Bytes: SYDNEY TO CANBERRA

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This begins a new occasional series of a look at places and sites on the road from Sydney to Canberra, separate to the Remembrance Highway VC rest stops. Kate and I visit Canberra regularly to spend time with her da, who is aged 97. The series originated at my wondering how the place name of Pheasants Nest originated, perhaps a pheasant’s nest was located there many years ago and the description “you know, where that pheasant’s nest was” became its place name. More of that later in this series.

Let’s start with the road itself, then Sydney and then get on the Motorway, skipping the in between Sydney suburbs (which are the subject of another series).

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What’s to come:

Hume Highway

Sydney

Mt Annan

Campbelltown

Hill Top

Pheasants Nest

Yerrinbool

Colo Vale

Mittagong

Bowral

Berima

Burradoo

Moss Vale

Sutton Forest

Canyonleigh

Exeter

Paddys River

Wombeyan Caves

Marulan

Goulburn

Run-O-Waters

Wollogorang

Collector

Lake George

Bywong

Sutton

Queanbeyan

Watson

Braddon

Canberra

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The Hume Highway

The Hume Highway, including the sections now known as the Hume Freeway and the Hume Motorway, is one of Australia's major inter-city national highways, running for 840 kilometres (520 mi) between Melbourne in the southwest and Sydney in the northeast.

From north to south, the road is called the Hume Highway in metropolitan Sydney, the Hume Motorway between the Cutler Interchange and Berrima, the Hume Highway elsewhere in New South Wales and the Hume Freeway in Victoria.

At its Sydney end, Hume Highway begins at Parramatta Road, in Ashfield.

The first 31 kilometres (19 mi) of the highway was known as Liverpool Road until August 1928, when it was renamed as part of Hume Highway, as part of the creation of the NSW highway system.

The beginning of the highway at Ashfield

“Explorers’ Corner” at Ashfield, where the Great Western Road meets the Great Southern Road (the intersection of Parramatta and Liverpool Roads, as commonly known today).

Sections of the highway through Sydney's suburbs continue to be also known by its former names of Liverpool Road, Sydney Road and Copeland Street (the latter two bypassing Liverpool's CBD).

Governor Lachlan Macquarie (1762-1864; Governor of NSW 1810-1821) ordered the construction of a road, which became known as the Great South Road (the basis of the northern end of Hume Highway) in 1819 from Picton to the Goulburn Plains.

Governor Lachlan Macquarie

Macquarie travelled to Goulburn in 1820, but it is unlikely that even a primitive road was finished at that time.

The Great South Road was rebuilt and completely re-routed between Yanderra and Goulburn by Surveyor-General Thomas Mitchell (1792-1855) in 1833. Mitchell's route in New South Wales, except for the current-day bypasses at Mittagong, Berrima and Marulan (dual carriageways were completed in 1986), is still largely followed by today's highway. Mitchell intended to straighten the route north of Yanderra, but was not granted funding, although his proposed route through Pheasants Nest has similarities to the freeway route opened in 1980.

Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell, c 1835

The Great South Road through New South Wales, and North-Eastern Highway through Victoria, were renamed Hume Highway in 1928, after Hamilton Hume (1797-1873), the first European (with William Hovell) to traverse an overland route between Sydney and the Port Phillip District, in what later became the Colony of Victoria. The highway was fully sealed by 1940.

Studio portrait of Hamilton Hume, explorer, c 1869

In 1824, along with William Hovell (1786-1875), Hume participated in an expedition that first took an overland route from Sydney to Port Phillip (near the site of present-day Melbourne). Along with Sturt in 1828, he was part of an expedition of the first Europeans to find the Darling River.

William Hovell

In 1928 the NSW Main Roads Board adopted the principle of giving each important State Highway the same name throughout its length. After consultation with the Country Roads Board of Victoria (which had previously used the name North Eastern Highway for the route), it renamed the inland road from Sydney to Melbourne as the Hume Highway. Much of the present highway route is along the path followed by Hume.

In Sydney, Hume Highway stretches 31 kilometres (19 mi) southwest from Ashfield in the inner west to Prestons via Enfield, Greenacre, Villawood, Liverpool and Casula. This series will not review those suburbs.

From Sydney's southwestern outskirts; Hume Motorway stretches 88 kilometres (55 mi) south by southwest, from Prestons to outside Berrima bypassing Campbelltown, Camden, Mittagong, Bowral and Moss Vale.From outside Berrima, Hume Highway stretches 426 kilometres (265 mi) southwest by west, bypassing Sutton Forest, Marulan, Goulburn, Yass, Bowning, Bookham, Jugiong, Gundagai, Holbrook, Thurgoona, Lavington and Albury before crossing the Murray River and entering Victoria. The series will look at some of those places although the Hume Highway bypasses them.

In New South Wales all towns on the highway have been bypassed. From Sydney, southwards to the Victorian border, the bypassed towns include Campbelltown, Camden, Picton, Mittagong, Berrima, Marulan, Goulburn, Gunning, Yass, Bowning, Bookham, Jugiong, Coolac, Gundagai, Tarcutta, Holbrook, Woomargama and Albury.

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