Explorers of Australia:
Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth

From 1788 to 1813 the settlement at Sydney grew rapidly, and soon more land was needed to grow food and graze animals. The Blue Mountains, with their deep valleys and sheer cliff walls, was the barrier to expansion. Three land owning settlers, Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson and William Wentworth, were given permission by Governor Lachlan Macquarie to conduct an expedition to find a way across mountains to new pastures for sheep grazing. They set off with four packhorses and five dogs, and four other people, three of them convicts. Their supplies for a six-week journey included salted meat, tents, compasses, cutting tools and guns.
After leaving from Emu Plains the explorers at first spent their time travelling along the main ridge that led them up into the mountains. They marked a track as they went, cutting bark from trees on either side so that they could find their way back again.

The explorers went down into a deep valley near Mount York to let their horses eat some fresh grass and drink water and later they crossed the valley and climbed a high hill on the other side. From here they saw some good grazing land to the west of the Blue Mountains. They returned on June 6 and much later their route became a highway.

Note: Although they had crossed the Blue Mountains, the explorers had not crossed the Great Dividing Range. It was six months later that George Evans led a team, which followed the route taken by Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth, and continued on over the Great Dividing Range. Evans and his team became the first Europeans to reach the rich grazing land in the area near Bathurst.

You can read more about these explorers here
http://www.infobluemountains.net.au/history/crossing_3ex.htm

http://www.davidreilly.com/australian_explorers/blaxland/blaxland_-easier.htm

If you use any part of this in your work, acknowledge it in your bibliography like this:
Thomas & Sydenham, Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth. [Online] www.kidcyber.com.au (2008)

updated  © [2008] kidcyber