Points of Interest
Mt McQuoid / Bucketty Precinct
A range of convict relics remains along a 400 metre section where the road has been re-aligned. Features include a curved wall which once flanked a small bridge, handpicked gutters and rock faces, a rock cutting with the road surface cut into the bedrock, a stone lined box culvert, and a very large culvert with (partially collapsed) winged walling. This precinct was constructed in 1829-31 by the No 29 Road Party. In 1990 some stones were stolen from the wall, and local community united to restore the damage. It was this activity which led them to establish the Convict Trail Project.
Mt Simpson
Named after Percy Simpson, surveyor - engineer in charge of construction 1828-1832.
Ramsays Leap
Named after a prisoner who leapt over the wall while being escorted by police from St Albans to Wollombi in 1854. Substantial convict stone walling, with a buttressed flume to take water from the culvert under the road. Nearby is a drinking trough hand-carved into the face of the rock wall, where convicts could get water while they were working.
Murrays Run culvert
The most elaborate of the culverts on the road, the arched culvert has been bypassed and restored by the local community.
Thompsons bridge
The stone walls are believed to be original convict work, probably constructed in 1830.
Laguna
The road circling past the community hall and shop at Laguna is the original alignment of the Great North Road.
Mulla Villa
Built in the 1840s by David Dunlop, the first magistrate appointed to the Wollombi-Macdonald police district. The original cells where convicts were chained remain under the house.
Wollombi
Many historic buildings remain in Wollombi, which developed as an important town along the GNR.
