Did William Lawson have any trouble going over the Blue Mountains?

Answer 1

William Lawson, together with William Wentworth and Gregory Blaxland, was the first explorer to successfully cross Australia's Blue Mountains, enabling expansion of the new colony to the west.

Previous attempts by other explorers had been made, but they always ended with the exploration parties finding themselves faced with an impossible climb up sheer rock faces, or standing on ridges that ended sharply at cliff edges. This was a problem faced also by Lawson, Blaxland and Wentworth, but persistence paid off.

Another problem was the density of the bush. They had to carry machetes to help hack the thick scrub as they made their way through the bush. Also, there were places where they found they could not take their horses; the hillsides were too steep and rocky. The mosquitoes gave them trouble, teeming thick and fast. And at night, they would hear the sounds of Aboriginal activity in the area, so there was some fear about whether or not they would make it out alive.

After some three weeks of exploring through difficult and previously impenetrable terrain, the men reached Mount Blaxland, the end point of their journey, from where they could see the plains to the west, on 31 May 1813.