Devine's Hill - Great North Road
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Riblit
S 33° 22.505 E 150° 59.086
56H E 312530 N 6305316
The Great North Road was built, by convict labour often working in irons, between 1826 and 1836 to connect Sydney with Newcastle and the Upper Hunter Valley in NSW Australia.
Waymark Code: WMA0DB
Location: New South Wales, Australia
Date Posted: 10/25/2010
Views: 25
The first route uphill from the Hawkesbury River was surveyed by Heneage Finch in 1825. Construction of Finch's Line began in 1828 but work was abandoned after the Surveyor General, Thomas Mitchell, selected the route up Devine's Hill - a steep 2 kilometre ascent.
Over 550 convicts-some in irons-hammered, dragged and chipped at 600 kilogram blocks of sandstone which were carefully balanced on top of each other to form the retaining walls of the road.
By 1829 the gangs had completed this section, with its 12 metre high walls and 43 stone box culverts. It took just 6 months.
It is not clear to what section of the construction this last sentence might refer, but the actual two kilometre stretch from the ferry up Devine's Hill was under construction from 1829 to 1831, a period of nearly three years. Inspecting the cliff wall on the right side looking up the road, the enormity of the operations which were undertaken begins to dawn and this time scale can be understood. All along this cliff face, there are vertical grooves in the rock which were made, each by two convicts, one holding the jumperbar and turning it regularly and the other striking the bar with a sledgehammer, or maul as it was called, to drill the hole.
The Great North Road is now recognised as one of Australia's most important 19th century achievements in civil engineering.
The plaque is located at the foot of the Devine's hill ascent.
Location:
Old Great North Rd
Wisemens Ferry
NSW
Type of structure/site: Road
Date of Construction: 1825
Engineer/Architect/Builder etc.: Thomas Mitchell
Engineering Organization Listing: Engineers Australia
Primary Web Site: [Web Link]
Secondary Web Site: [Web Link]
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