Bathurst Proclamation & First Divine ServicePrint Page

The cairn denotes the site where Governor Macquarie proclaimed the town of Bathurst after which was held the first religious service west of the Blue Mountains.

The idea of a monument to commemorate the founding of Bathurst in 1815 was suggested by A.G. Spencer Oakes in a letter to the Bathurst "Times" on 26 May, 1926. It received popular support and the foundation stone was laid by Dr. H. Norrie, President of the Royal Australian Historical Society on 5 May, 1929. Dr. Norrie also formally dedicated the cairn.

Tomorrow Bathurst will celebrate its 115th birthday, and a monument will be unveiled on the exact spot where, in 1815, Governor Macquarie caused a flag pole to be erected and the colours displayed. The ceremony of proclaiming the establishment of the future town followed. A short religious service was afterwards held, and this on May 4, will also be duly recognised as the first religious service in the western districts.

It is a far cry to that momentous day in 1815. The discovery of a passage across the mountains in 1813 by Blaxland Lawson and Wentworth had a most far-reaching influence, an event second to none. For twenty five years those mysterious ranges had defied the endeavours of numerous explorers to solve the question as to what lay behind them. Each expedition returned to the settlement beaten and baffled, until one despairing member opined that the mountains would never be crossed and settlement would be restricted to a point about 40 miles west of Sydney, and 100 miles north and south. These are strange words, but they were thoroughly believed in up to the year 1813, when Blaxland and party by their fortunate discovery, were instrumental in throwing open to settlement thousands of square miles of magnificent country changing, as it were, a colony into a continent. 
The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW), 3 May 1930.  

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