Contact - Crossing

Colonists had a problem. Too much livestock, too little land.

In 1813, the English colonists were jammed together along the coast of the continent, and it had been that way since they arrived thirty years earlier.

A spectacular mountain range divided them from whatever was on the other side. Someone important gave the range an English name, but the colonists just called them the Blue Mountains.

Blue

The reflection of light off eucalyptus oil droplets gives off a blue tinge, casting a blue haze over the mountains.  In the language of the Dharug and Gundungurra peoples, the mountains were known as Colomatta, a combination of colo: koala and matta: place [Etymology: Wikipedia]. Crossing the range was no big deal to the aborigines.

Local peoples used two main routes to cross the Blue Mountains, but most Europeans saw these routes as a confusing and scary maze of sandstone cliffs, deep gorges and dense bush [Digital Classroom].

Crossing

There were numerous efforts to cross the mountains, but history records the most successful as 1813, when a sheep grazier (Blaxland), a surveyor (Lawson) and a 21-year-old (Wentworth), along with a guide, four convict servants, a few horses and dogs, took about three weeks to get to the top of the range. After they saw the plains, forests, and grasslands on the ‘other side’, they decided to turn back because of illness amongst their group.

In 1814, Governor Macquarie honoured Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth for being the first Europeans to cross the Blue Mountains—despite the fact that they had not crossed the mountains, were not the first to do so and had not claimed to be the first [EBSCO Research Starters].

Wiradjuri Country

These explorers were gazing down on the mighty Wiradjuri Country, land many thousands had called home for over 10,000 years. These were the 'people of the three rivers' the Bila Wambuul (Macquarie), Galari (Lachlan) and the Marrambidya (Murrumbidgee).