The Wool Road

In the late 1820s and 1830s colonial settlement had spread to the vicinity of Lake George, Braidwood, Yass, the Limestone Plains (now Canberra), and beyond to the Monaro district.

[7] This forking was in the—ultimately unfulfilled—hope that there would be a route found through the coastal escarpment via Bungonia, while the path through Goulburn headed in the direction of newly discovered grazing areas around Gunning and Yass.

The owner of Yarralumla, Terence Murray, further away at the Limestone Plains, complained that, in wet weather, the drays could take as long as three months to reach Sydney.

The endpoints of The Wool Road were the locality of Nerriga—by 1841 already connected to Braidwood by a rudimentary road—and the newly created port of South Huskisson (later known as 'the old township' and today known as Vincentia) on Jervis Bay.

The significant geographical obstacles to be overcome were crossing the Endrick River near Nerriga, climbing to a plateau in the northern part of the Pigeon House Range, then avoiding the steep valleys and gorges cut into that plateau by tributaries of the Shoalhaven and Clyde rivers, and subsequently descending from the plateau to the coastal plain to reach Jervis Bay.After fording the Endrick River, The Wool Road broadly followed the direction of the modern-day Braidwood Road (MR92), from Nerriga to near the Boolijah Peak, a point east of Sassafras.

The original 1841 road's exact route was different in some places, most significantly where it climbs the Pigeon House Range at Bulee Mountain near Nerriga.

[13] In this section, the road's elevation dropped by approximately 2,500 feet in 10 miles[14] (760m in 16 km), as it descended the coastal escarpment, via the locality of Jerrawangala and Wandandian.

From 1827 - 1832' , published in 1834-1835 —that the route they had taken from Yerock Flat (west of Sassafras Mountain) to the coast was taken against the advice of the Aboriginal guides, who had strongly suggested following the range further to the north.

In 1839, the owner of Yarralumla, Terence Aubrey Murray, also explored a route between Nerriga and Jervis Bay, which may have been similar to that followed by the Futter expedition.

[23] Wealthy and influential colonists Alexander Berry, Robert Campbell, Thomas Walker and James Macarthur were also supporters of the new road.

Explorer and surveyor, John Oxley, had said of the land on the western shore, in 1819, "We saw no place on which even a Cabbage might be planted with a prospect of success" and that "perhaps a more miserable sterile Country was never traversed by man".

On the North it is a bold and continuous range but totally unfit for Drays to pass down to the Coast—and on the South numerous deep rocky gullies that are impassable.

[28] In June 1841, another fourteen men, to work on the road, arrived at the new port of South Huskisson aboard the steamer Tamar.

[29] The Bulee Gap was created by blasting away a narrow neck of sandstone rock to bring the road onto the plateau of the Pigeon House Range.

[28] In 1842, an existing primitive track linking Nerriga to Arnprior—the Ryrie family's property, in the Braidwood district, at what was then known as Kurraducbidgee, now Larbert[32][33]—was substantially upgraded, also using convict labour assigned to John Mackenzie.

[39] At first, the drays were taken to the beach and the wool bales and other cargo were carried out on small boats to a waiting ship[40] but, after a company was formed to do so—in March 1842 [41]—a wharf was built[42] during late 1842.

At least 200 building allotments in the private township were sold[47][48][49] during 1841, at high prices[50] on an assumption of the success of the road and port, and in anticipation of large future capital gains.

The settlement to be known as 'Narriga' was to be located at the road's crossing point on the Endrick River,[53] some distance further east and at a lower elevation than the modern-day village of Nerriga.

Soon after the road opened, in January 1842, an anonymous report of difficulties using it appeared, which included a prediction that, "it is doubtful if ever it will be completed and when finished, a constant thoroughfare to the sea coast; inasmuch as the route is chiefly barren scrub, and badly watered.

"[34] A year later, in January 1843, an article in the Sydney Morning Herald stated that, "The township, the wharf, and the road, have all still to contend against the evil reports which have been so industriously circulated respecting them by interested parties".

Geographic and economic difficulties affected The Wool Road and these, rather than the 'evil reports', caused it to fall into disuse after a relatively short time.

Although the distance was short, the slowness of the fully laden bullock drays descending the steep route led to ships being delayed at Jervis Bay and on at least one occasion leaving without taking on a cargo there.

The truth about the road—and the country through which it ran—was very much contrary to the apparently exaggerated claims that had been made, when town allotments in South Huskisson had been sold for high prices in 1841.

[51] The country atop the Pidgeon House Range was infertile land that was unsuitable to provide grazing for the bullock teams, with the exception of the natural clearing at Yerock (or Yarrock) Flat—known as 'McKenzie's Paddock'[60]—and the nearby area of volcanic soil around Sassafras.

[92] The discovery of gold in the Braidwood (Major's Creek, Jembaicumbene and Mongarlowe), Araluen and Nerriga areas in the early 1850s provided an impetus for better roads to the coast.

[94][95][96] In 1856, The Wool Road was realigned—based on a new survey by George Legge—to bypass the steep Bulee Gap section and continued, as a new branch off the original 1841 route, via Nowra Hill to a wharf at Terara—just east of modern-day Nowra—on the tidal part of the Shoalhaven River.

It still provides a much gentler gradient to Jervis Bay, on a route to the north of the older and steeper 1841 Wool Road that passed through the Wandean Gap.

During the Second World War, a part of this section of the original road was deliberately destroyed using explosives, to limit access by an enemy to the inland area and the national capital, Canberra.

[30] Between 2007 and 2010, the Braidwood Road was sealed and upgraded to modern highway standard at a cost of $99-million,[108] including major work where the road climbs from the Endrick River and passes the Bulee Gap[109] The work in that area included removing bends, cutting back the cliff faces, installing high retaining walls and building a four-span concrete bridge structure.

The 1841 route of The Wool Road passes through the Wandean Gap approximately 500m to the north from the location of the modern day lookout.