In 1813 Gregory Blaxland, William Charles Wentworth and William Lawson became the first European settlers to successfully navigate a path across the Blue Mountains.

Their feat opened the inland to pastoralism, and set in motion a pattern of land disputes that would result in the dispossession of Indigenous peoples across the continent.

At first, the colonists were too busy surviving to consider trying to cross the mountains. However, by the time Governor Macquarie arrived in 1810, a combination of drought, insect plagues and exhaustion of the soil around Sydney made finding fresh lands imperative.