4 June 2025
Submarine chief Commodore Dan Sutherland has thought about leaving the Navy. Twice.
The 45-year-old, who assumed Command of Australia’s Submarine Force in December last year, is glad he didn’t.
“In most people’s careers there are logical jumping-off points where it makes sense to do something else, when you’ve still got plenty of work life in you and you’re experienced and have marketable skills,” Commodore Sutherland said.
“The first time was when I was a lieutenant commander and my wife said to me, ‘If you don’t stay and get yourself to XO and the Perisher course you’ll regret it for the rest of your life’. She was right.
“Then, after I had commanded a submarine, I looked at the demands of my work and Navy was looking at sending me back to sea.
“I’d already achieved what I’d set out to achieve. And I’d done a deal with my wife that once I’d finished at sea, I was hers. So I thought maybe it’s time to go. But then Navy showed me another path.
“You’ve got to look after your family as well as your career.”
Another piece of advice Commodore Sutherland shares is about promotions.
“Focus on the job you’re in and achieving professional competence and excellence in that, rather than the specific jobs you might want,” he said.
'You’ve got to look after your family as well as your career.'
Life has thrown tough professional and personal challenges the father-of-three’s way, such as the gruelling ‘Perisher’ Submarine Command Course with the Royal Netherlands Navy in 2016 and the difficulties of having a child with multiple disabilities.
Evangeline (Evie) is five. Her older brother and sister are 12 and 10.
Of Perisher, Commodore Sutherland said: “It’s designed to make you want to quit and at one point early on in the final sea phase (the hardest part of the course) I did wonder if I was cut out for it.
“I hadn’t been able to sleep because of the stress, much of it self-generated. Ultimately I had a conversation with myself and worked out that if I wasn’t successful, the sun would still rise and my family would still love and support me – then a chunk of the stress went away.
“If you start to do well on the course, they shift the goalposts so you are not. But it gives you confidence to know you can deal with anything. In command the following year when things went wrong at sea I was quite calm as I thought, Perisher was harder than this.”
And of his precious daughter Evie?
“You realise the hopes and dreams you have as a parent won’t come true and you have to grieve over that,” he said.
“Evie is never going to be married or have kids and she’s never going to walk. It’s hard, very hard, supporting her to have the best, most enjoyable and meaningful life possible.
“My wife bears the brunt of most of it. But Evie has the sweetest disposition. She has had to fight so hard just for things everyone else takes for granted, and I learn so much from this beautiful girl.”
His faith in God has provided strength and comfort. And his high-achieving nature has seen him succeed in a career few people take on.
'It sounds old-fashioned and trite but I wanted to serve my country.'
A keen reader who did Honours in English at ADFA before qualifying as a maritime warfare officer, Commodore Sutherland followed in his father’s footsteps in joining the Navy.
His Dad, David, is a reservist, his only sibling James is a Navy Chaplain, and Mum Frances also served in the Navy.
“It was a drive inculcated in me from childhood to always be the best I could be,” Commodore Sutherland said.
“And there was that sense of the greater good. It sounds old-fashioned and trite but I wanted to serve my country.”
Service is what Commodore Sutherland would like to see at the heart of ADF recruitment campaigns.
“There is that sense of, ‘What can I get out of it?’ for sure," he said. "But it also has to be, ‘What can I contribute to it?'
“In the near future we might be called upon to put ourselves in harm’s way and we need to be straight up about that.”
He sees camaraderie as another major draw card.
“Just last night we had a submarine that had to come alongside as it needed help,” Commodore Sutherland said.
“Within an hour we had 19 people go down and do the work, not pleasant work, so they could get back to sea today. That is a visible example of the spirit, camaraderie and drive in pursuit of professional excellence that we have today; the spirit that characterises our Submarine Force.”
