Towrang

A major stockade for chain-bound convicts was located on the north side of the Highway at Towrang.

Today

 

Eucalyptus trees line the wooded creek that creates a beautiful valley that Towrang lies in, fifteen minutes north of Goulburn.

Yesterday

A major stockade for chain-bound convicts and others involved in the construction of the Great South Road was located on the north side of the Highway at Towrang Creek from around 1836 to 1842. The stockade became the principal penal establishment in the southern district and was noted for its harsh discipline.

There were usually at least 250 convicts hutted there. They slept on bare boards with a blanket apiece, 10 men to a box or cell. One of the two official floggers was later found murdered. A few artefacts remain from this period, such as some convict graves, a powder magazine, the convict-built Towrang bridge and numerous culverts charted on an information billboard at the Towrang rest area.

The rest area is on the south side near a well-preserved bridge that is thought to have been designed by David Lenox, the impressive designer of early bridges in New South Wales.

The stockade is on the north side of the Highway. There are the remains of the powder magazine next to the Wollondilly River, three graves on the north bank of Towrang Creek and the remains of a weir on Towrang Creek built for the stockade.

Aboriginal stone tools have also been found on the banks of Towrang Creek, indicating that this was a route well-travelled long before Hamilton Hume came this way in 1818.

 

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