THE OLD GLEN INNES/ GRAFTON ROAD
THE OLD GLENN Innes/ Grafton Road is a former Cobb & Co route dating back to 1867. It provided the only access across the northern NSW ranges separating the tablelands to the west and the coast to the east. It remained the only access across the ranges until the Gwydir Highway opened in the early 1960s, providing a faster and easier route across the Gibraltar Range.
Interestingly, as the accompanying map illustrates, the old route follows a southern arc whereas the new road arcs to the north: just two options of finding a traversable way across essentially the same set of ranges.
Both routes get honourable mentions in The Bear’s 200 top rides (118 and 119). The Bear’s descriptions start at Grafton and go west to Glen Innes. I rode the old road east from Glen Innes to Grafton. As consistently happens with country roads, it’s called either the Old Grafton Road or the Old Glen Innes Road, depending on which way you’re heading.
While my choice to ride from Glen Innes was based solely on convenience, it turned out to have one worthy benefit: it kept me on the safer, inside of the ledge-road that runs for several kilometres hugging the escarpment above the Boyd River. That would have made me feel more comfortable meeting a 4x4 coming the other way along the narrow – and, at times, crumbling-edged road.
Both ends of the road come off the Gwydir Highway. The eastern end is 35km
