Oh! The Poetic & Dreamy Food Convict Trail Fly Like Never Before

Imagine yourself arriving in Sydney
back in the 1820s as a middle class free
settler with capital to invest in farmland.
Most of the good land around Sydney
and out to the west has been taken
up already and there is not much left
around.
“Using only hand tools and
assisted by a few bullocks,
toiling away in summer and
winter with little protection
from the elements and
living on the monotonous
rations...”
Up north, a penal settlement in Newcastle
is moved to Port Macquarie and the area
is no longer off-limits. Suddenly there is
plenty of virgin land up for grabs. But
how to get there? The only practical way
is by sea, fighting the southerly current
under sail. Not appealing, if you have
just spent six months being sea-sick on
the way out from England.
Between Sydney and the Hunter River
is a maze of fearsome sandstone
mountains with deep gorges and razorback
ridges which suddenly end in
towering bluffs. The area is criss-crossed
with Aboriginal tracks but only the
makers know where these go. Desperate
settlers are swimming their stock over
the Hawkesbury River and making their
way along the rugged creeks, clearing
the swampy flats and being washed
away in the periodical floods. There is
no proper road through. This is the story
of the building of the Great North Road,
supposedly the answer to the problem
of access to the Hunter Valley.
Ebenezer Church
Australia’s oldest existing church.
Drop by for devonshire teas, books, craft and souvenirs.
Besides individual tourists, families and small groups of
friends, Ebenezer Church caters for car clubs and coach
groups.
‘We needn’t have worried about asking our guests
to travel so far – all the comments from them
describe what a magical place Ebenezer is, and
what a highlight afternoon tea was!’
Using only hand tools and assisted by
a few bullocks, toiling away in summer
and winter with little protection from
the elements and living on monotonous
rations of meat, flour and corn meal
food, several thousand convicts were
employed to build the road over a period
of nearly ten years. Their lives were hard
but the road is a monument to their
endurance and to the abilities which
many showed in the work they did. This
and other roads enabled the whole area
between Sydney and Newcastle to be
opened up. The young settlement of
Sydney began to develop into the nation
that is Australia today.
Fortunately, some of the decline in its
use protected it from final destruction
and the subsequent decisions on
preservation of the road have led to
investigations which are fascinating in a
wide variety of aspects.
“The Government and its
officials could see the need
for the road and had the
vision of a road as good as
any in England.”
The spread of the population to the
north of Sydney and particularly to
the district around the Hunter River
produced the desire to have a good road
communication system to the Hunter
region. The use of sailing ships up the
coast had been the only way and that
was fraught with problems caused
by weather conditions and the strong
southerly flowing current. Wrecks were
a common occurrence.
The Government and its officials could
see the need for the road and had
the vision of a road as good as any in
England. A grand vision was born, urged
on by Sir Thomas Mitchell, the Surveyor
General. He was criticised roundly by
many for his attempt at making this
road a monument to his own glory.
Background to the grand vision will
develop as each section sets out to show.
“The spread of the population to the
north of Sydney and particularly to
the district around the Hunter River
produced the desire to have a good road
system...”
The Route which the road should take
had many alternatives. Various people
had developed their own line for road
communication. The factors which they
advanced often had personal ulterior
motives but some factors which could
have been important appeared to be
ignored such as the availability of grass,
water and reasonable gradients in the
road itself. The characters of people
involved and the suggestions they put
forward are explored wherever possible.
Finally we are confronted with the
decline in maintenance of the road
and the deviation from the Great North
Road which was taken by those who
saw the difficult sections of the road
as unacceptable. It was the impact
of the introduction of steamships,
running between Sydney and Newcastle,
that tolled the seeming death knell
for this wonderful piece of road with
its marvellous stonework, drains and
road surface made to the then new
technologies developed in England by
Telford and Macadam.
Taken from http://www.convicttrail.org
where the full story can be accessed.
Ebenezer Church
established in 1809 and is
Australia’s oldest existing church
Visit Ebenezer Church, its colonial graveyard
and the nearby Schoolmaster’s House.
Open daily for devonshire teas, books,
craft, jams and souvenirs.
10.00am to 3.00pm
www.ebenezerchurch.org.au
95 Coromandel Road,
Ebenezer, 2756
Phone
02 4579 9350
www.hhart.com.au
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