Wisemans Ferry – The Forgotten Valley

/ Garrulous Gwendoline

We returned home yesterday from a week away. I didn’t feel like blogging during that time, so over the next days hopefully I will catch up with little stories of what we saw and did. First up though, a little story about what we didn’t do, and that was to spend three nights at Wisemans Ferry as we had originally planned.

Wisemans Ferry, only an hour north of Sydney, tags itself as The Forgotten Valley. This small hamlet, steeped in aboriginal and convict history and surrounded by bushland, sits on a v-shaped bend in the Hawkesbury River. To cross the river and continue driving north, one needs to take a small vehicular cable punt-shaped ferry, which – you guessed already, I’m sure – is called ‘Wisemans Ferry’. It is named after Solomon Wiseman, a former convict (1778–1838), who received a land grant in the area from Governor Macquarie in 1817. Wiseman established the ferry service in 1827 for the transport of produce and provisions to the convicts building the Great North Road. If you have read either of Australian author Kate Grenville’s books, The Secret River, or Searching for the Secret River, then you will know plenty about this ancestor of hers, and his time in this area. One of the reasons Wiseman had the physical capability for his ferrying endeavour was that he had been a journeyman lighterman in London before being convicted at the Old Bailey on 30 October 1805 for stealing from his employers 704 lbs (319 kg) of Brazil wood from a Thames lighter. His death sentence was commuted to transportation for life and although he eventually received an absolute pardon he never returned to England.

The convicts at what became known as Wisemans Ferry (originally lower Portland) were employed in cutting a road through from Sydney to the fertile Hunter Valley. Take yourselves back to the late 1820s, early 1830s, and imagine more than five hundred convicts (usually recidivists i.e. committed a further crime once transported to the colony), some in leg-iron and chains, hewing out rock cliffs by hand to form a 264klm / 165mi pathway which became The Great North Road. Although the road starts in a busy suburban part of Sydney, today only the eagle-eyed would detect its remnants there, but once you cross the Hawkesbury River, what remains now forms The Convict Trail which we had intended to explore, first by dawdling and hiking around the Wisemans Ferry area, and then by following the road north to the Hunter Valley, or at least that part that does not require a four-wheel drive vehicle.

Source: https://www.convicttrail.com.au/

For those of an engineering mind, there is a huge amount of information on this amazing feat on The Convict Trail Project website.

As far as me being able to give a firsthand account of what is to be discovered there, that will have to wait another day. If you settle on the banks of a river – and in this case are surrounded on three sides by said river – then you have to expect to flood from time to time. It’s a calculated gamble as to how high the waters will reach. Wisemans Ferry flooded last year. The river peaked then at 4.4m (14.5 feet) and lower down the river at Sackville it rose to 9.7m (32 feet). The highest recorded flood in Wisemans Ferry was close to that Sackville height in 1867, and with this year’s rains so intense and persistent, I suspect the locals were wondering what they were in for this time. When I realised the rain was not going to stop I tried to cancel our booking but, not surprisingly, could not get through. The next day the hotel rang us to cancel, as all the rooms in the complex had been taken up by the emergency services. Even though a levy had been built, and the place is on a hill, the emergency personnel could still sail their rescue boats almost to the front door of their accommodation. The local bowling club, which was designated as the Recovery Centre – in other words, the place where people evacuate to for safety because it should be high and dry, went under four inches. The ferries (there are three in all) had to drop their cables and cease operating. Wisemans Ferry was completely cut off and relied on helicopter feed drops for the livestock. The river started rising in the first week of March, and now, the 25th, people are only just getting the chance to assess and recover. Meanwhile, under the continued influence of the La Niña weather pattern, April to June rainfall is likely to be above median for most of the east coast of Australia.

So we are not rebooking this adventure just yet…

29 thoughts on “Wisemans Ferry – The Forgotten Valley”

  1. Pingback: Two Nights on the NSW Central Coast | The Reluctant Retiree

  2. I love how your post focuses on why you didn’t visit, Gwen. So often we only focus on the places we do get to experience. I marvel that some people can still argue against global warming. You are clearly experiencing exactly what the future could look like in your area. No wonder the insurance companies are reluctant to insure houses in certain places. I guess they are firm believers in a permanent change in weather patterns. Good luck with all that rain. We have had some very welcome rain, but not in bucket loads like you. Thank goodness.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Thank you Jolandi. I debated whether or not to write it, so am glad it hit the spot.
      Many of these houses are uninsurable, but relocating to higher ground is not as easy as it sounds, nor is selling out and moving. There is no straightforward solution, and clearly more such weather events in the future.

      Like

      Reply

  6. There have certainly been some amazingly tough folk in the past taking on the elements in your part of the world. I wonder if at some point some areas will eventually become too risky and expensive to remain inhabited. Hope the rain is easing off down in Wollongong.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • It’s still raining Agnes, and the golf course has gone under again! Last night we watched a water spout over the ocean. Don’t see those often.
      There has been some talk that people should not automatically rebuild, but those who dare to voice this opinion get howled down pretty quickly. But some of these areas have become uninsurable at any price, and others need 50% of the median income to insure. As you well know, this is not going to get any better.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      • Yes, similar problems for people here with becoming uninsurable. Unfortunately, in the last twenty years or so there’s been utterly ridiculous housing developments on flood plains. Once in 50 years events now occurring almost every other year. It is heartbreaking for the folk caught up in all now and the future doesn’t bear thinking about.

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

  10. The rain has got to stop eventually although it doesn’t look like it at the moment. Your holiday will be wonderful when you get to do it. It is very hard to make plans at the moment but we are risking a trip down the coast to Shoalhaven Heads and Lake Conjola next month and hoping La Niña moves on.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • I’m told it didn’t stop raining here in Wollongong the entire time we were away, and it is definitely still coming down in regular heavy sheets. The links golf course has not allowed carts on for weeks, and today the course is again submerged. I’m familiar with where you are headed – a pretty part of the world. I’m sure you’ll keep your eye on the weather radar. It looks like scattered light showers only at the moment, whereas we are copping it. So I hope you do get to have a fabulous holiday.

      Like

      Reply

Leave a reply to Garrulous Gwendoline Cancel reply