 There, as in some other places in New South Wales, the Great Divide is only a slight rise in the surrounding topography.Knowing that local Aboriginal people had already established routes crossing the range and by making use of Aboriginal walking trails, a usable ridge-top route was finally discovered by Europeans directly westward from Sydney across the Blue Mountains to Bathurst by an expedition jointly led by Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson and William Charles Wentworth.Towns in the Blue Mountains were later named after each of these men.