Simpsons Track

View over Yarramalong Valley; Dooralong Valley; Looking towards Bumble Hill; The track passed swamp areas

The Great North Road is a 240km convict built

masterpiece constructed between 1826 and 1836

to provide an overland route from Sydney to

Newcastle and the Hunter Valley. Much of the

original convict built road remains in use today,

although a lot of the original surface is well

buried beneath bitumen.

Convict built remains, such as stone retaining

walls, pick dressed cuttings, culverts, bridges and

stone cut drains, can be seen when driving along

the road, or when walking in Dharug

and Yengo National Parks.

Simpsons Track is an unofficial branch of the Great North Road, despite a number of people once lobbying for it to be the official route of the Road. The lobbyists claimed that a road along Simpsons Track would have been easier to build and offered more water and stock feed. It was rejected because it did not offer such a direct route for the well to do settlers in the Upper Hunter. Simpsons Track, which we believe mostly followed Aboriginal tracks, was the first land link with Sydney, Newcastle and the Hunter Valley for the district that was to become the Wyong, Lake Macquarie and Gosford council areas. Previous European contact was by water. In a time when most people travelled on foot or on horseback, this surveyed route became used by people travelling to and through what we now call the Central Coast. Simpsons Track opened the area to settlers coming by land. The route was marked for colonists by a convict, John MacDonald, per Asia 1. In 1828 he accompanied the surveyor Jonathan Warner, who noted the Wyong River as the Whyon. The route was called “Simpsons Track” because Thomas Simpson’s land was the first large landholding it passed. His land lay at the head of navigation on Dora Creek, and he had promoted the track as an alternative route for the Great North Road. Showing that the original inhabitants knew the best routes through the terrain, parts of the route of Simpsons Track have become today’s roads,

with the original track lying under or beside them. Other parts are now on private land. Where the track passes through forests there are some archaeological remains, both Aboriginal and European, indicating the route. These items can be found by determined bushwalkers with trained eyes, and include grinding gloves, blazed trees, handholds, etc. It is believed that the descent from Ten Mile Hollow to Mangrove Creek (the only built section of the track) was constructed at the same time as the Great North Road. There are records of one Road Gang working at the Mangrove for a time. In 1896 this became the gazetted road to Gosford, and there is evidence of further road work at different periods. Bumble Hill, and the road so named, were called after an Aborigine who lived there. The lower part of the current road was diverted in 1917 to make an easier grade. James Freeman (of Freemans Drive and Freemans Waterhole) used Simpsons Track in the 1860s to drove stock between Wyee and Maitland. The original Dora Creek crossing is beside the current Freemans Drive bridge over that creek. Today, travellers using Mandalong Road, or passing north from Freemans Waterhole through Heatons Gap to Mt Vincent, should be aware that people have travelled this route since the Dreamtime.

Acknowledgements: Thanks to: George L. Elliott , for drawing the map for this brochure. Lesley and Alan Wickham, whose fieldwork with Jonathan Warner’s 1828 survey notes re-discovered the route of Simpsons track. Barbara Appleton for editing the text Photographs and text by Elizabeth A Roberts: Brochure Template

Nicole Leary & Brook Partridge

SSSSimpsons Track

St Barnabas, Yarramalong; Abandoned house Mulbring; The track through state forests; Museum Coorangbong

Remember: do not trespass on

private property. Many of the relics

noted in this guide are used for

traffic. You should only view them

from safe locations.

For extra information purchase an

“Explore the Convict Trail” booklet

or visit the Convict Trail Website

www.convicttrail.org.

New members welcome. Write to

the CTP, PO BOX 96 Wahroonga

NSW 2076.

THE CONVICT TRAIL

The Convict Trail is the name for The Great

North Road, the surrounding land, and

historic buildings. The Convict Trail Project Inc.

(CTP) is a community based organisation with

objectives of the care, protection and promotion

of the Great North Road.

To achieve its objectives the CTP works with

many partners, including the NSW Heritage

Office, councils, Dept. of Corrective Services,

NPWS, RTA & local tourism associations.

The Project brings together community groups,

individual members, tourism groups, State

Government agencies and local councils

including Gosford, Wyong and Cessnock

councils. For more information, including

“conservation partners” visit the CTP website.

This brochure is part of a series of area specific

electronic brochures available from

the Convict Trail website. The content of this

brochure has been compiled in good faith but is

published without responsibility in law or

otherwise for its accuracy and without any

assumption of duty of care by the Convict

Trail Project.

The brochure is designed to allow you to

appreciate the history of the road you are

driving on.