Alexander Sutherland's family emigrated to Sydney because of his father's health, then moved to Melbourne in 1870 when Sutherland was already showing academic promise. He attained his Master of Arts in 1874 and taught at various schools, rising to headmaster before retiring in 1892. Forced to return to work during the 1890s depression, he worked as a journalist for the Australasian and the Argus.
With his brother George Sutherland (q.v.), Sutherland wrote The History of Australia from 1606 to 1876 (1877). This was followed by A New Geography for Australian Pupils (1884). Other school texts demonstrated his wide subject knowledge: Elementary Geography of the British Colonies with George Dawson (1892); Geography of Victoria (1893); A Manual of Commercial Instruction (1893); and Class Book of Geography (1894). He edited The Praise of Poetry in English Literature (1901), the matriculation English pass-work required for University of Melbourne entry. His University of Melbourne Extension Lectures on Australian History were published after his death in 1902.
Sutherland addressed the Royal Society of Melbourne on topics as diverse as gravity and molecular energy (1877), consonants and the use of phonographs (1878), calculation of land values (1879), and he also wrote Sanitary Tracts for the Australian Health Society. Sutherland ventured into political topics with To the Electors of Williamstown [1897], and courted critics and controversy with historical pamphlets [ca.1898], positing the discovery of Australia by the Portuguese/Spanish explorer De Quiros.
Sutherland's travel writings - A Summer in Prairie-Land (published in Toronto in 1881), and Trip to the Black Spur (near Healesville, Victoria) [188-], presaged the multi-volume Victoria and Its Metropolis: Past and Present (1888), reprinted in 1977, and electronically archived in 2006. Sutherland also wrote The Origin and Growth of the Moral Instinct (1898), a two-volume work in which he acknowledged the contrast between original dreams and the tame reality of the completed production.
Sutherland's poetry, though typical of the time, was still being used in the 1940s when one poem was put to music by Louis Lavater (q.v.). Sutherland edited poetry collections and wrote short stories and critical works in journals such as Once a Month and Melbourne Review (a journal he also edited).
Sutherland had an eventful life, during which he: served as honorary secretary to the Royal Society of Melbourne; gave public lectures at the Mechanics Institute; stood unsuccessfully for the Victorian Legislative Assembly; and was the registrar of the University of Melbourne whilst lecturing in English. Brother of authors George and William Sutherland, and noted landscape artist Jane Sutherland (qq.v.).
