The Need for a Road North

By 1825, there were already lots of settlers in the Hunter Valley and they complained that it was very difficult for them to bring farm animals and goods to their properties. The only way was by sea, and this was slow, difficult and expensive. There was already a road of sorts little more than a blazed track,the Bulga Road, opened in 1823, but it ran far to the west along the Wollemi Range and it was very long, difficult and rough. Settlers wanted a more direct and easy route to travel overland to and from Sydney. In 1826, the settlers sent petitions to the Governor, asking him to have a road built to the Hunter Valley. The Governor advised them that it was being attended to. Surveyor General, Sir Thomas Mitchell explained the need in his book about his explorations of Australia.

To come by sea before 1832 meant travelling in a sailing boat. If the wind was in the wrong direction or blowing too hard or not enough, it was a difficult and often dangerous voyage. To make things worse, there is a strong current running southwards along the coast, so as hard as they sailed northwards, it tried to push them back again. Sometimes it took many days to make the short trip which a modern sailing boat can do easily in a day. If the sea was very rough, then lives and property were often lost in shipwrecks along the rocky reefs of the coast. After 1831, the first steamers began to travel along the coast, making the voyage safer and quicker, because they were no longer governed by the wind direction and the strong current.

A Petition or Memorial was sent by a group of influential people in the Hunter River region, seeking a road north. They received a reply from The Colonial Secretary, Alex McLeay. The memorial text and the reply are in the document listed in the menu headings for this section.

A short time later, the Hunter Settlers wrote again, fearing that the road was being built on such a grand scale that it might take too long to finish. [NSW Archives Office, Box No 4/2258; NSW Archives Office, Reel 1040 p222] That part of the story can be found in the main menu under the "Petitions and Replies". Because the position of Governor changed from time to time, for a variety of reasons, and so did the position of Surveyor General, continuity of purpose was not always apparent.

It is interesting to see what Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell, Surveyor General, wrote in his book, Three Journeys Into the Interior Of Eastern Australia, page 8. He had taken over the position from John Oxley who had died suddenly in 1827:

The necessity for a permanent land communication between the seat of government and the northern part of the colony was obvious, and indeed, a road in that direction had been the subject of petitions from the settlers to Sir Thomas Brisbane, under whose auspices the track across the mountain beyond the Hawkesbury was first discovered and surveyed by Mr Finch. This track, with some slight alterations, was found, on a more general survey, to be the most favourable line for a cart-road in that direction that the country afforded, and it had been opened but a short time, when I thus proceeded along it, accompanied by Mr Simpson, the assistant surveyor, who, under my directions, had accomplished the work. [Mitchell Library, 981/2 D1-2]

The Surveyor General had his own ideas about the road north and it was classed as A Grand Vision.