One of Gregory Blaxland’s many landholdings was an estate of 450 acres of land he purchased from landowner and public servant, D’Arcy Wentworth soon after his arrival in 1806. The area (in present day Eastwood) was called the ‘Brush Farm.’ Blaxland developed the estate over many years, along with other large pastoral holdings and stockyards across Sydney. He settled permanently on Brush Farm in 1820 after the loss of most of his grazing flocks due to drought and economic downturn. Blaxland turned to agricultural experimentation on the Brush Farm estate, determined to make new crops pay. His experiments with tobacco and hops failed, but other crops flourished. He was the first in Australia to successfully cultivate buffalo grass for fodder. He was also very successful in producing wine. Although Blaxland wasn’t the first to plant a vineyard, he was the first to successfully export Australian wine (probably a form of burgundy or claret) to London, where it was awarded a silver medal.

Blaxland had always been known as a melancholy type, but his later years were marked by real tragedy. His baby son, Christopher, died at the age of three months in 1822. His wife, Elizabeth, followed after a long illness in 1826. Blaxland was forced to sell Brush Farm in 1831, after having built it up over 25 years, in order to settle outstanding debts. His brother, John, died in 1845 and his adult sons, George and Gregory also suffered untimely deaths in a buggy accident in 1849 and a spearing by Aborigines in 1850 respectively. Gregory suffered increasing bouts of depression and delirium and ultimately committed suicide at Parramatta on January 1, 1853.