highways

There are many parts to building a road. Someone has to choose a route, trees have to be cut, land cleared, a base prepared and a surface laid. Once the trees have been cut, they have to be cleared from the site, the land levelled and rock crushed and brought in to create the roadway. It was not Ephraim’s choice to be part of this but it was his lot in life. The tools were primitive and purposely so. A convict was there to be punished and that punishment often meant that inferior methods were chosen in order to make the work harder.

What did these convicts think as they left for work in the morning? Did the warmth of the sun on their shoulders bring joy to their souls or just an ache at thoughts of the greater exertion required to labour under the intensity of a hot summer’s day. Was there pride in a job well done or was every little effort given grudgingly? There must have been pleasure and surprise as the Tasmanian bush uncovered its secrets and each convict saw his first echidna or heard the call the many bush birds. Snakes, not happy to be turfed from their homes under fallen timber would have often shown some resistance. Jackjumpers surging from their nests would have given many a man a nasty reminder that the territory was already claimed.

In winter, the wet and the cold would have been soul destroying. Knowing that each day would be the same as the last with the added difficulty of moving through wet forest and slippery mud, trying to avoid the constant threat from dead branches as they fell from forest giants, they were forced to labour on. Men, chained, weary, cold and suffering, broke , carried and spread rock on the roads.