AUSTRALIA's First Fleeters' Memorial yesterday officially landed on the banks of the Quirindi Creek at Wallabadah.
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In a special Australia Day unveiling, a large crowd gathered to pay homage to the first European settlers, and to local stonemason and First Fleet descendant Ray Collins-Cross, who single-handedly erected the memorial.
Proud of his ties to First Fleet convict John Cross, Ray first dreamt up the memorial 15-years-ago and planned to erect it in five different towns before settling on Wallabadah.
Two-and-a-half years ago he started shaping the first of 78 sandstone and zeolite headstones, which bear the names of all 1520 original European settlers.
"John Cross, my great, great, great, great grandfather was born in Wiltshire, England in 1757 and was 29 years old when he was arrested for stealing a sheep," Ray said.
"He received the death penalty (after being tried and found guilty at New Sarum) before he was sentenced to seven years transportation," he said.
Yesterday's opening not only coincided with Australia Day but also with a significant date in the Cross family history.
"Exactly 160 years ago on this day, my great, great grandmother, a lady by the name of Hepziban was born and 130 years ago today she gave birth to her first child," Ray said.
As for what happened to John Cross, he was kept on a hulk for two years before arriving at Port Jackson in 1788 aboard The Alexander with 87 other convicts.
After arriving in Sydney, he worked as a farmhand and is mentioned in early offence records for exchanging rations for clothes and selling suspected stolen stock.
Cross met Mary Davidson (or Davison), a convict who arrived on the Lady Juliana in 1790. The couple had nine children. In 1824, John Cross died and was laid to rest at Windsor.
"John's son David was the stonemason, who built the Victoria Inn, which still stands at Cross Park at Wisemans Ferry, so maybe the craft of shaping sandstone has run in the family," Ray said.
At yesterday's memorial unveiling, renowned orthopaedic surgeon Mervyn Cross OAM unveiled the plaque commemorating the occasion.
Later in the day Ray's nephew, 2004 Toyota Starmaker Travis Collins, performed as the festivities rolled on into the night.
Ray Cross, who contributed his own funds to the memorial, also gained assistance from the North-West Fellowship of First Fleeters, the group of historians who claim descendancy from those who first arrived in 1788.
