The location of the First Fleeters memorial is a place of history. A place of significance as the Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park overlooks Botany Bay. A Bay that in 1770 and 1788 became the stepping stones for Australia’s modern history.

On Friday 13th May 2016, Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park’s unique First Fleet Memorial was officially opened by The Honourable Mark Speakman, SC MP, Minister for the Environment, Minister for Heritage, and Assistant Minister for Planning.

The opening date was significant to the day on which the First Fleet set sail from Portsmouth, England, being 13 May 1787.

The first stage is limited to cremation positions and it is in the shape and size of the smallest ship in the First Fleet called the “Friendship”. In due course Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park will open a burial “Pioneer” themed area for around 700 graves adjoining this area. We are also looking at innovative ways to preserve several hundred grave stones, some of which go back to the first burial ground in Sydney and relocated a number of times throughout the centuries to our cemetery at Eastern Suburbs.