Journal of an excursion over the Blue or Western Mountains of New South Wales to visit a tract of new discovered Country

25 April–19 May 1815
Safe 1 / 20a
1849 Manuscript copy of original

Governor Lachlan Macquarie’s aide-de-camp, Henry Colden Antill (1779 – 1852), was part of Macquarie’s 1815 expedition across the Blue Mountains to inspect the newly opened land of New South Wales. Members of the party included colonists, explorers and artists such as Sir John Jamieson, John Oxley, James Meehan, John Lewin, William Redfern and William Cox. They proceeded from Sydney via Parramatta, Springwood, Blackheath, Cox's Pass and Campbell River then onto Bathurst.

Antill kept a journal of the trip and later provided a copy to his colleague John Lewin in exchange for a set of the watercolour drawings Lewin created that captured scenes from their journey.
This volume includes Antill’s expedition across the Blue Mountains, as well as his journal that documents his voyage from England to NSW in 1809. Both journals were published in 1914 as: Early history of New South Wales : two old journals, being the diaries of Major H.C. Antill on the voyage to New South Wales in 1809, and on a trip across the Blue Mountains in 1815, Sydney, Govt. Printer, 1914