Corn Trail, New South Wales
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The Corn Trail was an early bridle track linking the Southern Tablelands to the coastal valley of the Buckenbowra River, in New South Wales, Australia. It was restored and reopened as a walking track in 1988.
History
The Corn Trail lies on the traditional lands of the Walbanga people,[1] a group of the Yuin. It is almost certain that the route of what would later be known as the Corn Trail generally follows foot pathways used by the local people.[2]
The lower reaches of the Buckenbowra River lie in a lush coastal river valley that connects to the Clyde River close to Batemens Bay. The valley was colonised in the 1830s. At the time, the new settlements on the Southern Tablelands had no direct connection to a coastal port and needed to use the long road to Sydney to obtain supplies and ship produce. The Buckenbowra valley provided an easy route from the coast to the base of the Clyde Mountain. The Corn Trail was built to ascend the range to reach the Southern Tablelands. To maintain suitable gradients, the trail zigzagged across the face of the steeply sloping landforms. The trail was constructed using convicts assigned to local landowners. It was in use by 1838.[2][3]
The trail was only suitable for pack animals—it was too steep for wheeled traffic of any kind—but nonetheless was an important route to the tablelands. From the Buckenbowra valley, other trails over low foothills connected the Corn Trail to existing coastal settlements at Broulee and Moruya.[2][3]
From late 1841, a road known as the 'The Wool Road' linked the tablelands to the coast at Jervis Bay, but was ultimately a failure.[4] The Corn Trail remained in use during the early years of the gold rush to the area round Braidwood, but quickly fell into disuse following the opening, in 1856, of the Clyde Road—later the Kings Highway—that connected the tablelands to the port of Nelligen on the Clyde River[3][5]
The Corn Trail was used by the Clarke Brothers and the others of their gang of bushrangers, during the 1860s, when—as outlaws—they used lesser known routes to move around the district without detection. By the 1920s, the trail had become completely overgrown and effectively lost.[6]
Long forgotten and overgrown, it was restored, as a project for the Australian Bicentennial celebrations, and reopened, as a walking track, on 30 April 1988.[6][7][8]
Corn Trail walking track
The track is 15.4 km long.The upper end of the track is the Dasyurus Picnic Area within Monga National Park The first 4km of the track rises in elevation by approximately 150 m, to avoid steep gullies. It then decreases in elevation, by over 600m over the following 6 km. The track then maintains a relatively constant elevation, before a final short decline to the end of the track. The lower end of the track, in the Buckenbowra River valley, is at a carpark on the No Name Mountain Fire Trail, that turns off Misty Mountain Road.[9][8]
As it descends, the trail passes from high mountain ridges to deep valleys and from eucalypt forest to warm temperate rainforest. There are glimpses of Mount Budawang and the sandstone peaks of Pigeon House and Castle Mountain further to the north. It crosses the Mongarlowe and Buckenbowra Rivers.[10]
The track is graded as a Grade 4 walking track, under the Australian Walking Track Grading System.[10][11]
Reference section
- ^ "Tindale Tribes - Walbanga". archives.samuseum.sa.gov.au. Retrieved 6 January 2021.
- ^ a b c Morrison, Ewan (11 September 2019). "The History of the Corn Trail - Part 1". What's new at Nelligen?. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ a b c "The Corn Trail Batemans Bay, South Coast NSW". web.archive.org. 29 August 2007. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
- ^ "The Roads". home.exetel.com.au. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
- ^ "The Dray Trail to Prosperity, Batemans Bay - South Coast NSW". 29 August 2007. Archived from the original on 29 August 2007. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
- ^ a b Morrison, Ewan (May 2014). "History of the Corn Trail Part 2" (PDF).
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "'Corn trail' reconstructed". Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995). 30 March 1988. p. 13. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
- ^ a b "Corn Trail offers up rich plenitude of flora and fauna". Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995). 8 November 1992. p. 20. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
- ^ "Australian Hiker | Corn Trail Walking Track NSW (15.4km)". Retrieved 28 March 2021.
- ^ a b "Corn Trail walking track". NSW National Parks. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
- ^ "Australian Walking Track Grading System". NSW National Parks. Retrieved 29 March 2021.