Aussie bones find sparks burial bid

Jun 6 2008 by Gordon Bannerman

Aussie bones find sparks burial bid

AN Australian academic is pressing on with an emotional quest to give a tragic 19th Century ship captain’s wife a Christian burial in her native Perthshire.

And in a bid to cut through bureaucratic red tape, he has recruited a sympathetic Big County minister and funeral director to fulfil his pledge.

Errol minister Douglas Main and Andrew Pennycook, of James McEwan, the Fair City undertakers, have responded to his plea for back-up.

Single-minded former teacher Bob Pendreigh, based in New South Wales, is determined to repatriate the remains of Barrier Reef shipwreck victim Elizabeth Pitkethly.

More than 20 years ago, Bob was tackling a geographical survey of the coastline when aboriginal artefacts were exposed by torrential rain.

He subsequently handed over human remains to local police, and university boffins later confirmed they were those of a European woman in her twenties or thirties.

Bob was familiar with botanist Eugene Fitzalan’s epic poem “Lines,” inspired by survivor James Morrill’s extraordinary tale of the grim fate of the “Peruvian”, a vessel laden with hardwood which perished with most of those on board.

A traumatised Pitkethly was one of four survivors. But she was buried, near her husband, by aboriginals on a sandy North Queensland shoreline two years after seas claimed their ship.

Her remains languished forgotten in a police filing cabinet for a decade before eventually they were returned to Bob – prompting his vow to bring them to Scotland.

But yesterday the Aussie, who faces the daunting task of unravelling red tape in both Australia and Scotland, admitted: “It is proving more difficult than I first thought.”

Last year, his poignant quest brought him to the Carse of Gowrie, where he found a gravestone in the Errol churchyard recalling the ill-fated 1847 voyage from Sydney to China.

The stone was erected “in affectionate remembrance by the surviving and sorrowing members of the family, James and Janet.”

The Rev Main said: “Andrew Pennycook and I are doing our best to assist at this end.

“The graveyard hasn’t been used in recent years but Perth and Kinross Council have agreed to the request for a one-off burial.

“McEwans are also providing their services free of charge.

“Pitkethly, even Pitkeathly, isn’t a common name in the Errol area and it is something of a mystery why the stone is here. But we are keen to trace any surviving members of the Pitkethly family.

“Bob pitched up at the kirk in November and it is quite a tale he has to tell. We have things in place at this end but Bob still has to get the green light from the authorities in Australia.”

Now Bob is planning another trip to Scotland in the next few months and hopes to press ahead with the repatriation.