Curio

State Library of New South Wales
A journal of a tour of discovery across the Blue Mountains

A journal of a tour of discovery across the Blue Mountains

1823
82/61, pp36-37
Published book: BJ Holdsworth, London

As a free settler of upper class English roots, Gregory Blaxland (1778 – 1853) was eager to make his mark and capitalise on the agricultural potential of the new colony.

Like many graziers, Blaxland had an expanding flock of livestock, and suitable land along the coast was becoming scarce. He believed the answer was to find a passage over the Blue Mountains and search for more farming land. In 1813, Blaxland joined other wealthy land owners William Lawson and William Wentworth on a quest to cross the great divide.

In this journal, Blaxland gives a brief account of the explorers’ passage across the Blue Mountains. He discusses their success of adopting the novel method of traversing the mountains by the ridges instead of looking for a route through the valleys. Blaxland also details how the group found their way across by Mount York, and then went on past Cox's River to a sugar loaf hill (later named Mount Blaxland). From its summit, the trio could see 'enough grass to support the stock of the colony for thirty years.’ *

Footnotes

Australia Dictionary of Biography http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/blaxland-gregory-1795

The convict servants on the expedition carried food, axes and firewood and had to load and unload supplies and set up weather protection for the explorers.

According to Gregory Blaxland, “It [the expedition] has changed the aspect of the colony, from a confined insulated tract of land, to a rich and extensive continent.”*

* G. Blaxland, A journal of a tour of discovery across the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, 1823

Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson and William Charles Wentworth were assisted by a guide and kangaroo hunter James Burne or Burns. Burne was later identified by historian Joy Hughes during research for her 1992 book The Age of Macquarie.

Though as early as 1816 Gregory Blaxland claimed to have been the leader of the expedition, contemporary records suggest that none of the three men assumed this position but that their effort was a joint one.