Great Southern Road - Bargo.
The Main Roads Management Act of June 1858 declared the Great Southern Road, from near Sydney through Goulburn and Gundagai to Albury, as one of the three main roads in the colony. Today we know it as the Hume Highway, named after Hamilton Hume the traveling partner of William Hovell on there overland journey from Appin (near Campbelltown)to Port Phillip and return in 1824.
Over the years the road has had a few name changes and seen many realignments, some minor and some major with entire towns being bypassed and the section of the route north of Marulan being totally different to today's Hume Highway. So I thought that I would do a series of caches based on the old sections of the Hume Highway and the Great Southern Road.
Before the Hume Highway was diverted to its current route, it used to pass through the town of Bargo, and from what I can research the old roads did not have a good reputation in these areas.
The whole road was reportably a nightmare with its succession of bogs where bullock waggons sank to their axles. Drivers cut saplings to corduroy sections of the road and threw stones into bogholes. Teams on unbogged waggons were attached to teams on bogged vehicles to help pull them free; sometimes only to see them sink again! A waggon could take a couple of days from Bargo River to Mittagong, camping the night anywhere around Yerrinbool, then called Little Forest, before the steep climb of Catherine Hill which would then be attacked with fresh bullocks in the morning... The Sydney Morning Herald of June 2, 1865 reported that it had not been uncommon to see all the types of vehicles 'stuck fast or rather half buried in the numerous sloughs ... filled with mud .
By 1917 things had improved and they even subdivided the area (see below). You will see from the supplied map that the Great Southern Road was on the Eastern side of the railway line, which is interesting as the main Road is now on the Western side of the railway.
Cache is hidden in an area that I suspect is used by school children to walk to and from school. So please bear that in mind when searching for the cache and make sure to replace it exactly as found .
