HISTORY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 591 



under the supervision of Mr. Larmer, one of Sir Thomas Mitchell's 

 officers. Leaving Wiseman's Ferry, the road continues, with a 

 good deal of side-cutting, to Wollombi township, a distance of 

 fifty miles from the ferry. This sterile ?-oa^i, however, has, during 

 the past fifteen years, been abandoned in favour of a pass down 

 Shepherd's Gully up the McDonald River, now crossed by a fine 

 timber bridge at 8t. Albans, and thence via the Wollombine 

 Common up ^Nlount Planning Pass, rejoining the old road seven- 

 teen miles south of Wollombi. This route continued northerly to 

 the crossing of Cocklighter's Creek, and from that point gave 

 access to the northern districts of the Hunter and Liverpool 

 Plains. An alternative i-onte for travelling stock only was 

 afterwards travelled by Avay of Howe's Valley and the Colo Valley, 

 along the western ridges of the Macdonald and Hawkesbury 

 Rivers, crossing at Richmond. This track has, within the last 

 ten years, been much improved, and it is expected by the end of 

 this year to be completely opened for vehicular traffic. 



ROADS PROM THE SOUTH COAST TO THE TABLELAND. 



The first road from the Clyde River (Nelligen), ascending the 

 tableland to Braid wood, was undertaken about 1854 and com- 

 pleted about 1852, under the direction of Sir Thomas ISIitchell. 

 It is about seventeen miles long, the mountain pass inside cuttings 

 being three miles long at a gradient of 1 in 12. Tlie Avork was 

 done by day labour, under the supervision of M r. Adalbert Weber, 

 the labourers, who were thoroughly good men, content with their 

 lot, and anxious to retain their employment, being paid at the 

 rate of £35 a year and rations. This road abounds, as do all the 

 coast roads, in great local beauties. The road from Eden, Twofold 

 Bay, was a mere track up the mountains, until the roads instituted 

 by the Roads Department were made up the Big Jack and Tana- 

 wangala Mountains, which gives access to the Manei'o Tableland, 

 Bombala, and Cooma, from Eden and Bega. A new pass has 

 lately been made to connect the latter place via Brown's Mountain 

 and Nimitybelle with Cooma, the centre of Manero From 

 Moruya, situated sixty miles north, a road on A^ery rougli sidelings 

 has been made by the Roads Department, giAing access to Braid- 

 wood via Araluen, formerly thn seat of a large gold industry. 

 The old road before mentioned, about thirty miles north of Moruya, 

 reaches the same centre from the Clyde. 



From UUaduUa (Milton) thirty miles further north, two roads 

 have been made accessible for veliicular traffic, also a road to 

 Braidwood ; and fiom Nowra (Shoalliaven), forty-five miles 

 further north, an old road, via Nerriga and the Sassafras 

 Range, now not much used, but kept in passaljle condition, 

 completes the tale of three routes converging on Braidwood. 

 From this point going northerly the traffic naturally goes to 



