Gregory Blaxland

Gregory Blaxland ( born June 17, 1778 Fordwich, Kent, England; † January 1, 1853, Eastwood, New South Wales) was an early settler, speculator and pioneer Australia. He is very well known in Australia, because he found his way through the Blue Mountains with William Lawson and William Charles Wentworth. Less well known is that he was one of the signatories of the arrangement for arrest of William Bligh during the Rum Rebellion called in Australia and that he is quite known as the founder of cattle and the first successful wine industry in Australia.

Early life

Blaxland was born into a British landowner family and was the fourth son of John Blaxland, a major, and his wife Mary. He went to the King's School in Canterbury. In July 1799 he married Elizabeth Parker, with whom he had five sons and two daughters. He wandered on September 1, 1805 with his wife and three children, two servants, an overseer, a few sheep, seeds, bees, tools, food and clothing to Australia. On April 11, 1806, he reached Sydney with his family and his older brother John Blaxland and with 117 convicts on board the ship William Pitt. In Sydney he sold part of the goods brought a profit. Subsequently acquired Blaxland eight cattle, so he could build his meat trade and was 16.19 km ² of land assigned to the terrain of his later Brush Farm House at South Creek in Eastwood. The villa is not only the oldest Farmhouse in Australia, but also the best preserved and is available for the period of construction in the term of office of Governor Lachlan Macquarie. Furthermore, Blaxland were promised 50 prisoners as farm workers.

Life

Blaxland was one of the settlers who wirtschafteten exclusively according to their interests in the British colony, speculating with land. The Governor Philip Gidley King warned in August 1807 William Bligh before the reckless speculation and interest enforcement of Blaxland. When Bligh was going against the conditions in the British colony of New South Wales, he was set, and in this measure also Blaxland was involved.

Blaxland grassland needed for its growing livestock herds. In 1810 he therefore explored areas around the Nepean River. On 11 May 1813, he started the expedition from South Creek from the Emu Fields with Lawson and Wentworth in the Blue Mountains ( see main article Blaxland expedition ). , They had the four servants, five dogs and four pack horses, loaded with all Necessary for their exploration. They used this methods other than the former explorers, because they did not seek the paths through the valleys, but they erkundeteten the ways of the mountain heights of. You, however, were the ways already known that did not lead to success and they knew the observations that the botanist George Caley from Mount Banks from had made about this area.

They took the road through the mountains on the Mount York, until they came to a hill on 31 May 1813 which was later named Mount Blaxland. From the top they could see that joining wide grasslands. Up to the end point of their expedition they were traveling 21 days, 93 miles. For the return journey they needed five days. Blaxland was then given 2.02 km ² (500 acres) of land on the Nepean River in Cooke district in New South Wales at the foot of the Blue Mountains, in a document that was issued by Governor Lachlan Macquarie.

In 1814, amidst the prevailing economic crisis struck Blaxland Governor Macquarie the creation of a large agricultural society. The proposed Australian Agricultural Company, however, was not founded until later in the 1820s. Macquarie did not accept Blaxland then. This then criticized him vehemently, and the governor turned away from him.

Around 1820 Blaxland settled down on its first possession in Australia, the Brush Farm. From there he took different economic activities, such as wine trade, tobacco and grass cultivars. Because of his experiments with grass as feed for cattle, he and his brother John are in Australia as the founder of the Australian cattle in arid terrain and Gregory Blaxland was the first wine growers of Australia, who grew successful wine.

Blaxland negotiated with land, wine and brandy, and published a book about his journey through the Blue Mountains in 1823. Occasion of his first wine export to England in 1822, its wines have been awarded a medal, the large Silver Medal by the Royal Society of Arts. He was the first Australian who was honored for its wines with a medal and five years later Blaxland received the gold medal.

His wife died in December 1826th On January 1, 1853, he took his own life.

Infrastructures

It is doubted that Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson were the first to introduce the Blue Mountains overcame. This will already be John Wilson succeeded the late 18th century.

However, it was started only after the Blaxland expedition with the road construction in Western Australia, because up to this time had the Blue Mountains as an insurmountable bulwark. Macquarie commissioned after the end of the expedition the explorer George William Evans, to make further inquiries about the Mount Blaxland addition. Evans broke up with five men on November 21, 1813 ended his job seven weeks later, on 8 January 1814 successfully. The members of the expedition came up before the valley of the Lachlan River and were the first Europeans who came to the territory of the present-day places Boorowa and Cowra.

In July 1814 started from the Emu Plains from the construction of a road through the Blue Mountains. The project was led by William Cox, the one presented for this purpose 30 convicts and eight soldiers as guards available. When the road was finished after six months, were those convicts who had worked hard, released as free citizens. The Governor Macquarie traveled a year later on this road and founded Bathurst, the first place west of the Great Dividing Range to the Blue Mountains belong.

The road was later expanded for vehicles, created a parallel railway line. The cattle were driven, however, in the early period by a different route to the west.

Honors

After Blaxland not only the Mount Blaxland in the Blue Mountains, but also the Blaxland River in northern New South Wales, the city and the Blaxland Blaxland County is named. The Blaxland Riverside Park is located on the Parramatta River in Newington.

For the 150th anniversary of the crossing of the Blue Mountains an Australian stamp and 1993 a silver coin was released in 1963, on which the three pioneers Blaxland, Lawson and Wenthworth are shown.