funeral procession that consisted of the band of the artillery companies, seven hearses, four mourning coaches and a long procession of carriages surrounded by a guard of honour provided by the Mounted Police Force.

Sydney's banks and offices closed for the service, church bells tolled, every ship in the harbour flew their ensigns at half mast and minute guns were fired as the seven hearses and over 100 carriages went past.

While the victims were being buried, conjecture was rife regarding the wrecking. The great loss of life led immediately to letters to the editor of The Empire and Sydney Morning Herald demanding the upgrading of the lighthouses at the Heads. The issues of lighthouses and pilotage were also raised during question time in Parliament, and were the matter of recommendations by the jury at the Dunbar inquest.

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Nine weeks later the Catherine Adamson was wrecked with the loss of over twenty lives. The bodies of the Catherine Adamson victims, as could be recovered, were interred in the mass burial set aside for the Dunbar victims nine weeks earlier.

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Memorial Inscription:
"Within this tomb were deposited by the direction of the government of New South Wales such remains as could be discovered of the passengers and crew who perished in the ships Dunbar and Catherine Adamson the former of which was driven ashore and foundered when approaching the entrance to Port Jackson on the night of 20 August 1857.

The latter after entering this port on the morning of the 24th October. AD 1857."