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Activity page
11E
Coming to a conclusion
You have now looked at various ‘candidates’ for the first crossing of the Blue Mountains.
3 Who would you say should be given the credit as the first to cross the Blue Mountains?
4 Look at this assessment of the place of Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth in this history.
Do you agree with it? Justify your view.
The ‘official’ story
Everyone knows that Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth
were the first Europeans to succeed in crossing Australia’s
impenetrable Blue Mountains, and thus opened up the
way for the colony to expand onto the vast fertile slopes
and plains of the west. Previous expeditions had tried, of
course, but all failed. The only way across was via the three
explorers’ innovative ridge-top route.
Well, it makes a nice story.
By the time Gregory Blaxland, Lt William Lawson and
William Charles Wentworth set out, a considerable amount
of information had been gathered. Not only did they know
of numerous routes which didn’t work, but they had George
Caley’s observations of the main ridge, made from Mt
Banks. They also knew that the most successful efforts were
those which followed ridges.
The view from Mt York is not, as implied by some accounts
of history, one of expansive pastures. It is of the upper
Cox’s valley, with the Great Dividing Range blocking the
view to the west.
Descending into the valley, they came to the same bank
of the same river as they had been on 12 days ago — the
Cox’s flows to the Nepean. They could have got there by
following the river, as John Wilson apparently had.
Their turn-around point was Mt Blaxland, some 12km short
of the Great Divide. They had discovered a way over the
Blue Mountains, and an area of pasture on the other side. It
was May 31, they had been travelling for 21 days, and had
covered about 93km; an average of about 4.5km per day.
They returned to Emu Plains in 5 days.
This route was later to become that of the highway and
railway. However, it was Francis Barrallier’s route which
became the stock route, as it offered better feed along the
way.
Their report to the Governor Macquarie was modest; it was
later writers who polished up the story and made them into
heroes. Macquarie took no action to exploit their discovery.
Wentworth was later to advise that a railway across the Blue
Mountains was impossible.
Six months later, George Evans led a team which followed
the Three Explorers’ route, and continued on, over the Great
Dividing Range, to where Bathurst now stands. He thus
became the first European known to have reached the rich
pasture land of the Western Slopes and Plains.
Governor Macquarie now became seriously interested. He
commissioned George Cox to build a road along the route,
and personally made the trip to Bathurst soon after it was
completed. Bathurst, which did not yet exist as such, was to
become Australia’s first inland city.
Why do [the three explorers] get all the credit? Two reasons
come to mind: the Three were respectable (unlike Wilson),
and British (unlike Barrallier).
Previously, it had been in the governor’s interests to
promote the belief that the mountains were impenetrable.
Had Governor Hunter been so inclined, he could have
followed up on John Wilson’s explorations and had a road
to Hartley by 1800, and one to Goulburn soon after.
It is not our intention to denigrate the achievement of
the Three Explorers. Rather, we seek to put it back into
proper perspective; in fact, the perspective in which they
themselves apparently saw it.
www.infobluemountains.net.au/history/crossing_3ex.htm
5 Add any information to your summary table on activity page 3A.
6 Write a brief paragraph or do a comic strip sketch for your own
history textbook (in box 7 of activity page 3C) to explain to readers
if Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth can be given the honour of
being the first to cross the Blue Mountains.
Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth were the first
to cross the Blue Mountains. True or False?
Myths and Mysteries of the Crossing of the Blue Mountains
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