Completion and opening to the public of the Great North Road

Completion and opening to the public of the Great North Road. It reaches from Castle Hill to Wollombi (128 km north of Sydney) Route: Wiseman’s Ferry, St Albans, Laguna, and Wollombi. (Finch route). At Wollombi, road diverges to Singleton to north and Cessnock/Maitland to north east. Before the road commenced, only a few large land grants eg along Cockfighter’s Creek (lower Wollombi Brook) to John Blaxland etc. Wollombi becomes centre for farming community and for travellers on Great North Road. Vast number of historic Aboriginal sites in surrounding countryside which is thought to have been used as a ceremonial meeting place as people from hundreds of kilometres away visit the area and made their way to Mt Yengo, a place of great significance. Yengo is criss-crossed with Aboriginal routes used by many highland and coastal clans where reciprocal visits were often arranged to exploit seasonally abundant food. The Old Great North Road is an Aboriginal travelling route shown to surveyors by local people.