The news of Blaxland, William Wentworth and Lawson's crossing of the Blue Mountains in 1813 and the prospect this presented for access to new lands was cause for excitement for Macquarie who saw it as a sign of the colony's glorious destiny. However, he knew that for the present, New South Wales was a small convict colony and that this destiny was firmly in the future. The Cumberland Plain was sufficient land for the small colony and enough to govern without extending it further west. In late 1813 Macquarie sent Surveyor George Evans to follow the explorers trail and officially verify, and hopefully improve on their findings. Evans travelled further than Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth in that he crossed the Great Dividing Range into the interior, founding the O'Connell, Mitchell, Macquarie and Bathurst Plains. Macquarie was extremely pleased at the news of the plains and proposed to build a road to the new country. While some of Macquarie's eagerness can be attributed to his desire to visit the new country, it was also considered necessary to officially claim the region west of the mountains. The construction of Cox's Road would serve this purpose both symbolically and practically in that it laid suitable foundations for later development, and provided a means to take the colony's starving stock to the new country. Macquarie commissioned William Cox to build the new road even before permission had been received from London.Karskens, 1988: 7-10
