Blaxland’s Journal
On Tuesday, May 11, 1813, Mr. Gregory Blaxland, Mr. William Went worth, and Lieutenant Lawson, attended by four servants, with five dogs, and four horses laden with provisions, ammunition, and other necessaries, left Mr. Blaxland’s farm at the South Creek , for the purpose of endeavouring to effect a passage over the Blue Mountains, between the Western River, and the River Grose. They crossed the Nepean, or Hawkesbury River, at the ford, on to Emu Island , at four o’clock p.m., and having proceeded, according to their calculation, two miles in a south-west direction, through forest land and good pasture, encamped at five o’clock at the foot of the first ridge. The distance travelled on this and on the subsequent days was computed by time, the rate being estimated at about two miles per hour. Thus far they were accompanied by two other gentlemen…
The version we grew up on…
Compare Crossing the Blue Mountains and see this commemorative site, which reminds us:
The Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area is the traditional country of six Aboriginal language groups: Darkingune, Darug, Dharawal, Gundungurra, Wiradjuri and Wonnarua…
The Gundungurra Ancestral Pathways Walk invites participants to traverse the Blue Mountains from west to east following Aboriginal Pathways/Routes. The walk makes use of both traditional and post-contact Aboriginal pathways. The walk covers 67km of Country over 7 days and six nights.
‘The best way to know Country is to walk Country’: to celebrate Aboriginal pathways of the Blue Mountains. This includes traditional pathways that have been in use for thousands of years, post-contact pathways based upon those that Aboriginal people continued to use after contact and still continue to use. The walk affirms the ongoing presence of Aboriginal people in the Mountains, connected to and walking their country, looking after it and utilising it for cultural purposes. It recognises the ongoing stories and beliefs that account for Country, give meaning to it and form the basis of Aboriginal relationships to it. It affirms the forms and content of the new connections that contemporary Aboriginal people are forging with their Country.
The walk also invites non-Aboriginal people to participate and experience the Blue Mountains from a different perspective. Participants can experience first-hand Aboriginal cultural heritage of the Mountains. This includes:
• Traditional sites
• Intact traditional Country
• Contemporary Aboriginal Places
• Traditional stories
• The traditional names of local places and our flora and fauna
• Experience the rich Aboriginal cultural links from the east to the west of the Blue Mountains
• To undertake this with contemporary Aboriginal people from the Mountains.
Blue Mountains 1826 – Augustus Earle
Neil's Commonplace Book 