After leaving England in May 1829 for Western Australia, he arrived in August. Bland was a member of the first party of settlers to journey to the Avon Valley that set off on 6 September 1831, and he selected a place two miles south of Mt Bakewell near a broad reach of the river. Bland was appointed by the GovernorJames Stirling to settle the York district, about from Perth on the Avon River. In 1832, Bland went into partnership with Arthur Trimmer to take up his selected land, a grant of several thousand acres of land on the Avon river, York and farm merino sheep that had been brought to the colony by the Trimmer brothers. Bland was to run the farm but both of them worked on the farm for some years. The land includes what is now Balladong Farm. They also rented the Government Reserve which was the then unallocated but designated town land. This part of the town of York is still called Bland's Town. In July 1834 Bland was returning from Guildford when the following incident occurred: In September 1834, the Perth Gazette reported: In December 1834, Bland was appointed Government Resident for the York district. In June 1835, Trimmer was on his way to York when his cart broke down. He was compelled to go on for assistance. On his return, accompanied by Bland, when about 7 miles from their home at York, “they observed a native in the bush in the act of raising his spear, and shortly afterwards, a known signal being given, a party of about twelve rushed forward from the place of their concealment; but both Mr Trimmer and Mr Bland being apprised of their danger by the signal given, put spurs to their horses, and galloped about three miles, by which means they avoided their hostile assailants.” In July 1835, Bland and Trimmer lost 16 pigs "speared and carried off by natives". Bland became superintendent of the work for the improvement of the York road, and he also commenced planning an exploratory expedition 100 miles to the east of his farm at York. The first town or suburban allotment of land in York was made to Trimmer and Band on 31 July 1835, which they purchased for £20. Lieutenant-Governor Stirling observed that if Bland were to stay in the Colony, he would become a wealthy man. By 1836, Trimmer and Bland had 5,000 sheep in York. Bland reported in 1836 that he had increased the flock at the rate of about 80 lambs to 100 ewes per annum. In September 1836, two or three natives gained access to Trimmers’ barn. One was carrying away a quantity of flour was shot by a man named Gallop who had been hiding in the loft of the barn. Two weeks later, in reprisal an old settler called Knott was speared in his hut and robbed. Following this incident, the partnership between Bland and Trimmer was dissolved with effect from 1 October 1836. After the murder of Sarah Cook by aborigines in 1839, Bland complained that because of new measures to protect natives, he was prevented from arresting the natives suspected of the crime. In 1841, Bland sold the farm Grass Dale to Thomas Brown, and leased Balladong Farm to Henry Landor and Nathan Elias Knight including a corn mill. Bland resigned as resident magistrate in September 1842. Historian John Deacon said of Bland as Government Resident for 8 years: Bland went to England in 1844, and while there, he secured a contract with the British Admiralty to supply 400 loads of Western Australian timber. He also lobbied for more Parkhurst lads to ease the labour shortage in Western Australia. A few months after his return from England, Bland lost his wife in childbirth. In September 1846, Bland was appointed acting Government Resident of Albany. In 1848, Bland sold Baladong Farm to the Parker family. On 6 February 1848, Governor Charles Fitzgerald appointed Bland as personal secretary and Clerk of the Council in place of Walkinshaw Cowan. From January 1849 until June 1850, he became Acting Colonial Secretary. Towards the end of 1848 he accompanied Fitzgerald on an expedition to Champion Bay, for the purpose of examining a lode of galena, discovered on the Murchison River by Augustus Charles Gregory. The party consisted of Fitzgerald, Bland, Gregory, three soldiers, and a servant. The discovery was verified, but on the return journey Fitzgerald was speared in the leg by the aboriginals, and Bland had a narrow escape.
Returning to England after a visit to the eastern colonies, he was in 1852 appointed resident director of the Port Phillip and Colonial Gold Mining Company, and arrived in Melbourne towards the end of that year. In 1856 he arranged with the proprietors of some land at Clunes to commence mining operations on some quartz lodes, and erected an extensive plant of machinery in conjunction with a party of miners, afterwards called the Clunes Quartz Mining Company. This mine has continued to be worked to the present time with varying results. The total gold, raised from 1857 to 1884 was, of the value of £2,029,078 13s. 7d., giving a profit of nearly half a million from an outlay under £20,000. He died in the colony of Victoria on 18 February 1894, and his estate in England was proved in London on 23 May 1895.
