Biography

alias The Silent Stockman Informant EM Warmitt, mail contractor, Wyndham Buried on Parry Creek Road about 3 miles from Ivanhoe Station homestead by J Martin and Jacob Kuhl, undertaker. A tin-plate cross with the inscription punched in it marked his grave. He was well known in the Kimberley and a rotting forked stick was all that marked his roadside grave. Arnold Beeck, who was working at the Kimberley Research Station, heard of the almost forgotten grave near a stream known as Stockman's Creek. An article in the North Queensland Register (published in Townsville) gave him this information: "David Suttie, head stockman, died quietly while resting in his midday camp at Ivanhoe on the Wyndham to Ord River road." The article also said that Mrs Gunn had kept in touch with all her characters since 1902 and on 20 May 1952, she had written that "there are now still three of us left this 1952" - "The Quiet Stockman, Jack McLeod, married with six children and seven grandchildren; The Little Lad, Ernest Goss of page 186 and Myself, The Little Missus..... The others have fallen with the years." Mr Beeck said that these words conveyed to him the deep affection of the authoress for the gallant band of pioneers. Moved to provide a more lasting monument to this man who had become dear to the hearts of all who read We of the Never-Never, he enlisted the aid of Sergeant AT Monck of Wyndham Police. A member of the WA Historical Society, Sgt Monck checked Suttie's death certificate. With this information to guide him, Beeck erected a stone cairn surmounted by an iron cross with an inscription punched into the iron so that the lettering would last while the iron was in good condition. He then photographed the grave and, with the information he had gathered, he sent to Sgt Monck for dispatch to the WA Historical Society.