The Bathurst region was originally occupied by the Wiradjuri Aboriginal people. See also: History of infrastructure development in Bathurst Colonial period (1800s) to gold rush era (1860s)[edit] John Lewin, The Plains, Bathurst, watercolour drawing, ca. 1815, State Library of New South Wales The government surveyor, George Evans, was the first European to sight the Bathurst Plains in 1813, following the first successful European crossing of the Blue Mountains in the same year. In 1814, Governor Lachlan Macquarie approved an offer by William Cox to build a road crossing the Blue Mountains, from Emu Plains, the existing road terminus west of Sydney, to the Bathurst Plains. The first road to cross the Blue Mountains was 12 feet (3.7 m) wide by 101 1⁄2 miles (163.3 km) long, built between 18 July 1814 to 14 January 1815 using 5 freemen, 30 convict labourers and 8 soldiers as guards. Governor Macquarie surveyed the finished road in April 1815 by driving his carriage across it from Sydney to Bathurst. The Governor commended Cox and stated that the project would have taken three years if it had been done under a contract.[15] As a reward Cox was awarded 2,000 acres (810 ha) of land near what is now Bathurst. …show more content…
It was intended to be the administrative centre of the western plains of New South Wales, where orderly colonial settlement was