the Blue Mountains was completed in 1815, opening the way for large-scale farming and grazing west of the Great Dividing Range.

Following the departure of Macquarie, official policy encouraged the emigration of free British settlers to New South Wales. Immigration to the colony increased from 900 free settlers in 1826-30 to 29,000 in 1836-40, many of whom settled in Sydney. By the 1840s, Sydney exhibited a geographic divide between