Extras

On the Trail of the Great North Road - Extras

Canada Bay – The Beginning

The setting is the Great North Road Drummoyne/Abbotsford. The spirit of Surveyor General Thomas Mitchell talks about this short cut whilst reacting to the modern setting and enters a girls - girls - girls Pub for a drink and emerges shocked.

Canada Bay – Bedlam Point Ferry

In the spirit of the 1830s, a ferryman stands looking at a modern Parramatta ferry and recalls his time as a ferryman.

Canada Bay – Harris’ Run

Set late 1820s, Dr John Harris talks about himself and why he has no objection to Thomas Mitchel building a road across his land.

Canada Bay –‘Le Musical’

Canada Bay is named after the 58 French speaking French Canadian rebels who arrived as convicts in 1840. The musical written with a lot of artistic licence depicts their story.

Wollombi Courthouse

Set in the Wollombi court house, built in 1866. There is licence taken in this story as Magistrates usually did not support convicts over fellow landholders.

Mrs Singleton

The pregnant Mrs Benjamin Singleton sits in a high sided dray driven by her husband with some of her (unseen) children in the dray behind her whilst others follow the dray on foot. She discusses the (then historically impossible by dray) trip from Kurrajong to Singleton via Howes track. She names a koala as a monkey.

Broke

Set in the current day the ghost of Thomas Mitchell stands by the town-sign of Broke and explains why he named the village Broke.

The Jewboy

The character of the Jew Boy expresses the opinion that he was sold into slavery instead of being a convict serving a sentence for criminal or suspected criminal behaviour. The Jew Boy gang were a gang of escaped convict bushrangers who ranged up and down the Great North Road.

Yellow Billy

Set in the present Wollombi lockup cells behind the Court House, Yellow Billy, a part Aboriginal Bushranger, reflects on his life and the number of times he escaped from the old Wollombi lock up that in part lead to the building on the present court house

Finding the Way

Filmed beside the bitumen coated road, the shadow of John Howe, who found the original overland route from Windsor to Jerry Plains, only ever a rough track for animals till long after the Great North road was built, discusses his route and the line of the Great North road surveyed by Heneage Finch. He is interrupted by Thomas Mitchell

The End of the Road

Set in modern times the ghost of Sir Thomas Mitchell stands by the road and talks about where the road was built to.

Dr Jurd Jungle Juice

Set in the 1950s when Mel Jurd was the publican at Wollombi and concocted Jurd’s Jungle Juice, a mixture of port wine and brandy, supposedly to use up the left over part bottles.

Castle Forbes

Warning: This video depicts potential sexual violence and a potential hanging. This video is based on the convict uprising at Castle Forbes, told from the point of view of a convict being returned to Castle Forbes to be hung for his part in leading the uprising.

Historic Points: The uprising did take place. Conditions for the convicts at Castle Forbes were very bad, ignored by the local magistrate one of whom was the owner. By law convicts could only be flogged after being so sentenced by the magistrate. A magistrate could not extend a convict initial sentence but they could and sometimes did sentence them for minor actions so a convict would have to wait longer to receive their T of L. Normally all hangings took place behind the goal yard fence in Sydney. Unusually two of the ringleaders in the uprising were sent back to Castle Forbes to be hung as an example to the other convicts in the Hunter Valley. At the time the population of that part of the Hunter Valley was mostly convicts with very few free settlers.