Mount Walker
Convict Stockade

Comleroy Road > Comleroy Rd Convict Camp > NSW Stockades > Lithgow Stockades > Mt Walker

This was the largest and most complex of the convict stockades established in the 1830s. Convict iron gangs were moved to this stockade from No. 1 Stockade at Mt Victoria after the initial difficulties at Mt Victoria Pass had been overcome and the road had been formed. In addition to a 3.6 m (12 ft) high stockade enclosure, Mt Walker Stockade had many auxiliary buildings and accommodated up to 500 people at its peak: convicts, military guards, surveyors and other officials.

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Five stockade sites along the Mitchell's Road between the Blue Mountains escarpment at Mt Victoria and Rydal on the way to Bathurst: Mt Victoria, Hassans Walls, Bowens Hollow, Mt Kirkley and Mt Walker.

There is a unique artist's impression of Mt Walker Stockade, attributed to Major General James Pattison Cockburn, 1832. It shows the high slab wall surrounding the rows of convict huts, and an array of small buildings covered by the haze of smoke from their chimneys. A military guard keeps watch and a convict work gang plods around a bend in the Mitchell's Road under construction. This painting is now in the Mitchell Library. (Although described by the library as a stockade 'near Hartley', the close match between the features shown in the painting and archeological evidence leaves no doubt that this painting is of the Mt Walker convict stockade.)

Up to about 1835, convicts stationed on this site built bridges over the Cox's River and Farmer's Creek, and constructed road buttresses and several difficult road cuttings. The stockade was also used as an administrative centre with a weekly Court session. In its final years, the site was mainly used as medical, stores and administration facility.

Sue Rosen and Michael Pearson have written a comprehensive report on their detailed historical and archeological investigation of this site (see references).

Ollie Leckbandt has also documented a wide range of historical relics found on this site including: coins, buttons, insignia, buckles, name plates, musket rounds, thimbles, pieces of spoons, knives and forks, and tool fragments.

Ollie has comprehensively described these relics and explained their history in his book, The Mount Walker Stockade, Cox's River. This book also provides many site photographs, maps and historical notes about the stockade.

Some site photographs and information on this stockade can also be found in another book by Ollie Leckbandt, Convict Stockades from Mount Walker to Mount Victoria.

References
Convict Stockades from Mount Walker to Mount Victoria. Ollie Leckbandt. (1998).

The Mount Walker Stockade, Cox's River. Ollie Leckbandt. (1998).

The No. 2 Stockade Cox's River - its life and times. An historical and archeological investigation. Sue Rosen and Michael Pearson. (1997). Environmental Services, Pacific Power.

Related Pages
NSW Convict Stockades
Convict Stockades of the Lithgow Area (with map)
-- Mount Victoria
-- Hassans Walls
-- Bowens Hollow
-- Mount Kirkley
Comleroy Road Convict Camp