Great North Walk - History

History

The Great North Walk was initiated by Gary McDougall and Leigh Shearer-Heriot. They both planned and marked the original route from Sydney to Newcastle, with access to many linking tracks. Today's Great North Walk is quite true to the original trail. Celebrating its 21st birthday this year, the Great North Walk is mature enough to have books written around it.

The original name for the Great North Walk was the 'Sydney to Hunter Project'. The name 'the Great North Walk' was derived from the first road from the Hunter Valley to Sydney, called the 'Great North Road'. The track began construction in 1987 and was completed less than a year later in early 1988, in time for the bicentennial celebration year. Asian workers from several countries including China, Thailand and Vietnam were hired by the N.S.W. State Government to complete the track by 1988. A small amount of local controversy followed as the Asian labourers won the contract to construct the track over a local landscaping and environmental businesses. Claim was made that the Asians only won the contract because they cost as much as three times less than the local workers.

The company, "Ning-Pow Australia", who were responsible for providing the labourers for the project, were heavily scrutinized for slow construction and poor treatment of their workers. The track was eventually finished but was of very poor quality. Following the bicentennial year, the N.S.W. State Government handed over maintenance responsibility to each sections respective land owners, mainly N.S.W. National Parks and Wildlife Service and State Forests. Under new responsibility, the track was significantly upgraded to higher quality then that which had been left by the Asian workers. In several places the track had to be re-constructed taking completely different routes, because the original had been so terribly built. Eventually, the track was completed to a decent standard and remains well maintained in most places.