“I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve visited the NSW Hunter Valley over the past 40 years or so. Perhaps 50, perhaps more.

But last weekend was, I think, only my third visit to the village of Wollombi, centre of the valley’s southernmost reaches and an important component of what became known as the Great North Road, which was established, largely by convict labour, between 1826 and 1836 to link Sydney with the Hunter Valley.”