Arrival in New South Wales (1820s)

SETTLED AREAS OF COLONY EXTENDED OVER BLUE MOUNTAINS

When William arrived in the colony of New South Wales in the 1820s, it was in the process of developing from a convict economy to a free economy.

The Blue Mountains had been crossed by Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth in 1813 and this enabled cattle to be grazed on the inland pastures.

The settled areas of the colony at the time were bounded by Windsor in the north, Appin in the south and centred on Liverpool and Parramatta. By the end of the 1820s the European population was 35,000.

JOHN McARTHUR AWARDED MEDAL (1822)

Most of the food for the colony was produced by the emancipists, who owned 70% of the land under cultivation.

Wheat and meat were mainly for internal consumption, while wool was the principal source of export funds.

In 1822, John McArthur, had been awarded two gold medals by the Society of Arts in London for wool exports to the English markets.

SETTLED AREAS EXPANDED IN 1830s

During the 1830s the settled areas of New South Wales were extended to the Manning River in the north, to the Shoalhaven River in the south and inland to Yass, Cowra and Wellington.

There were penal establishments at Port Macquarie, New South Wales and in Brisbane, Queensland.

The three main areas of growth in the colony were in government spending, the maritime industry and the wool industry, with minerals being added to this group in the 1840s.


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The shaded part shows the areas of the Australian continent which had been explored up to 1831.

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