Sutherland continues his description of Kangaroo Island and the apparent fertility of this well wooded and extensively grassed island. The trees are swamp oak and wattle, and he makes favourable comparisons with Tasmania and New South Wales. He considered some of the timber suitable for shipbuilding. He has crossed the interior and found an abundance of kangaroos and emus and noted that where these grazed the grass was shorter and finer. Birds too were plentiful. It is a notable fact that the Kangaroo Island emu, referred to here by Sutherland, and a distinct sub species was extinct by the time of organised white settlement, exterminated by the sealers and escaped convicts who inhabited parts of the island.

Captain George Sutherland was employed in 1819 by Mary Reiby, a Sydney trader, to collect sealskins and salt from Kangaroo Island. He stayed on the island for eight months from January to August and 12 years later provided a detailed report on the island. Sutherland was an experienced captain having made the voyage from England to Sydney a number of times. His report was made to the Committee formed in London for the purpose of establishing a colony in South Australia. This report was subsequently published in several publications which promoted a settlement in South Australia. Sutherland's report was detailed and he was, in addition cross-examined by the committee in 1831. The South Australian Company officials subsequently considered that Sutherland's reports were inaccurate, but it should be taken into consideration that the Australian climate was still poorly understood, and Sutherland may have been on the island in an unusually good year.

South Australian Association

Sutherland, George, Captain

Plan of a company to be established for the purpose of founding a colony in Southern Australia: purchasing land therein, and preparing the land so purchased for the reception of immigrants London: Ridgway and Sons, 1831

Cumpston, J. S. Kangaroo Island, 1800-1836 [Canberra, The Author, 24 Holmes Crescent, Campbell, A.C.T.,
2601, 1970]

Nunn, Jean, This southern land: a social history of Kangaroo Island 1800-1890 Hawthorndene, S. Aust.: Investigator Press, 1989

Discover Kangaroo Island editors: Sue Barker, Murray McCaskill Adelaide: Royal Geographical Society of South Australia, 1999

State Library of South Australia: Mortlock Wing. Taking it to the edge August 2004-