Curio

State Library of New South Wales
View taken on Major Mitchell's Pass to the Pilgrim Decr 5th 1832

View taken on Major Mitchell's Pass to the Pilgrim Decr 5th 1832

SV1B / Blu M / 20
Watercolour

Before 1830, people who wished to cross the Great Divide were forced to travel long distances on hazardous roads and rickety bridges across very steep terrain. Surveyor- General Thomas Livingstone Mitchell was determined to develop a more direct and safe route through the mountains, by building a road ‘that was built to last.’

Work on Mitchell’s Pass commenced in 1830 under the supervision of the Department of Roads and Bridges, lead by Mitchell. To assist in creating his vision, Mitchell recruited fellow Scottish engineer David Lennox to the role of Superintendent of Bridges. Lennox earned the reputation in the UK for being a skilled engineer who created beautiful stone arch work. This was evident when he designed and supervised the construction of the most important part of Mitchell’s Pass, the arched stone bridge crossing over Lapstone Creek.

‘View taken on Major Mitchell's Pass to the Pilgrim’ is a watercolour that shows the convicts at work on this section of Mitchell’s Pass at Lapstone Hill in 1832. Both the bridge and the pass are excellent examples of surviving convict road works in NSW.

'For capitalists'

The Pilgrim Inn located at present day Blaxland was a lucrative staging post between Sydney and Bathurst. The verbose advertisement below sings its praises as an opportunity for ‘capitalists’.
‘"THE PILGRIM INN."
To Capitalists, Tavern and Innkeepers,
Agriculturists, Graziers, and Others.
MR. POLACK begs to notify to his very numerous Friends and the Public generally, that he has received peremptory instructions from the Proprietor, to SELL, by PUBLIC AUCTION, at twelve for one o'clock precisely, on THURSDAY, the 4th day of September, at the London Tavern, George-street, Sydney, that old established and well-known respectable Inn,
"THE PILGRIM."
situate on Major Mitchell's line of BATHURST NEW ROAD, distant from Emu Plains two miles, and now let to Mr. James Evans, at the low rent of £70 per annum, but whose lease expires in February next. Mr. Evans has occupied this establishment but a few years, and in that time having realised an ample fortune, is saying sufficient to those unacquainted with this line of Road; to old Travellers and sojourners at the Pilgrim, the convenience and accommodations of the establishment are so well known, that with them it has ever been termed
"The Traveller's Home."
Mr. Polack considers it almost superfluous to attempt pointing out the various qualifications this Property possesses;  therefore, suffice it to say, the Pilgrim contains nine Rooms, with Stables and Offices of every description requisite for such an establishment, together with enclosed Paddocks, an excellent Garden and Orchard of choice Fruit Trees, and 
Nine Hundred and Sixty Acres
of excellent Land attached - i. e. six hundred and forty acres by Grant, and three hundred and twenty by purchase from the Crown, consequently
THE TITLE
to this most desirable Property is first-rate - its distance from Sydney (under forty miles) makes it the first and last stage to and from Bathurst and the Western Country, consequently, for an industrious enterprising Innkeeper, this opportunity is Not to be Equalled.’
The Sydney Herald, 1 Sep 1834. Page 3.