THUNDERBOLTS WAY
Frederick Ward was an infamous bushranger who once robbed his way across NSW. Yet his memory lives on in this beautiful route from Sydney that traverses not just one magnificent landscape but three. Following in his hoofsteps is a vote for romance over routine ... something Captain Thunderbolt himself often did during his colourful, exciting life.
The COVID-led resurgence of the great Australian road trip has sent drivers searching for new routes, slow ways and roads less travelled. Familiar journeys demand to be rethought. Case in point: the drive from Sydney to Queensland or into northern NSW.
The quickest way to go is via the Pacific Highway, hugging the coast on a multilane road made more efficient by recent upgrades. A more picturesque alternative has traditionally been to strike inland along the New England Highway. And then there’s a middle way – slower, curvier and infinitely more scenic than either of the others. Its name is Thunderbolts Way.
I must confess that when I had the road atlas out last year, looking for a new way to get to Queensland, it was the name that got my attention. Who wouldn’t want to drive a road called Thunderbolts Way? I loved that it was a ‘way’, not a ‘highway’, and I was drawn to the dashing image of the thunderbolt. Then I read that this 290km stretch of road from Gloucester to Inverell was considered to be one of the most beautiful in the state and would take me to small towns I’d never heard of, let alone visited. I knew I had to experience it.
The route takes its name from the ‘gentleman bushranger’ Captain Thunderbolt, aka Frederick Ward (1835-1870), who roamed and robbed his way across this territory during a crime spree that lasted most of the 1860s. In 1863, at the age of 28, he graduated from horse and cattle theft to armed robbery and started calling himself ‘Captain Thunderbolt’. Ward’s self-styled title reflected his speed on horseback, which allowed him to elude the police time after time. Indeed, he was such a good horseman that one magistrate suggested the
A movie about his life, Captain Thunderbolt, came out in 1955.
governor might offer a pardon in return for him joining the police to help them improve their riding!
It’s a nice irony that the slowest of the three roads into northern NSW is named after an outlaw famous for his speed in covering this same ground. Travellers who choose Thunderbolts Way for their journey north won’t be replicating the bushranger’s lightning getaways, but they may channel something of his wayward and insouciant character. Certainly, this choice of route is a vote for romance over routine. It was a choice Captain Thunderbolt made throughout his life.
LEGEND OF THUNDERBOLT
A daring and flamboyant criminal, Fred Ward had the distinction of being the only prisoner to escape successfully from the Cockatoo Island penal facility in Sydney Harbour. For the next seven years he criss-crossed the NSW high country, holding up stores and stations, ambushing travellers and robbing mail coaches. During this time, stories abounded of his brazen attitude and bold flirtations with chance. He terrorised many, yet behaved in a surprisingly honourable way towards some of his victims. He also repeatedly risked his freedom to be near and take care of his partner Mary Ann Bugg, a Worimi woman, and their children.
Stories of Captain Thunderbolt’s exploits add interest to the route that carries his name, but its greatest pleasures are intrinsic. First, there’s the road itself, which marks out a winding course that forbids high speeds and sometimes demands a contemplative crawl. There are few straight lines on Thunderbolts Way. The tightest kinks are in the steep ascents and descents of the southernmost section. Further north, the road uncoils into more relaxed curves, and that’s exactly how a driver should take them – in a leisurely and relaxed way, taking time to enjoy the beauty of the scenery.
And how beautiful it is! Thunderbolts Way traverses not just one magnificent landscape but three. First, coming from the south, is the rugged terrain of Barrington Tops.
By Australia’s standards, this is a high-altitude region, an elevated wilderness where dark sub-alpine forests create an atmosphere of mystery and granite plateaux fall away in steep escarpment edges, yielding panoramic views. The blocky outlines of the nearby Bucketts Mountains provide a brooding background to this dramatic scenery. After about 90km – a third of the way into the journey – the environment transforms into the rich pastureland of the mid-north-coast hinterland.
“THIS STRETCH OF ROAD WAS ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL IN NSW.”
Never flat, but also not forbiddingly high, the gentle ups and downs of the landscape unfold in generous curves that match the twists and turns of the road. It’s a pastoral ideal, an Australian idyll, an image of the good life conveyed in grass and shade and water.
The last third of the journey is different again – wilder but still peaceful, and constantly varying. The great feature now is the presence of rock. There are granite outcrops everywhere, some low to the ground, others standing a couple of metres tall. Many of the boulders are smoothly round; others formless and