Pittwater Council - Transport To Pittwater

Transport To Pittwater

Although there were plans to construct a railway to the area, it was never brought to fruition. Debate still remains as to the benefits and disadvantages of a railway into this area. As a consequence, access to the area has primarily been by road although in earlier times there was a regular steamer service to Newport. One of the earliest forms of public transport were horse drawn coaches from Manly on Sydney Harbour. Coach trips were an overnight event with passengers staying in a hotel at Mona Vale (which still remains beside Pittwater Road). Mona Vale was and still is the junction of Pittwater road (leads to Bayview, Church Point, McCarrs Creek, Scotland Island at the southern end of Pittwater) and Barrenjoey Road (which runs up the Pittwater peninsular leading to Newport and onto Barrenjoey Lighthouse on Barrenjoey Headland (north end of Palm Beach)). Just south of Newport is Bushranger's Hill, which provided an ideal location for watching for coaches en route to Newport. However, local history does not indicate whether any Bushranger "bail-ups" of coaches actually occurred.

Access into the Pittwater shire is still via the original Pittwater Road and later, Mona Vale Road. The only mass form of transport available is buses although a large proportion of commuters choose to use private vehicles which is not surprising given the state of the public transport system in the area.