A CONVICT-BUILT road linking Karuah and a historic settlement on the Port's north shore in the early 1800s has been nominated as a state heritage site. The five-kilometre road was built in 1827, as the only land link to the Australian Agricultural Company (AAC) base at Tahlee. In 1957 the Pacific Highway was built to the north, offering a longer but far smoother route which meant the road was abandoned after 130 years of regular use.
Karuah Progress Association chair David Benson now wants the road's historical significance formally recognised and authorities to consider its revival as a tourist walk.
"We have some amazing historical accounts of things happening on that road," he said. "It is unique to the east coast to have a convict-built, verifiable road."
The association wants an ironbark log bridge rebuilt across the Yalimbah Creek, consistent with the original built by AAC chief agent Robert Dawson.
The bridge is long gone but Mr Benson said records had been recovered detailing how Mr Dawson had the original built.
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