This week, Roy wanted to take his online friends to one of his favourite places to visit when coming home from the Hunter Valley. Roy often spends a day or two in the Hunter region, and loves to take the scenic route home, meandering through the beautiful and historic Wollombi Valley. Taking the road through the historic area always feels like taking a step back in time, meandering through farms and past beautiful old homes.
If you would like to visit Wollombi it is located in the Hunter Valley. Roy usually takes the road on his way home, leaving from Cessnock and following Wollombi Road until he reaches Wollombi itself. He then heads for Sydney, following part of the old Great North Road. There is plenty to see along this beautiful road, and Wollombi itself, although small, has shops and restaurants where you can break your journey.
Originally, Wollombi was home to Aborigines, with the Darkinjung, Awabakal and Wanaruah people all having some claim to the land. The name Wollombi is even thought to be an Aboriginal word which means meeting place of the waters or just meeting place, and it was possibly used as a ceremonial meeting place for people who were coming to visit the sacred Mount Yengo. When Europeans started to seek out a route between Sydney and the Hunter Valley region though, Europeans quickly entered the Wollombi Valley.
In 1826 construction began on the section of the Great North Road which was to run through Wollombi. Before this, only a few land grants and farmsteads existed in the area (though the grants were very large). The Great North Road was completed in 1831 though and within only two years Surveyor White laid out the village of Wollombi itself. The village developed not only as a centre for the farming community which had existed before the road, but for travellers using the road. As steamships starting to take over the commercial role of the road, transporting goods and passengers quickly between the Hunter and Sydney the road began to see less use and then when rust devastated the local crops in the 1870s the town of Wollombi entered decline. Today it is a beautiful, historic centre, popular with tourists and with motorbike riders who enjoy the twisty road.