Mark Roberts #20 Slide 19 The Bells Line of Road NSW - Mid to late Sixities

The Bells Line of Road was dad’s secret

he pretended that we were one of the few

who knew there was another way over

the mountains. “There’s only so many times

you can see the three bloody sisters…..”

So we turn North West, through

Epping and then to Windsor. Always

stopping next to the Air Force base

at Richmond in the picnic area 
next to the train line and my parents

drink tea from a thermos

while I watched transport planes

leaving and returning from

Vietnam. At Richmond the road

turns suddenly left to stop the train

line from continuing through the white

picket fence of the cricket oval.

The line used to continue west

to Kurrajong, my father used to catch

the train to North Richmond to go swimming

during the war, but they pulled up the tracks

after the bridge was washed away in the fifties.

Kurrajong station was dismantled

and rebuilt in an historical theme park.  

I learnt later that the road follows ancient 
Aboriginal pathways, people have moved along 
here for thousands of years, but in the late sixties 
few cars followed the old songlines. Small business 

follow us west.  Apples and vegetables at roadside stalls,

occasional tea shops set well back from the road.

This is not a tourist route, towns are small

and far apart. You come this way for the scenery

and it is a long way between beers. Coming

down the mountain to Lithgow there is always coal

smoke in the air and, in winter, dirty fog. If it is lunchtime 
we stop in town for a Chinese meal.