Born June 17, 1778, Hewington. Kent, England
Died January 1, 1853, North Parramatta, Australia
The first British settlements in Australia were located in the colony of New South Wales, on the continent’s fertile southeast coast. Explorers had tried to cross the Great Divide mountain range that separates that coast from the rest of Australia by traveling the canyons and passes that lay between the peaks and ridges. Their efforts had met with failure. Then in 1813 rancher Gregory Blaxland tried a different approach in his attempt to cross the mountains. With his farm—located near the main coastal settlement of Sydney—suffering from drought, he was looking for pasture land farther west. By traveling interconnecting ridges and not descending into the canyons, Blaxland and his party managed to cross much of the Blue Mountains, part of the Great Dividing Range. His trek encouraged further exploration and settlement of the interior of Australia, which took place rapidly over the next several decades.
Blaxland was born in June of 1778 in the English town of Newington in the county of Kent. He was the son of a prosperous family—his father was a local mayor and large property owner. In 1799 Blaxland married the daughter of another prosperous farmer. Among their friends was Sir Joseph Banks, the British natural scientist who had explored Australia’s Botany Bay with Captain James Cook in 1770. Banks encouraged the Blaxlands to be among the first wave of free emigrants to settle in New South Wales, which had served largely as a penal colony (populated by convicts) since its founding in 1788. The Blaxlands left England on September 1, 1805. Offering its encouragement, the British government granted Blaxland four thousand acres at the foot of the Blue Mountains, located northwest of Sydney, and forty convicts to work the land.
Blaxland prospered, and added to his landholdings. He became one of New South Wales’s most important citizens. But in 1810 his luck changed when a drought began. By 1813 it had become so severe that it was threatening to wipe out the herds of livestock on which the colony depended. Rather than stand by and watch his animals die, Blaxland decided to try to lead his sheep to new pastures. On May 11 he left his ranch at South Creek, near the present-day town of St. Mary, and followed the Warragamba River to the Blue Mountains. He was joined by surveyor William Lawson, fellow rancher William Charles Wentworth, and native guide James Burnes, as well as some convict servants.
Traveling with pack horses and a herd of sheep, the group progressed slowly through the Blue Mountains. They made their way by following the tops of the mountain ridges. On May 28 they reached Mount York, from which they could view the Bathurst Plains, a large fertile area fed by the plentiful waters of the Lett River. Recalling the sight, Blaxland would later remark that there lay “enough grass to support the stock of the colony for thirty years.” He and his party entered the valley and camped on the river, a few miles south of the present town of Lithgow. There they feasted on kangaroo and fish, and the animals ate their fill of the lush vegetation. Then the expedition explored a bit farther—to what was later called Mount Blaxland—before making its way back to Sydney.
Believing that he had conquered the Blue Mountains, Blaxland reported the important news to the colonial governor. Governor Macquarie sent out his surveyor at once, to retrace Blaxland’s route. Surveyor George William Evans discovered that the Bathurst Plains were not located on the western side of the mountain range but, instead, lay in an isolated valley. He continued his explorations west until he did cross the Blue Mountains, locating the Fish River on the other side. So while Blaxland did not, in fact, make it over the mountains, he did discover the method by which the feat could be achieved. And the route Blaxland pioneered would become the Great Western Highway, the main road between Sydney and all lands west.
Less than two years after Blaxland’s expedition, convict laborers built a road into the newly established settlement of Bathurst in the Blue Mountains. Blaxland received no compensation or profit from the lands he discovered, and lost of much of his wealth in the continuing drought. Embittered, he became a harsh critic of the colonial government. In 1829 he traveled to London on a mission sponsored by a group of New South Wales settlers, petitioning for a more representative government for the colony. They wanted the same rights enjoyed by other British subjects, such as trial by jury and participation in government policy making.
Blaxland published an account of his expedition in 1823. Besides his anti-government activities, he spent his time conducting agricultural experiments on his farm. He had great success growing grapes, and was awarded a silver medal in England for one of his wines. His wife died in 1826, and he spent his later years quietly, on his property in what is now the Sydney suburb of North Parramatta. Suffering from depression, Blaxiand hanged himself on January 1, 1853.
Baker, Daniel B., ed. Explorers and Discoverers of the World. Detroit: Gale Research, 1993.
Bohlander, Richard E., ed. World Explorers and Discoverers. New York: Macmillan, 1992.
Waldman, Carl, and Alan Wexler. Who Was Who in World Exploration. New York: Facts on File, 1992.
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