Visit Sydney Australia

The first cross country road of any consequence was a track linking Sydney and Parramatta which became Parramatta Road. All travel by officials of the colony between the two settlements was made by boat up the Parramatta River and the early governors actually discouraged cross country travel between the two locations. But the building of a road was inevitable as the first land grants outside of Sydney itself were between Sydney and Parramatta and a road was needed to gain access to them.

The track was cut through the bush from Brickfields to Parramatta between 1789 and 1791. It appears to have been well patronsied, as in September 1805, tenders were called for the carrying out of repairs to Parramatta Road and the bridges over which it passed and for the erection of new bridges at the following locations: between Grove Farm and Major Johnstons; opposite Major Johnstons paling; corner of Whites Farm; at the foot of Prentices Hill; corner of Capt. Roleys paling; next to Hackings Creek; Hackings Creek; Blankets Ridge; Capt. MacArthurs Creek (Duck Creek); Becketts Bridge. Between present-day Flemington and Dogtrap Road (now Woodville Road), Parramatta Road travelled in a wide arc some 2 kilometres south of the present route, in order to avoid marshy areas around Haslams Creek and the Duck River. This was deviated in the 1920s to follow the present route.

Gt Western Highway today

The Great Western Highway is a 210 kilometres (130 mi) long state highway in New South Wales, Australia; from east to west, it links Sydney with Bathurst, in the state's Central West. From Parramatta to Penrith, a road along the 2013 alignment of the Great Western Highway (except at Prospect and Penrith) was constructed soon after completion of the Sydney-Parramatta Road around 1810. In 1813, acting on the instructions of NSW Governor Lachlan Macquarie, Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth led an 1813 expedition that travelled west from Emu Plains and, by staying to the ridges, were able to confirm the existence of a passable route directly west from Sydney across the Blue Mountains. The existence of other, less direct routes had been known as far back as 1797, but due to the need to prevent convicts from believing that escape from the hemmed-in Sydney region was possible, knowledge of the expeditions confirming the existence of routes across the Blue Mountains was suppressed.

After the successful official crossing, Macquarie despatched Surveyor George Evans to follow Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth's route and to push further west until he reached arable land. Evans travelled west until he reached the river known to the local Wiradjuri people as Wambool, today called the Fish River, and followed it downstream until he reached the site of Bathurst. Within a year, Macquarie commissioned William Cox to construct a road west from Emu Plains, following Evans' route, and this road was finished in 1815. Macquarie himself travelled across it soon after completion, established and named Bathurst, and named the road the Great Western Road.

Mitchells Pass Road, Lapstone (1831-33)

Lennox Bridge, Mitchell's Pass

The first road up the eastern slopes of the Blue Mountains, built by William Cox (1814-15), was in Governor Macquarie's words "pretty steep and sharp" and was found to be subject to serious washaways. This was superseded in 1823, Assistant Surveyor James McBrian identified an improved route on the approaches to Bathurst. It avoided watercourses, but its grade was very steep and this rendered it hazardous to travellers. This route turned north 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) south of O'Connell to run northwest to where Kelso is now located, then west across the Macquarie River into Bathurst. The section from south of O'Connell to Kelso is now part of the Bathurst-Oberon Road, and from Kelso into central Bathurst still remains as part of the Great Western Highway.

Early in 1832, Surveyor-General Major Thomas Mitchell surveyed and recommended the construction of a road along this route midway between the other two in preference to the Governor's suggestion of stationing a permanent repair gang on the Old Bathurst Road. Then known as the Lapstone Zig Zag Road, it was the zig zags on this route and their constant erosion by carts which had to negotiate them that led to Great Western Highway being eventually re-routed across the Knapsack Viaduct and along the old railway route to Blaxland in 1926.

Lennox Bridge, which takes the road over Lapstone Creek, is the oldest surviving as well as the first scientifically designed stone-arch bridge on the Australian mainland. It was completed in July 1833 to a design by colonial bridgemaker David Lennox. Its single arch was crafted from locally quarried sandstone by a team of 20 hand picked convicts from the roads gang. UBD Map 162 Ref B 16

Victoria Pass (1832)
After protracted arguments first with Governor Ralph Darling and then his successor Richard Bourke, and ignoring orders, Mitchell surveyed, designed and had built what is now known as Victoria Pass, where the highway drops from the Blue Mountains into the Hartley Valley. Midway down the road had to be supported on a causeway formed by massive stone buttressed walls, where a narrow ridge connects two large bluffs. This ridge had to be widened and raised to give the highway a route from the upper to the lower bluff. Mitchell cut terraces into the sides of these bluffs to form a passage for the road. It is a testimony of Mitchell s vision and engineering skill that this route, almost unchanged, and using his 1832 stonework, is still in use. In 1912 Victoria Pass was superseded by Berghofers Pass, which followed a similar route to Victoria Pass, but below it. It was more winding and thus longer, thereby affording a less steep climb. However rapid improvements in motor vehicle performance meant that in 1920 Victoria Pass was rebuilt to become the main route again.


Road deck of the Knapsack viaduct, which was closed to vehicular traffic in 1993. The bridge was built in 1867 to carry the Great Western Railway line over Knapsack Gully. Rail traffic over the bridge ceased in 1913 when the Lapstone bypass was opened.

Over the years, sections of the road have been rerouted to ease gradients as well as towns along the way, some which are listed here. A number of deviations were built in 1929. Victoria Pass was upgraded in 1932 to give a constant width of 8.5 m, with a minor deviation built at the foot of the pass. From the late 1960s to the early 1970s the highway was almost entirely realigned and constructed to three lanes, being deviated as necessary, between Kirkconnell and Glanmire. Ironically this included reinstatement of most of the parts of Major Mitchell's 1830 alignment which had been deviated in 1929 to ease gradients. In June 1993 the highway route was severed at Emu Plains with the closure to road traffic of the Knapsack Gully Viaduct. This occurred in conjunction with the westward extension of the M4 motorway from its terminus since 1971 at Russell Street, Emu Plains.

The opening up of farming land beyond Parramatta in the 1790s necessitated the building of more roads to service the settlers moving into these new areas. Parramatta soon became the overnight stopping place for travellers passing on to the outlying districts. The road from Parramatta to Windsor via Toongabbie, known today as the Old Windsor Road, was built in 1794, followed shortly after by a road to new settlements at Castle Hill. Beyond Windsor were the fertile regions of the Hawkesbury, which were settled by farmers even before the road was completed.

The original section of Old Windsor Road between Caddies Creek and Meurants Lane is one of the first roads in the district, having been marked out in 1792. This was the second main road built for the colony of Sydney to connect Parramatta and Windsor a distance of 23 miles and 16 chains (37.33 km). The northern section of Windsor Road and Old Windsor Road used to be continuous until 1812 when the new Windsor Road from Kellyville to Northmead was completed. As a result, the southern section of the original Windsor Road was renamed Old Windsor Road, and the northern section and the new Windsor Road become continuous, with Old Windsor Road meeting Windsor Road at a T-junction. It provided access between Sydney, Parramatta and Windsor. In fact a significant length of the road north and south of the intersection with Sunnyholt Road closely follows the original horizontal and vertical alignment with substantial original vegetation remaining on both verges. UBD Map 149 Ref F 5

In colonial Sydney, the main route to the southern headland was South Head Road, which led to the signal station following the route of modern day Old South Head Road and Oxford Street. It was the first of many roads built by Gov. Macquarie to be financed by public subscription. The Governor contended that, as local residents would be the only beneficiaries from the construction of good roads in their districts, they should be preparedvto assist in the cost of their implementation. Completion of the road saw further land grants in the area: Bondi in 1810; Rose Bay in 1812; Double Bay in 1821. These grants led to the creation of New South Head Road which took a shorter route, but its construction was not commenced until 1831 and completed some four years later.



A marker post located near the Harbour foreshore in Robertsons Park at Watsons Bay records the construction of the first major road through Sydney's east which was also the first to be financed by subscription in suburban Sydney. The post reads, "This road, made by subscription, was completed in 10 weeks from 25th March, 1814 by 21 soldiers of His Majesty's 73rd Regiment." The marker post was erected by Gov. Macquarie and honours the construction work of Macquarie s own regiment. The road was paid for by residents who lived between Sydney and the tiny fishing settlement that had sprung up at Watsons Bay in the form of a subscription negotiated with them by Macquarie. The agreement allowed for pedestrians to travel free, a horseman paid three pence and the cost to vehicular traffic would be in accordance to its quality . The road replaced a rough track cut through the bush by the colonial surgeon John Harris in 1803. Early records indicate that the section of road between Hyde Park and Centennial Park known today as Oxford Street followed an Aboriginal track between the two locations. UBD Map 218 Ref A 14

Historic marker in Liverpool Road, Croydon. It was erected when the road was built in 1814.

Having surveyed the site of the town of Liverpool in the year previous, Macquarie began work on a road to the new town in April 1813. The contract for the building of the Liverpool Road (Hume Highway) was given to William Roberts, an illiterate ex-convict who had impressed Macquarie when supervising road restoration works on George and Bridge Streets. Liverpool Road was 24 kilometres in length and followed a number of Aboriginal paths. It required the building of 27 bridges along the way and was opened to traffic on 22 February 1814. So happy was Macquarie with Roberts work, he was employed to extend the Sydney to Parramatta road to Windsor (completed April 1814), to build a road from Liverpool to Parramatta (Woodville Road) as well as the Airds, Bringelly, Minto and Cowpasture Roads and their associated 28 bridges.

The opening up of the Liverpool and Macarthur regions and the area west of Parramatta to farming led to the creation of a network of tracks and roads through these regions which branched off the Parramatta and Liverpool Roads, the two main thoroughfares through the region. Convict road chain gangs became part of the scenery, with over 20 such parties setting out each day from their base at Toongabbie to build the roads which now criss cross these areas. One such road was Dog Trap Road, a track cut through the bush from Parramatta to Liverpool, which is now known as Woodville Road. As its name suggests, it was a real pioneer track and anyone venturing along it had to put up with everything from wild dogs to bushrangers and hermit bush-dwelling timber getters.

The areas of Strathfield and Lidcome on the Parramatta Road, Ashfield and Belfield on the Liverpool Road and Lansvale and Fairfield on the Dog Trap Road became the most popular haunts of bushrangers and remained that way until the 1850s when the lure of gold attracted Sydney's strays away from the city to the diggings in the Bathurst region.


The 'Meccano Set', Lansdowne

The 'Meccano Set' at the intersection of Woodville Road, Henry Lawson Drive and the Hume Highway, was erected in 1962 and although the well-known structure is not heritage listed, it is considered a place of interest  and a Western Sydney icon. At the time, the structure was considered to be a major project to assist traffic management by installing overhead directional signs and traffic lights because of the high traffic volumes at the intersection.

Frere's Crossing, Kentlyn

Few of today's motorists who use Princes Highway to reach the Illawarra region via Tom Ugly's Bridge, Sutherland, Heathcote and Waterfall know that this road follows what is in fact the third of three routes that were at one time or another known as the Illawarra Road. Before all of these routes were established, however, access by land to the Illawarra had to be via Parramatta Road to Parramatta Junction (Granville), then south along Dog Trap Road (Woodville Road) to Liverpool. From Liverpool the traveller took the Campbelltown Road and then the Appin Road south to Wollongong.

The Old Coach Road

The original and now forgotten Illawarra Road from Liverpool to Darkes Forest and the Illawarra appears to have been built in the early 1800s as the major thoroughfare south to the Illawarra from Liverpool, though determining its exact age is difficult. An 1810 map indicates Macquarie's district of Airds, the eastern boundary of which coincides with the route of Greenhills Road from Liverpool. Note: Greenhills is the early name for Windsor, and this a remnant of the original northern road linking Windsor and the Illawarra via Liverpool. This same map indicates a road progressing onwards from the Airds boundary line which is marked The Road to Five Islands - the earlier name for the Illawarra District. It is therefore likely that this route was used to travel to the then Five Islands and that they may have been following an original Aboriginal migration route. If so, this road would be one of the earliest Australian roads surviving in a relatively original setting.

Known as the Old Coach Road, it was the longest of the three Illawarra Roads but had far less hills than the others. According to early records, convicts constructed the Old Coach Road in 1850.

Today's Heathcote Road follows the line of this road. Macarthur Drive to the south of Holsworthy railway station and then Old Illawarra Road thereafter continue to follow its line through the middle of the Holsworthy Military Area (UBD Map 289 Ref F 10). Presumably it joined with the earlier road (Greenhills Road?) and continued south to Darkes Forest. At some stage it would have crossed the Georges River Road which ran south from Liverpool Road (Hume Highway) to Campbelltown.

A coach station (probably Cobb & Co) was established on the today s Heathcote Road at Giles Junction, presumably in the 1860s. The wells, cobbled roads and horse yards for this station still survive. The former Denmark Hotel on Princes Highway, Bulli has a watch tower which was used as a lookout on coach days when a member of the household would "scan the mountain track for the coming of the Cobb and Co Coach." This indicated it was probably the next staging post on the route after the Giles Junction Station.

The Old Coach Road remained in use until 1915 when the Holsworthy Military Area was created and became a restricted area. The present day Heathcote Road, which skirts the perimeter of the Military Area, was built to take traffic that would otherwise have used the Old Coach Road. After the establishment of the Lugarno and Blakehurst ferry services across the Georges River and the development of what became Princes Highway, the Old Coach Road handled mainly traffic between Liverpool and Parramatta and the Illawarra, Sydney traffic opting for the shorter routes.


Remnant of the Old Illawarra Road, Bardens Ridge

The Old Illawarra Road

During the 1830s and 40s, the government under Surveyor General Sir Thomas Mitchell's guidance embarked on a major campaign of exploration and development across the state of NSW. The building of a new, shorter route between Sydney and the Illawarra was part of this development programme. Laid out between 1843 and 1845, it started at Cooks River (Tempe) and passed through the estate of ex-convict, builder and timber getter, Michael Gannon, and followed an Aboriginal pathway to the Georges River. This section of road was called Gannon's Forest Road and is known to day by the shortened version of its name, Forest Road. Mitchell established a punt service which took his Illawarra Road across the Georges River (UBD Map 312 Ref D 1). Beyond the crossing, it wound its way up the hillside of Illawong (Old Ferry Road) where it continued south (Old Illawarra Road) through Menai, Bardens Ridge, Woronora Ford, Heathcote and on to the Illawarra. Sir Thomas Mitchell's Old Illawarra Road joined the old coach road at present day Lucas Heights (UBD Map 311 Ref H 10).

For various reasons Mitchell's Illawarra Road was never used to any great extent. After the establishment of the Tom Ugly's Point ferry in 1864 it fell altogether into disuse as a route of approach to the South Coast. It joins the present main road about a kilometre on the Sydney side of Heathcote railway station, and for many years a finger board at the intersection bore the inscription "Old Illawarra Road, Woronora River, 2 Miles."


Tom Uglys Point punt

The New Illawarra Road (Princes Highway)

The third road to the Illawarra, known today as Princes Highway, was cut across the hillside of Sylvania from Horse Rock Point following the establishment of a ferry service across the Georges River at Blakehurst in 1864. The subsequent development of the village of Sylvania increased local traffic and brought significant improvements in the road s condition. This led to the Blakehurst route taking the bulk of traffic south to Wollongong. The Tom Uglys Point ferry service soon began to struggle to keep traffic flowing efficiently. To ease congestion the government replaced the ferry with its own more reliable punt service in 1883. This service was replaced in 1929 by the Georges River Bridge which forged a permanent link between Horse Rock Point, Sylvania and Tom Ugly s Point, Blakehurst. Tom Ugly s Bridge, built alongside the original bridge over the river in the 1980s, shares the traffic load today. The Lugarno punt continued to operate until the late 1970s when the recently opened bridge at Alfords Point linking Bankstown to Menai made it obsolete.


Old Ford Road

Old Ford Road, Kentlyn (c1891)

At the end of Georges River Road are the relics of one of the oldest roads in the area and one of three historical routes crossing the upper reaches of the Georges River. The road, which was constructed in the 1890s as part of an employment programme, brought access to the settlements of Eckersley and Holsworthy from Campbelltown and Minto. The settlements on the eastern side of the Georges River were established in 1884 and were the site of numerous vineyards and orchards until 1913 when the land was resumed for the Holsworthy field firing range. The remnants of the settlement are today within the Holsworthy Military Area.

The road was surveyed in 1886 and constructed between 1889 and 1891 at a cost of £1,200. Many of the cuttings, box culverts, sandstone dish drains and buttresses built to support the road as it winds its way through a picturesque wooden valley still exist though the causeway/bridge across the river has long gone. Drill hooks are evident in the rock face where quarrying and blasting took place. An illegal whiskey still operated near the ford across the river. The road continues up the hillside on the eastern side of the Georges River though public access to this section of road is denied as it is within the Holsworthy Military Area.

What is today termed the Old Ford Road is part of the original Georges River Road (the section which passes through Holsworthy Army Reserve was later named National Park Road), parts of which still exist. It began near the corner of Liverpool Road (Hume Highway) and Henry Lawson Drive, Milperra and passed in a south westerly direction through the middle of what is now the Holsworthy Military Area to a ford at the junction of Peter Meadows Creek and the Georges River. The section of the road beyond the ford has retained its original name, becoming Broughton Street when it reaches Campbelltown.

A more substantial ford across the Georges River was later built at Frere's Crossing to provide access for a number of families living in that part of the settlement. This deviation quickly replaced the original section of road now contained in the Georges River Nature Reserve. Frere s Crossing got its name from George Pierre Frere, a Frenchman who took up land at Eckersley between the Georges River and Punchbowl Creek. Here he built a house and established a vineyard that later supplied his wine cellar in Sydney. The remains of George Frere s two houses and wine vats at Eckersley still exist. UBD Map 149 Ref F 5

Looking north along Pennant Hills Road from Church Street (now Marsden Road), Mobbs Hill, Carlingford c.1912

Pennant Hills Road begins in the northern suburb of Wahroonga at Pearce's Corner, the intersection with the Pacific Highway, north-west of the Sydney CBD, and south-east of Hornsby. The Pacific Motorway (F3) ends a few hundred metres south of Pearce's Corner at an intersection with Pennant Hills Road. From here, the road passes through the Hornsby Shire suburbs of Normanhurst, Thornleigh and Pennant Hills. In Thornleigh there is a major intersection with The Comenarra Parkway, an arterial road which begins as Yanko Road in West Pymble. In the evening this intersection can get quite busy, and is often characterised by bumper to bumper traffic on the Comenarra Parkway, as motorists attempt to turn either left or right onto Pennant Hills Road. The Parkway has become somewhat of a through route from the North Shore suburbs as well as the City, with some motorists choosing to avoid Epping Road and The M2 Motorway and travel west through the Parkway.

Pennant Hills Road began its life in 1820 as a bullock track used by timbermen. It was surveyed by government surveyor James Meehan in order to provide a route from Ermington Wharf to the Pennant Hills sawmill established by Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1816. Subsequently it joined the Lane Cove Road (now the Pacific Highway) further north and was sometimes considered the same road. It has been allocated several route numbers over the years.

Pacific Highway, Roseville

This major road north began as a service road through the forests of St Leonards to the logging camps around the Lane Cove River. Commencing on the Milsons Point peninsula, the site of the first white settlement on the north shore, it travelled north to Crows Nest (originally the homestead of pioneer settler Wollstonecraft) and then north-west along the ridge between the Lane Cove River and Middle Harbour. So as to avoid the steep grades of the valleys in the area, the road followed the highest peaks from each area to the next, which explains its twisting, winding path. It is believed these roads followed Aboriginal tracks, though the lack of information in early records leave this supposition unconfirmed.

Roads such as Burns Bay Road, Epping Road, Millwood Avenue, Fullers Road, Ryde Road, Longueville Road, Sailors Bay Road, and Cammeray Road were originally bullock tracks leading down from the main road at the top of the ridge to the farms and logging settlements in the valleys. Again, they probably followed Aboriginal tracks, though this cannot be confirmed. Timber was hauled up their steep inclines by bullocks to the main roads which followed the line of ridges down to the bays on the Lower North Shore. Mills on the Lane Cove River cut the timber which was then shipped to Sydney.

Initially, the primary mode of transport of the coastal areas between Sydney and Brisbane was by boat. From the roads radiating out from the port towns, the intervening hills were eventually crossed to create a continuous route along the coast, but this did not occur until the first decade of the 20th century. By contrast a continuous inland route from Newcastle to Brisbane via the tablelands had been in existence since the 1840s. A direct coastal route between Sydney and Newcastle was not completed until 1930, and completion of the sealing of the Pacific Highway did not occur until 1958 (at Koorainghat, south of Taree).

The main thoroughfare through the Sydney suburb of Five Dock is called the Great North Road. It heads north from Parramatta Road for a short distance before abruptly stopping at the Parramatta River. To today s travellers, it is a great road to nowhere, but to the colonists of the 1830s it was the lifeline to the Hawkesbury and Hunter Valley regions which were being opened up to white settlement at that time.

Extending north from Sydney to the Hunter Valley, the 240 km Great North Road was built between 1826 and 1836 by re-offending convicts stationed at Newcastle. In the early 1820s settlers began taking up land in the fertile Hunter Valley. They petitioned for a decent road and in 1825 Assistant Surveyor Heneage Finch was sent to survey a suitable route. By following a number of Aboriginal tracks along the ridge-tops he achieved success. Gov. Ralph Darling assigned convict road gangs to start building the road and it was progressively brought into use. As the road passed along remote and desolate ridges where there was little food or water for travelling stock, the isolated sections of it were unpopular and travellers quickly found it preferable to use alternative routes. The Glenorie to Maroota section was abandoned shortly after its completion in favour of a more hospitable route through Pitt Town. It returned to use after motor vehicles were introduced. The Great North Road originally branched from Windsor Road at Baulkham Hills along what is now called Old Northern Road to Wisemans Ferry.

In 1829 Surveyor General Thomas Mitchell developed a shorter route which branched north from the Parramatta Road at Five Dock. A ferry crossed the Parramatta River from Abbotsford to Bedlam Point at Gladesville where part of the convict-built ferry landing remains. The original road then followed the present line of Victoria Road to St Annes church at Ryde, and then roughly followed the line of Blaxland Road, the North Road, Corunna Rd, Vimiera Rd, Essex St and Old Beecroft Road to eventually become New Line Road at Pennant Hills where it re-joins the original line of road from Castle Hill at Dural.

In 1832, steamships began servicing the Hawkesbury and fifty years later, railways entered the area, leading to the road falling into further disuse and a poor state of repair. Most of this road at the Hawkesbury end remains today, offering an alternative, slower paced scenic route between Sydney and the Hunter and access to some of 19th century Australia's greatest engineering feats created by hundreds of convicts - many working in leg-irons. These include stone retaining walls, wharves, culverts, bridges and buttresses in Sydney suburbs like Epping and Gladesville, at Wisemans Ferry, Wollombi, Bucketty and Broke, and on walks in Dharug and Yengo National Parks. 

Much of this quality construction was carried out under the supervision of Assistant Surveyor Percy Simpson who was based at Wisemans Ferry between 1828 and 1832, and Heneage Finch, who was in charge of construction around Bucketty and Laguna in 1830-31. Simpson was an engineer who had sound knowledge of road construction techniques being developed in Europe and was given the most difficult sections to build. Much of the high quality work created by convicts under his command remains intact today - a tribute to his ability to lead an unskilled and unwilling labour force and get the best out of them. Up to 700 convicts worked on the road at any one time - clearing timber, digging drains, blasting and shaping stone, and shifting it into position. Some of the blocks weighed up to 660 kg. Originally 33 bridges were built, their timber decks often supported by elaborate stone foundations. The few which remain are the oldest bridges on mainland Australia. Construction required highly skilled stonemasonry as stone walls were often needed to support the road where it climbed steep hillsides and crossed gullies and watercourses. One wall on Devines Hill just north of Wisemans Ferry reaches almost 10 metres, and is supported by 5 massive buttresses.

Abbotsford

The only section of the Great North Road to retain its original name heads north from Parramatta Road, Five Dock for a short distance before abruptly stopping at the Parramatta River. No evidence of the original roadway remains today except the line it takes which follows the original and very first section built in 1829.


Convict rock carving, Bedlam Point

Gladesville

Bedlam Point was chosen as the place where The Great North Road would cross the Parramatta River. A punt service which took travellers across the river at Bedlam Point was established in 1832. Remains of the convict built landing and the cutting through which the road climbed the river bank are still visible at the end of Punt Road along with grooves and initials cut into the rock by the convict road gang which built it. Nearby in Banjo Paterson Park is Rockend cottage. Once thought to have been the puntman s cottage or an inn, it appears to have been built in the 1850s after the land around Looking Glass Bay was subdivided. In 1866 it was bought by the grandmother of poet Andrew Barton (Banjo) Paterson. UBD Map 214 Ref D 14


Remains of the convict built causeway across Devlins Creek, Epping

Epping

A convict built causeway across Devlins Creek is visible at Epping on land between Beecroft Road and the railway underneath the bus flyover of the M2 Tollway. UBD Map 251 Ref B 12

Cherrybrook/Dural

The small masonry abutments of Pyes Creek Bridge (circa 1830) are in a reserve in Woodlark Place, Castle Hill (UBD Map 151 Ref M 11). Convict hewn rock faces and stone gutters remain on the original line of New Line Road adjacent to Daintree Place, Dural. UBD Map 151 Ref L 3


Convict built culvert, Devines's Hill section

Wiseman's Ferry area

There are still some places where well-preserved sections of the original road can be seen on what is known today as the Convict Trail. These include: a 43 km section immediately north of Wisemans Ferry which goes through very steep and rugged country. Devines Hill, beginning 500m west of the Wisemans Ferry landing on the northern side of the Hawkesbury River, contains fine examples of high walling with massive buttresses, drainage systems and quarries. These include Clares Bridge, near Ten Mile Hollow; the Circuit Flat Bridge, near Mt Manning; the descent into Wisemans Ferry from the south; the Bucketty Wall, Mt McQuoid, at the intersection of George Downes Drive and the St Albans road; Ramsays Leap and the Murrays Run Culvert between Bucketty and Laguna.

New South Head Road, Rose Bay, 1908

In colonial Sydney, the main route to the southern headland was South Head Road, which led to the signal station following the route of modern day Old South Head Road and Oxford Street. In 1831, construction began on New South Head Road. The road followed the route of the Aboriginal foot track Maroo, which contoured between south head and Sydney. Before construction began on New South Head Road, only Aborigines and men stationed at the South Head Lookout Post used the track.

For the first few years of construction progress was slow and only parts of the road began to develop, as work was treacherous with the route offering a range of harsh environments such as the low lying swamplands of Rushcutters Bay, Double Bay and Rose Bay, to the steep cliff faces of Vaucluse and Watsons Bay; in addition, the bush lands surrounding the Maroo Track were reportedly infested with snakes. However, by 1834 efforts had increased, and the road began to take shape. Where the road crosses Rushcutters Creek, a succession of bridges were built, starting with a timber bridge around 1834, followed by a stone bridge erected between 1837 and 1839. Bentley s Bridge, as it came to be known, was built by convicts under supervision of Lieutenant ACD Bentley. By the late 1830s, the road was able to cater for carts and stretched from Rushcutters Bay to Vaucluse, finally providing Sydneysiders a coastal thoroughfare along the southern banks of the harbour.

The locality of Berowra Waters contains important remains of an early private road built around 1845 by George Peat, a major Hawkesbury entrepreneur, as part of the access system to his grazing and orcharding properties on either side of the river. Remnants of the original road include about 500 metres of wall along the water's edge to support the roadway. The wall is up to 7 courses of roughly shaped stone. The road was used until the 1930s.

Pittwater Road runs from Manly to Church Point, on the southern shore of Pittwater. North of Mona Vale, Pittwater Road heads north-west, as a narrow, winding, two-lane road, to the shore of Pittwater at Bayview and Church Point. The main road to the remaining northern beach suburbs, up to Palm Beach, is Barrenjoey Road, which appears to be a continuation of Pittwater Road at Mona Vale. Being the largest single arterial road in the area, it is often referred to simply as "the main road".

In colonial times, Pittwater was isolated and reached mainly by ship to Barrenjoey and after 1880 to Newport. The earliest land explorations followed Aboriginal tracks. Over the years a rough bush road was established from Manly, along the coast to Narrabeen, which became Pittwater Road. As the second road heading from the Manly area to Pittwater or Broken Bay, the new Pittwater Road departed from Manly township rather than following Jenkins' Road, the original Old Pittwater Road from North Harbour to Balgowlah via Manly Vale towards Brookvale.

By the early 1880s a bridge spanned the ford at Narrabeen. Travellers by coach paused at the Rock Lily Hotel in Mona Vale (which opened in 1886), and then continued northwest to Bayview and Church Point, or northeast for Newport and Barrenjoey. By 1913 trams replaced coaches to Narrabeen. From there passengers could take a bus north. After The Spit (1925), Roseville (1925) and Sydney Harbour (1932) Bridges were opened, the Pittwater peninsula was more easily reached. Cars opened up travel. People built holiday shacks, often only occupied for a few weeks a year.

Historic records indicate a foot track ran from North Sydney to Middle Head in the 1840s, however it was most likely a path that had been followed by the indigenous population for generations before white settlement. Military Road, which is thought to roughly follows that path, was beaten through the bush from North Sydney to Bradleys Head in the early 1870s. It was created by soldiers and local residents to give access to the new Bradleys Head military installations which consisted of three new gun pits, a powder magazine and later a stone gallery with embrasures for riflemen. These were being constructed in response to fears of an impending attack by Russia, an attack which never eventuated. Stumps along the route were dug out by locals who were paid ten shillings for each stump removed. It was along the path they cleared that the three guns for the fort were rolled through the bush from a jetty at Neutral Bay where they had been offloaded from a ship. The township of Mosman began to develop soon after. UBD Map 216 Ref N 6

Mosman has been the site of important maritime and defence installations for Sydney since 1801, especially when Sydney's Harbour defences were expanded with the construction of Middle Head Fort, Georges Head Battery and Bradleys Head Fortification Complex. In 1871 the Beehive Casemate was constructed into the cliff side on Obelisk Bay.

The cobblestoned roadway near the top of the steps above Camp Cove, Watsons Bay is a remnant of the original road constructed in 1871 along which military hardware was transported to the various installation points on South Head between 1873 and World War II. The roadway linked Camp Cove to the Inner Battery of the South Head fortifications and a new Outer Battery erected in 1873 beyond the Hornby light and facing the ocean. The Inner Battery was built in 1873 and consisted of a series of gunpits and lookout points on the headland from Green Point and Lady Bay. Five guns were mounted here and aimed across Watsons Bay. In 1914, the guns were briefly mobilised, but never fired in anger. During the second world war, a series of tunnels were built linking HMAS Watson to a wharf used to offload military supplies at Camp Cove.
UBD Map 217 Ref Q 12