92-578: The Lithgow Zig Zag is a heritage-listed former zig zag railway line built near Lithgow on the Great Western Line of New South Wales in Australia . The zig zag line operated between 1869 and 1910, to overcome an otherwise insurmountable climb and descent on the western side of the Blue Mountains . It was designed by John Whitton and built from 1863 to 1869 by Patrick Higgins as contractor. It
184-659: A 2-mile (3.2 km) tunnel. However, this was beyond the resources of the Colonial Government at the time. The zig zag alternative still required several short tunnels and some viaducts. After consideration of several alternate routes the Great Western Railway was extended along the high ridge of the Darling Causeway from Mount Victoria . The descent to the Lithgow Valley was originally proposed by means of
276-561: A camp for cheap convict labour. In late 1810, Macquarie toured the regions around Sydney naming and marking out the sites and street plans of future towns such as Liverpool , Windsor and Richmond . On a visit of inspection to the settlement of Hobart Town on the Derwent River in Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania ) in November 1811, Macquarie was appalled at the ramshackle arrangement of
368-437: A central role in urban planning in the colony. He had a significant impact on the development of modern Sydney , establishing the layout upon which the modern city centre is based, establishing Hyde Park as Australia's first public park, overseeing the construction of various public buildings along Macquarie Street , and devising the layouts of a number of settlements which today are part of Western Sydney . He also ordered
460-489: A convicted forger named William Henshall cut the centres out of the coins and counter stamp them to distinguish them as belonging to the colony of New South Wales. The central plug (known as a "dump") was valued at 15 pence and the rim (known as a holey dollar ) became a five- shilling piece. Any forging of the new currency was proclaimed as being punishable by seven years in the Newcastle coal mines. Macquarie also encouraged
552-413: A cutting which was originally proposed to be number two tunnel. At the end of "middle road" is the bottom "wing". Engineered ledges hewn in the mountainside provide enough room for the railway line. It has an Institute of Engineers (Australia) National Engineering Landmark plaque. Physical condition is excellent. Archaeological potential is low. As at 30 September 1997, The Great Zig Zag Railway had
644-688: A desire for Aboriginal peoples to be treated kindly, in 1816 he gave orders that led to the Appin Massacre of Gundungurra and Dharawal people during the Hawkesbury and Nepean Wars . Lachlan Macquarie was born on the island of Ulva off the coast of the Isle of Mull in the Inner Hebrides , a chain of islands off the West Coast of Scotland . His father, Lachlan senior, worked as a carpenter and miller, and
736-563: A dramatic juxtaposition to the urban development of nearby Lithgow. Lithgow Zig Zag was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999 having satisfied the following criteria. The place is important in demonstrating the course, or pattern, of cultural or natural history in New South Wales. It is of historical significance because upon completion it triggered extensive development and had
828-609: A large group of Gandangara and Tharawal people near the Cataract River gorge in the upper Nepean catchment. At least 14 men, women and children were killed, some shot while others fell off the cliffs. This became known as the Appin Massacre . The corpses of two men, Cannabaygal and Dunnell, were strung up on trees as per Macquarie's instructions, the skull of Cannabaygal later being taken to Scotland . Two surviving women and three children were taken prisoner and Macquarie rewarded Wallis for his efforts by appointing him Commandant of
920-441: A light vehicle located between heavier ones (particularly with buffer couplings ), the move on the middle road of a zig zag can cause derailment of the light wagon. Lachlan Macquarie Major General Lachlan Macquarie , CB ( / m ə ˈ k w ɒr ɪ / ; Scottish Gaelic : Lachlann MacGuaire ; 31 January 1762 – 1 July 1824) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator from Scotland . Macquarie served as
1012-518: A personal introduction to King George III . He served in London as Assistant Adjutant General to Lord Harrington and was able to purchase an estate on his native Isle of Mull , which he named Jarvisfield . In 1805, Macquarie was ordered to return to India to take charge of the 86th Regiment of Foot and after arriving also became military secretary to Governor Duncan at Bombay. In 1807 he travelled overland from India to Britain via Persia and Russia, and
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#17328583985601104-611: A plan established by Macquarie. The colony's most prestigious buildings were built on Macquarie Street which he named after himself. Some of these still stand today including the 'Rum Hospital' part of which now serves as the Parliament House of New South Wales . The elaborate stables which Macquarie commissioned for Government House are now part of the modern structure housing the Sydney Conservatorium of Music . Other notable edifices built during Macquarie's tenure include
1196-435: A profound influence on the economy of western New South Wales. It contributed to the economy of western New South Wales to such an extent that it could not handle the volume of traffic and had to be replaced. The place is important in demonstrating aesthetic characteristics and/or a high degree of creative or technical achievement in New South Wales. The reserve is a fine scenic attraction in itself, offering superb views of
1288-470: A profound influence upon the development and economy of western New South Wales. At the time it was the greatest civil engineering work in Australia and was considered worldwide as an engineering marvel. It reflects the difficulty experienced in crossing the Blue Mountains and engineering compromises enforced by economics. The reserve is a fine scenic attraction and the sandstone escarpments and viaducts provide
1380-500: A tunnel. In 1866 the tunnel was estimated to be about two miles in length and a figure of $ 800,000 was set down as the cost of its construction. However, due to the enormous cost, construction time and, as John Whitton, Engineer-in-Chief of the NSW Railways reported at the time, it would have been difficult to get a contractor to undertake such difficult work. As a result, John Whitton selected the zig zag method of ascent and descent. On
1472-513: A two-mile tunnel. The Lithgow Zig Zag operated between 1869 and 1910. By then it had become an increasingly inefficient bottleneck owing to the growing traffic on the line between Lithgow and Sydney. The Top Points were also too short. Two major accidents occurred in 1901, in January a carriage was backed through the top wing buffer stops and in April a goods engine burst through the buffer stops located at
1564-403: Is a railway operation in which a train is required to switch its direction of travel in order to continue its journey. While this may be required purely from an operations standpoint, it is also ideal for climbing steep gradients with minimal need for tunnels and heavy earthworks. For a short distance (corresponding to the middle leg of the letter "Z"), the direction of travel is reversed, before
1656-646: Is also known as the Great Zig Zag Railway and Reserves and Zig Zag Railway . The property is owned by Department of Planning and Infrastructure (State Government). It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999. Part of the railway line is now used by the Zig Zag Railway , a narrow gauge tourist railway. The original plan by the Engineer-in-Charge of New South Wales Government Railways , John Whitton , had been to build
1748-644: Is recognised as one of approximately twenty of the greatest railway civil engineers in the first century of world railway construction. The achievement of his crossings of the Great Divide was superlative at the time and in terms of British railway civil engineering was only exceeded by the difficult crossing of the Indian Ghats . Praise for the Lithgow Zig Zag and the line across the mountains is, however, not universal. At least one critic has opined that, while both
1840-649: The British Army in 1776 and was assigned to the 84th Regiment of Foot . Later that year he travelled with it to North America to fight against the revolutionaries in the American War of Independence . On the way to America he participated in the Battle of the Newcastle Jane, the first naval victory for a British merchant ship over an American privateer . Macquarie was initially stationed at Halifax, Nova Scotia and obtained
1932-569: The Indian Ghats . The contract to build the Great Zig Zag was awarded to Mr Patrick Higgins in May 1866. It was for the Clarence to Wallerawang section of railway which consisted of seven stone viaducts, varying in height from 3.0 to 21.3 metres (10 to 70 ft), three tunnels and nearly one and a quarter million cubic yards of excavations, two-thirds through rock. George McGarvie Donald of Lithgow
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#17328583985602024-564: The Main South line to Sydney, rather than use the line over the mountains. Between 1869 and 1910 the railway was a major force in the development of western New South Wales. Eventually traffic became so dense, due to the growth of the railway system through the spread of settlement, together with the loss of time in working over the Great Zig Zag, that alternatives were considered. From the 1880s many inquiries and investigations were held including consideration of John Whitton's original proposal for
2116-612: The Main West line to the central-west of NSW and ultimately the trans-Australia line between Sydney and Perth . On 16 October 1910 the new deviation was opened for traffic and the Great Zig Zag closed. During World War II , the Clarence Tunnel on the Lithgow Zig Zag (along with other tunnels on various lines) were used to store chemical weapons for the Royal Australian Air Force . Principally mustard gas and phosgene ,
2208-515: The National Trust of Australia and is inscribed "The Father of Australia". A statue of Macquarie commissioned by the NSW Government and created by Terrance Plowright in 2012, stands at the north entrance to Hyde Park in the centre of Sydney. A nearby inscription reads: "He was a perfect gentleman, a Christian and supreme legislator of the human heart." The appropriateness of the statue and
2300-505: The Newcastle convict settlement. Hostilities continued for most of the rest of 1816 with Macquarie proclaiming no Aborigines were allowed into the settled areas without a passport and issuing search and destroy orders for a further 10 Aboriginal men. By early 1817, these actions by Macquarie forced an end to Aboriginal resistance in what is now known as the Hawkesbury and Nepean Wars . Macquarie's policies, especially his championing of
2392-541: The Parramatta Native Institution for the education of Aboriginal children. Around forty Aboriginal children, some of whom were 'decoyed away' from their parents and others taken during frontier conflict, became students and were taught in the British tradition by William and Elizabeth Shelley. The children seem to have been mostly well-treated and in 1819, Maria Lock topped the colony-wide examinations. However,
2484-520: The capitulation of Alexandria to the British. Macquarie remained in Egypt for about a year during which time he met up with his brother. Macquarie contracted syphilis while in Egypt. In 1803, Macquarie returned to Britain having amassed a fortune of £20,000. His elevation to the social elite saw him meet several times with Jacob Bosanquet and the directors of the East India Company and he also had
2576-418: The "top road", the "middle road" and the "bottom road". Located on the "top road" is number one viaduct. The top points are located where "top road" and "middle road" join. Beyond this two "T" bridges and a stone arch are located at the entrance to the "wing" where the train terminated before proceeding to the "middle road" Located on the "middle road" is number one and number two viaduct and number one tunnel and
2668-413: The 'exclusive' colonists such as John Macarthur , Samuel Marsden and Archibald Bell who were strongly against the social reforms of Macquarie. They wanted the convicts to be removed from the government building works in the towns and instead labouring on their large sheep-grazing land acquisitions. Bigge concurred with these opinions and saw that government expediture could be significantly decreased and
2760-532: The Blue Mountains and become the first non-Indigenous people to view the great plains of the interior. Later that same year George Evans , directed by Macquarie to further explore this inland region, came upon and named the Macquarie River . In 1815, Macquarie ordered the establishment of Bathurst on this river, which became Australia's first inland British settlement. Evans conducted further exploration to
2852-462: The British wool industry strengthened if large numbers of convicts were assigned to these 'men of capital' as cheap labour. Bigge's reports subsequently depicted Macquarie as having an error of conduct in making New South Wales a place for the convicts to reform back into society rather than a place of punishment, and stated that his policies of remediation toward the emancipated were not only 'inexpedient and dangerous' but were 'an act of violence' to
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2944-539: The East India Company forced into a peace treaty with Pazhassi. Macquarie resigned from his commanding role soon after the campaign. He participated in front-line combat during the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War against the forces of Tipu Sultan , helping defeat them first at the Battle of Seedaseer and then at the siege and storming of Tipu's palace at Srirangapatna in 1799. He described the "glorious" aftermath where
3036-703: The Evangelist at Wallerawang. Other projects included Lithgow Town Hall, Wallerawang Public School the Lithgow Oddfellows Hall and many residences. Donald and Crowe also built Mort's freezing works. George Donald was extremely active in community affairs and had a great sense of social justice. He was founding member of the GUIOOF Lily of the Valley Lodge and the Good Templars Lodge. Popular among citizens he
3128-473: The Governor, named a promising coastal inlet Port Macquarie . Macquarie's policy toward Aboriginal Australians consisted of co-operation and assimilation, backed by military coercion. On arrival in the colony in 1810 Macquarie gave a speech expressing the wish that "Natives of this Country...may be always treated with kindness and attention", and for the next four years very little conflict occurred. However, in
3220-682: The Lochbuie estates of his uncle, Captain Murdoch Maclaine. Through the influence of Maclaine, he was offered a lieutenancy in the 77th (Hindoostan) Regiment of Foot, a British Army unit, which he took up on Christmas Day 1787. The cost of this regiment was met by the East India company because it was raised specifically for service in India. Macquarie arrived with his regiment at Bombay in August 1788 where he
3312-597: The Parramatta Female Orphan School, St James Church , and the Hyde Park Barracks . He also officially named and established Hyde Park as a public recreation area. These buildings were constructed by Macquarie in defiance of the British government's ban on expensive public building projects in the colony and reflect the tension between Macquarie's vision of Sydney as a Georgian city and that of powerful British colonists who saw it as not much more than
3404-489: The Zig Zag and the subsequent Ten Tunnels Deviation were magnificent works of civil engineering, these projects were aiming to solve the wrong problem. The Zig Zag was required to bring the railway down into the Lithgow Valley. There was a trial survey made of an alternative route, which would have continued the line north-west from Clarence , on a gentler gradient along Clarence ridge, before turning to approach Wallerawang from
3496-470: The Zig Zag had been bypassed, banking engines were often needed to assist heavy freight trains over the mountains from Lithgow. Probably, political considerations and the concentration of coal mines and industry near Lithgow—at the time when the railway routes were decided—made a route via the Lithgow Valley inevitable, but it imposed constraints on rail traffic, some of which persist to the present day. Some freight trains now run via Parkes, Stockinbingal and
3588-480: The arrival its first judge, Jeffery Hart Bent , Macquarie's relationship with the courts became fractious. Bent, a staunch conservative, brought solicitors Frederick Garling and William Moore with him and refused to hear cases brought by ex-convict lawyers. The subsequent personal antipathy between him and Macquarie resulted in making the court unworkable. Bent complained to the British Government that Macquarie
3680-630: The bodies of Tipu and his people "lay in such immense Heaps on the Ramparts...as well as in different Parts of the Town that no regular account of them could be taken". Macquarie received £1,300 in prize money after the city was looted . In 1800, Macquarie was part of the British entourage headed by Governor Duncan that forced Mir Nasiruddin Khan of Surat to sign a treaty with the East India Company dictating
3772-447: The chemical agents were housed in a variety of weapons from bombs to cylinders. The cache was disposed of after the war. In 1972 a cooperative formed to re-use the line using rolling stock sourced from inter-state. In 1975 the line re-opened as a tourist attraction, operating between Top and Bottom Points. The re-development extended to Mt Sinai halt in 1987 and on to Clarence in 1988. The Great Zig Zag Railway consists of three sections:
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3864-430: The colonial surgeon, while Andrew Thompson and Simeon Lord were appointed as magistrates. The gentry in the colony, known as the "exclusives" were outraged at these appointments with some refusing to work alongside the promoted ex-convicts. However, an 1812 inquiry into the convict system in Australia by a Select committee on Transportation , supported Macquarie's liberal policies. The committee concluded that
3956-543: The colonisation in the Bathurst district, Macquarie personally selected ten settlers, many of whom were emancipists. Obstacles to these social reforms included a severe drought in 1814, causing widespread loss of crops and livestock. Many farmers were close to insolvency with the ensuing depression. Also, the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 brought a renewed flood of both convicts and settlers to New South Wales, doubling
4048-567: The colony following the Rum Rebellion of 1808 against Governor William Bligh . Macquarie was ordered by the British government to arrest two of the leaders of the Rum Rebellion, John Macarthur and Major George Johnston . However, by the time that Macquarie arrived in Sydney, both Macarthur and Johnston had already sailed for England to defend themselves. Macquarie immediately set about cancelling
4140-406: The colony on 22 May 1809, on HMS Dromedary , accompanied by HMS Hindostan . The 73rd Regiment of Foot came with him on the two ships. He arrived on 28 December at Sydney Cove and landed officially on 31 December, taking up his duties on the following day. In making this appointment, the British government changed its practice of appointing naval officers as governor and chose an army commander in
4232-479: The colony should be made as prosperous as possible so as to provide work for the convicts and to encourage them to become settlers after being given their freedom. Macquarie also looked favourably on issuing land grants to emancipists, and in 1811 when wishing to expand British settlement to the south-west, he issued a large amount of 30 and 40 acre grants in the Appin region to ex-convicts. Later, in 1818, when expanding
4324-499: The creation of the colony's first bank, the Bank of New South Wales , in 1817. Macquarie was given specific instructions to encourage morality and orderliness in the colony. He promoted marriage and church attendance, increased police patrols and made laws against public alcohol consumption. Central to this policy were the emancipists : convicts whose sentences had expired or who had been given conditional or absolute pardons. Macquarie wanted
4416-535: The designing of a street layout for Hobart . A supporter of exploration, Macquarie authorised the 1813 expedition across the Blue Mountains , the first successful British traversal of the region. He ordered the establishment of Bathurst , the first inland British settlement in Australia. While seeking to promote morality and orderliness, Macquarie favoured the liberal treatment of ex-convicts, known as emancipists , appointing them to prominent government positions and providing generous land grants. Despite expressing
4508-573: The difficulty experienced in crossing the Blue Mountains and engineering compromises enforced by economics. The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of the cultural or natural history of New South Wales. At the time of building the Great Zig Zag Railway was regarded as the greatest civil engineering work in Australia at that time and attracted worldwide interest as an engineering marvel. Zig zag (railway) A railway zig zag or switchback
4600-483: The early governors who sought to establish Australia as a country, rather than as a prison camp. The nationalist school of Australian historians have treated him as a proto-nationalist hero. Macquarie formally adopted the name Australia for the continent, the name earlier proposed by the first circumnavigator of Australia, Matthew Flinders . The origin of the name "Australia" is closely associated with Macquarie who first used it in an official despatch in 1817. As well as
4692-622: The eastern side of the range, the Lapstone Zig Zag , also designed under the supervision of John Whitton, opened near Glenbrook in 1867. The Lapstone Zig Zag ascended Lapstone Hill on a gradient of 1:30 to 1:33 (~ 3 - 3.3%), which contoured up the side of the range with comparatively light earthworks. By contrast, the Lithgow Zig Zag railway, built between 1866 and 1869, required much heavier engineering, including four large rock cuttings, three fine stone viaducts with 30-foot (9.1 m) semi-circular arches (originally four were planned, but one
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#17328583985604784-420: The emancipated convicts and the lavish expenditure of government money on public works, aroused opposition both in the colony and in London, where the government still saw New South Wales as fundamentally a penal colony, a place to be dreaded by the convicts. Therefore, in 1819 Earl Bathurst appointed an English judge, John Bigge , to visit New South Wales and report on its administration. Bigge consulted with
4876-487: The established colonists. Macquarie offered his resignation several times, which was accepted in 1820 with Thomas Brisbane replacing him as governor in 1821. Macquarie served longer than any other governor but not long after, in 1824, the overall power within the role was reduced by the introduction of the New South Wales Legislative Council , Australia's first legislative body, appointed to advise
4968-731: The event of the Natives making the smallest show of resistance – or refusing to surrender when called upon so to do – the officers Commanding the Military Parties have been authorized to fire on them to compel them to surrender; hanging up on Trees the Bodies of such Natives as may be killed on such occasions, in order to strike the greater terror into the Survivors. On 17 April, the detachment of 33 grenadiers led by Captain James Wallis managed to corner
5060-604: The ex-convicts to live reformed, law-abiding Christian lives. Initially he favoured Anglicanism only but in 1820 cautiously welcomed officially-approved Catholic priests. Some of these emancipated convicts were either skilled professionals or had become very wealthy by operating commercial enterprises in the colony. Macquarie viewed these types of ex-convicts as ideal models of social transformation, and rewarded them by elevating their social standing and appointing them to important government positions. For example, Francis Greenway became colonial architect, Dr William Redfern became
5152-432: The fifth Governor of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821, and had a leading role in the social, economic, and architectural development of the colony. He is considered by historians to have had a crucial influence on the transition of New South Wales from a penal colony to a free settlement and therefore to have played a major role in the shaping of Australian society in the early nineteenth century. Macquarie played
5244-504: The gold mines. It is now used as an Anglican church. After the failure of the deep lead gold boom of the 1870s George returned to the Lithgow valley and established a construction business with Thomas Crowe. In the early 1880s he constructed St.Mary's Presbyterian church for Thomas Brown, built as a memorial to Brown's wife, Mary. He also built Cooerwull Academy for Brown, and the Church of St. John
5336-508: The governor. Macquarie returned to Scotland, and died in London in 1824 while busy defending himself against Bigge's charges. However, his reputation continued to grow after his death, especially among the emancipists and their descendants, who were the majority of the Australian population until the Australian gold rushes . Today he is regarded by many as the most enlightened and progressive of
5428-405: The grades required are discontinuous. Civil engineers can generally find a series of shorter segments going back and forth up the side of a hill more easily and with less grading than they can a continuous grade, which must contend with the larger scale geography of the hills to be surmounted. Zig zags suffer from a number of limitations: If the wagons in a freight train are marshaled poorly, with
5520-525: The handover of that province to Company rule. In 1801, Macquarie was appointed by General David Baird as Deputy Adjutant-General of the large British-Indian expeditionary force assigned to link up with Sir Ralph Abercromby 's army to expel the French Army from Egypt . Macquarie sailed with his regiment to Egypt from India with the French already in retreat toward Alexandria . He arrived there two days after
5612-476: The hope that he could secure the co-operation of the corrupt and insubordinate New South Wales Corps . Aided by the fact he arrived in New South Wales at the head of his own unit of regular troops, Macquarie was unchallenged by the New South Wales Corps, whose officers led by John Macarthur had mutinied against and imprisoned the previous governor, William Bligh . When he arrived in Sydney in 1809 he
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#17328583985605704-544: The institution was also a conscious attempt to reduce the influence and future of Indigenous culture and may have contributed to further disillusion and hostility. Macquarie also developed a strategy of rewarding Aboriginals who assisted the British by declaring them 'chiefs of their tribe' and presenting them with a brass breast-plate (known as a gorget ) engraved with their name and title even though it often did not reflect their actual clan status. Macquarie also rewarded these 'chiefs' with small parcels of land set aside for
5796-504: The junior rank of ensign on 9 April 1777. On 18 January 1781, he was promoted to lieutenant and transferred to the 71st (Highland) Regiment of Foot , and served with them in New York City and Charleston . Macquarie safely saw out the end of the rebellion by being posted in Jamaica at the time of the British defeat in the war. In June 1784 Macquarie returned to Scotland, where he managed
5888-404: The justice system. Macquarie himself chose to keep the peace with the remaining NSW Corps officers and maintained an ambivalent attitude to the rebellion against Bligh. Part of Macquarie's undertaking of bringing order to the colony was to refashion the convict settlement into an urban environment of organised towns with streets and parks. The street layout of modern central Sydney is based upon
5980-551: The late Chief Justice of Antigua , Thomas Jarvis, who had owned slave plantations there . According to their marriage settlement, Miss Jarvis was worth £6,000 which was paid out to Macquarie three years later when she died of tuberculosis . In 1795, he saw further action leading troops at the successful siege of the Dutch fort at Cochin . A year later Macquarie participated in the taking of Colombo and other Dutch possessions in Ceylon , and
6072-410: The many geographical features named after him, many institutions in Australia such as Macquarie University in Sydney are also named in his honour. Macquarie was promoted to colonel in 1810, Brigadier-General in 1811 and major-general in 1813, while serving as governor. Macquarie was buried on the Isle of Mull in a mausoleum near Salen with his wife, daughter and son. The grave is maintained by
6164-424: The mountains; as well as if possible to apprehend the Natives who have committed the late murders and outrages, with the view of their being made dreadful and severe examples of, if taken alive. — I have directed as many Natives as possible to be made Prisoners, with the view of keeping them as Hostages until the real guilty ones have surrendered themselves, or have been given up by their Tribes to summary Justice. — In
6256-483: The north through Lidsdale . Much of this route closely followed an earlier road survey made by Hamiliton Hume and, an assistant surveyor, Lieutenant George Bowen , in 1827. Had such a route been followed, neither zigzag nor tunnels would have been needed but the line from Sydney would still have crossed the mountains, albeit not via Lithgow. It almost certainly would have cost less to build, and—due to gentler grades—could have carried longer and heavier trains. Even after
6348-535: The open air could be operated with bank engines , this second stage deviation was never carried out. In 1908, work began on the Ten Tunnels Deviation , a double tracked route with a ruling grade of 1:42 as far as the start of the ten tunnels and 1 in 90 through the ten tunnels. The Lithgow Zig Zag was eventually abandoned in 1910, replaced by the Ten-Tunnels Deviation which is still in heavy use as
6440-423: The operational foundation of the main railway lines in New South Wales. In international references Whitton is recognised as one of approximately twenty of the greatest railway civil engineers in the first century of world railway construction. The achievement of his crossings of the Great Divide was superlative at the time and in terms of British railway civil engineering was only exceeded by the difficult crossing of
6532-513: The original direction is resumed. Some switchbacks do not come in pairs, and the train may then need to travel backwards for a considerable distance. A location on railways constructed by using a zig-zag alignment at which trains must reverse direction to continue is a reversing station . One of the best examples is the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway , a UNESCO World Heritage Site railway in India, which has six full zig zags and three spirals . Zig zags tend to be cheaper to construct because
6624-407: The rugged sandstone valleys and escarpments leading to the western plains. It serves to provide a dramatic juxtaposition to the urban development of nearby Lithgow suburbs. The three main viaducts are particularly pleasing structures. The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group in New South Wales for social, cultural or spiritual reasons. It reflects
6716-514: The south-west in 1815 at the behest of the Governor and named the Lachlan River after him. Macquarie appointed John Oxley as surveyor-general and sent him on expeditions in 1817–18 to further explore the Lachlan River, Liverpool Plains and the north coast of New South Wales and to find suitable lands for colonisation. Oxley, following the tradition of labelling the geographic features after
6808-427: The top "wing" and almost fell into the valley below. To alleviate the congestion, until a new deviation opened, the "top" and "bottom" wings were improved. The "top" wing was abandoned and a new line constructed which involved a sharp curve, heavy rock excavations and earth fillings to a depth of 60 feet (18 m). The "bottom" wing was lengthened without any re-location. However, accidents still continued to occur, as
6900-477: The town and ordered the government surveyor James Meehan to survey a regular street layout. This survey determined the form of the current centre of the city of Hobart. Another town-planning reform initiated by Macquarie was made when he ordered all traffic on New South Wales roads to keep to the left. Macquarie is credited with producing the first official currency specifically for circulation in Australia. In 1812 he purchased 40,000 Spanish dollar coins and had
6992-561: The use of their families. The first receiver of these rewards was Bungaree who in 1815 was issued a gorget, a boat and 15 acres at Georges Head . In 1816, gorgets and land parcels were given to Colebee and Nurragingy by Macquarie for their role in assisting the military operations against hostile Aboriginals along the Nepean River. The practice of colonists giving gorgets to 'loyal' Aboriginals continued for many decades throughout Australia. In March 1816, considerable Aboriginal resistance
7084-401: The various initiatives taken by the rebel government—for example, all "pardons, leases and land grants" made by the rebels were revoked. However, after an avalanche of petitions from leaseholders were sent to Macquarie, he soon back-flipped and ratified them all. Although the New South Wales Corps and its monopoly were soon ended, the military influence survived, with officers having sway over
7176-483: The white population. Macquarie utilised his civic building programme to encourage employment and economic activity. Macquarie's efforts to allow emancipists to take up official positions also extended to the judicial system where, due to a lack of solicitors, convicted former lawyers such as Edward Eagar were allowed to take on civil cases. In 1814, with the establishment of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and
7268-464: The winter of 1814 a number of settlers and Aboriginal people were killed in conflict in the Nepean River region. Macquarie initially made proclamations to promote peace but also later sent an armed expedition to patrol the area. Aiming to advance better relations, Macquarie organised a conference at Parramatta on 28 December 1814 for all Aboriginal people in the region, and in January 1815 he opened
7360-540: Was a cousin of a Clan MacQuarrie chieftain. His mother, Margaret, was the sister of the influential Murdoch Maclaine , 19th laird of Lochbuie . Despite this, his parents were relatively poor and probably illiterate, leasing and working a small farm as sub-tenants at Oskamull. In his early teens, Macquarie was sent to Edinburgh to be educated, possibly attending the Royal High School of Edinburgh where he learnt English and arithmetic. Macquarie volunteered to join
7452-618: Was a great sponsor of British exploration in the colony. He himself participated in a number of expeditions around the Sydney Basin and to other regions including Jervis Bay , Port Stephens , the Hunter River , Bathurst and Van Diemen's Land . He invariably named the landmarks and new settlements he came across after himself, his wife or members of the British aristocracy. In 1813 he authorised Gregory Blaxland , William Wentworth and William Lawson to conduct their successful crossing of
7544-455: Was a master stonemason and builder who helped create the city of Lithgow. Born in Paddington in 1846, he was son of a Scottish stonemason, George Donald, senior. George senior had been encouraged to migrate to New South Wales by Governor Macquarie who wished him to assist with government building works. George junior did an apprenticeship as a stonemason under his father and uncle. After this he
7636-405: Was accompanied by his Indian "slave-boy" named George Jarvis, whom he had purchased in 1795 for 160 rupees at age 6 (along with a 7-year-old named Hector). Jarvis was named after his deceased wife's brother while Hector later escaped. He wrote about them in his diaries: "very fine, well-looking healthy Black Boys". Macquarie's first task was to restore orderly, lawful government and discipline in
7728-523: Was blameworthy of authoritarian excesses, while Macquarie complained that Bent was insubordinate. As a result, Earl Bathurst , the Secretary of State for the Colonies, in an effort to keep society in the colony functioning, recalled Bent to England and censured Macquarie. This situation contributed to Commissioner John Thomas Bigge being sent in 1819 to enquire into the affairs of New South Wales. Macquarie
7820-513: Was built as an embankment instead) and a short tunnel (three tunnels were planned, but two were daylighted during construction due to leaks, becoming two of the four cuttings mentioned above). In the descent of the middle road, the line dropped 101 feet (31 m) between the reversing points, being part of the 550 feet (170 m) descent from Clarence . The whole route had a ruling grade of 1:42 (~2.38%). John Whitton and his work have been underrated in Australian history, although they provided
7912-700: Was elected the first mayor of Lithgow after establishment of the Municipality of Lithgow in 1889. He held the seat of Hartley in the NSW Legislative Assembly jointly with Joseph Cook from 1891. On 19 October 1869 the first official train ran across the Lithgow Zig Zag to Bowenfels railway station , completing the route over the Blue Mountains. This event was heralded worldwide as an engineering marvel resulting in many organised sight-seeing parties from overseas to view it. According to NSW Planning Department documents, in international references, John Whitton
8004-611: Was encountered especially at Silverdale where a large group of Aborigines killed four settlers with a combination of spears and stolen muskets. Macquarie ordered the mobilisation of three detachments of the military in order to go: into the Interior and remote parts of the Colony, for the purpose of Punishing the Hostile Natives, by clearing the Country of them entirely, and driving them across
8096-466: Was engaged on railway construction projects in the Bowenfels district in the late 1860s. He worked on stone railway bridges at the Great Zig Zag and Marrangaroo , and married Marion Miles, daughter of one of the construction foremen. Following completion of the railway he moved to Hill End and worked on a range of construction projects. Among these was Hill End Methodist church, built of basalt rubble from
8188-429: Was made commander of the occupying garrison at Galle . In May 1797, Macquarie led troops during the campaign against the rebel forces of Pazhassi Raja in the jungles around Manantheri . Employing guerilla tactics, Pazhassi inflicted sizable casualties on the 77th, killing a number of officers with Macquarie himself being wounded in the foot. The British torched all the villages in the district but conceded defeat with
8280-419: Was seen on 8 December 1908 when a Sydney bound goods train stalled just beyond Clarence Tunnel . The train was divided into two but the bottom portion accidentally became a runaway and eventually crashed into the rock cutting of Top Points. There were plans to replace the section of 1 in 42 from Lithgow to Bottom points with a second horseshoe curve-like longer deviation, or with a spiral, but as this section in
8372-580: Was stationed for two years. He saw active service from 1790 to 1792 during the Third Anglo-Mysore War , under General Abercromby, participating in the Capture of Cannanore and the 1792 Siege of Seringapatam . He was promoted to Major of Brigade of troops on the Malabar Coast in August 1793 and became a Freemason that same year at Bombay. In September 1793 Macquarie married Jane Jarvis, daughter of
8464-605: Was very impressed by the layout and architecture of St Petersburg. Later that year, Macquarie married his third cousin Elizabeth Henrietta Campbell in Devon and took command of the 73rd Regiment in Scotland as a Lieutenant-Colonel. Macquarie's wife gave birth to a daughter in 1808 which died in infancy. On 8 May 1809 Macquarie was appointed to the position of Governor of New South Wales and its dependencies. He left for
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