Why was the crossing of the Blue Mountains important to the early settlers of Australia?

Answer 1

The Blue Mountains created a psychological barrier to the expansion of the colony in New South Wales. When the First Fleet arrived in New South Wales in 1788, all their efforts - both convicts and free settlers - were focussed on clearing trees, tilling the ground and planting crops to establish a food supply to support the convict colony. Free settlers also began to arrive, lured by the promise of a better life in the new, young country. This placed considerable strain on New South Wales's resources, especially with the expansion of livestock which needed grazing land. Landowners were crying out for new country to settle, and the only way this could be achieved was to expand beyond the Blue Mountains, which for 25 years proved to be an impassable barrier to the west.

Many attempts were made to find a path through the Blue Mountains, but they were all unsuccessful. They concentrated on following the rivers and creeks, which always came to dead ends up against sheer rock faces or mazes of impassable gorges.

Lawson, Blaxland and Wentworth departed South Creek, Sydney Cove, in May 1813 and the route they found is the one still essentially followed by travellers today. They were successful because, instead of following the rivers valleys, they tried to find their way through the ridges. Most of the ridges they followed were dead ends - it was sheer luck and persistence that enabled them to find the one that took them to the other side of the range.

It took these first explorers three arduous weeks of traversing difficult and previously impenetrable terrain before they could reach Mount Blaxland, the end point of their expedition, on the last day of May. From here they could see the promise of fertile plains to the west. Blaxland wrote in his journal that they could see grasslands and "forest land all around them sufficient to feed the stock of the colony for the next thirty years".

The crossing of the Blue Mountains was so important because it enabled farmers and graziers to settle further out. Such small settlements gradually grew into larger settlements, and provided new staging points from which further explorations could be mounted, and supplies gained. The crossing of the Blue Mountains was crucial to allowing further expansion of the colony.

Answer 2

The Blue Mountains had held the settlement in Sydney in a virtual prison for the first 25 years of settlement. When the First Fleet arrived in New South Wales in 1788, all efforts concentrated on developing farmland and a food supply to support the convict colony. Free settlers also began to arrive, lured by the promise of a better life in the new, young country. This placed considerable strain on New South Wales's resources, and farmers began to see the need for expansion beyond the Blue Mountains, which had provided an impassable barrier to the west. Farmers desperately needed more land for grazing or crops if the colony was to survive, but the mountains encircled the town and prevented expension. When Lawson, Blaxland and Wentworth succeeded in finding a route over the mountains, their exploration was significant for opening up the grazing lands of inland New South Wales.