Bylong Valley Way: A Mythical Landscape

It is a mythical landscape that we drive through late on an autumn day. Shadows spread across the valley. The mountains above us brood, close in on us, awesome and intimidating. I imagine surveillance posts in rocky outcrops: Wiradjuri warriors watching our progress, just as they did William Lawson exploring the Goulburn River valleys; and William Lee clearing and cultivating ‘his land’ and establishing his cattle and horse studs…

This article appeared in the Mudgee Guardian on 26 October 2015.

The image is of Cox’s Gap Tunnel, once a shortcut for drivers, now a coal-train route.

To download the article click below:

Bylong Valley Way a mythical landscape

Leave a comment