Work starts on Hobart-New Norfolk road

Hobart Town Gazette

TWO hundred years ago today, the entrepreneurial ex-convict Denis McCarty started work on his "New Norfolk Road", which eventually became Main Rd, from New Town to Granton, and the Lyell Hwy from Granton to New Norfolk.

“On Wednesday last Mr Dennis M'Carty commenced the undertaking, under an agreement with Government, of opening a Road from Hobart Town (by New-town and Austin’s Farm) to New Norfolk,” reported the Hobart Town Gazette and Southern Reporter in its issue of May 30, 1818.

“As this road embraces the communication with the populous village of New-town, and forms the first 15 miles (to the ferry) part of the principle road to Port Dalrymple, it cannot fail to be of benefit and advantage to the Settlement,” the newspaper concluded.

Partly as compensation for losses incurred during the bushranger raid on his house four years earlier, McCarty was awarded a contract to build a road - and the necessary bridges - 24 feet wide (7.3m) from Hobart Town to Austins Ferry and 16 feet (4.8m) wide from there to New Norfolk.

As payment for the work, McCarty sought a grant of 2000 acres (809ha) of land, 15 men on government rations for a year, a cart and eight bullocks, a tent for the men to sleep in, tools suited to the work to be done, and 500 gallons (2300 litres) of rum.

SOURCES: No title (1818, May 30). The Hobart Town Gazette and Southern Reporter (Tas. : 1816 - 1821), p. 2. Retrieved May 27, 2018, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article654597. OLDEST ROAD IN TASMANIA (1939, November 14). The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), p. 6. Retrieved May 27, 2018, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article25767152