Bypass

Bypass the story of a road ‘This is not so much the story of a road, as the story of people whose lives have been affected by the road’ Discuss Mcgirr talks about how the history of the road he journeys across, he also talks about how the road used to travel through or by towns or shops giving them business etc. Now these places have been bypassed. The people’s lives have been affected dramatically. In 1982 Hume and hovel to travellers headed off from gunning to south port-Phillip then to Melbourne travelling along the Hume highway. Hume and hovels travels began rolling out the course of what was to become the Hume highway, a road which began life as a track linking properties increasingly distant from Sydney. Hume and hovel isn’t the only people to travel along the Hume. Lady Jane Franklin was the first lady to travel along the Hume highway. She travelled with servants, two policemen and three gentlemen. She took a different path on the Hume compared to Hume and hovel she went up north she went from Sydney to Melbourne. Cliff young at age 61 travelled across the Hume also although cliff young travelled a little different to Mcgirr, Hume and hovel and Lady Jane Franklin he walked across the Hume from Sydney to Melbourne in gum boots for a marathon. A historical moment that had happened on the Hume highway was the truck blockade in 1979 on Razorback Mountain. Being a truck driver would be extremely difficult, for example being away from your loved ones all the time etc. For ten days before Easter the road was blocked by the very people whose livelihood depended on it. The blockade caused major drama because of the cargo the trucks were holding, food, supplies. They are very important things we need in everyday life. The blockade was 10 days long so for those 10 days people who lived n Melbourne or Sydney could not get there supplies. The blockade was caused by truck tax it was costing the truck drivers more to drive the truck then to pay off their mortgage. One truck driver who had tried to stop the blockade was followed up the Hume to Liverpool where he was pulled from his truck by other drivers and beaten.ken Coggan was the driver of the fifth truck form the top of the mountain during the blockade. He was carrying a large quantity of orange juice which eventually had to be dumped. To this day ken is still driving trucks, many of his friends are not the stress of the road and industry managed to take their own lives. There is a new bridge called the Sheahan Bridge. This bridge is 1,114 meters long the second longest bridge in NSW this is where these days if a truck blockade was going to happen this is the spot they choose. Michael Mcgirr takes a journey from Sydney to Melbourne travelling by bike along the Hume highway. Throughout his journey he adventures to towns and cafes that have been once very popular tourist attractions, because of the hume highway passing through the towns or passing by the cafes bringing them business and helping to keep the towns, businesses alive. To make the travel from Sydney to Melbourne shorter and quicker they stopped the road going through or by the towns and shops to a more direct route. That will make the journey from Sydney to Melbourne much faster and to save the hassle of detouring through towns. One of the main towns affected by the Bypass was gunning. Gunning was bypassed back in 1993. Before that had happened gunning’s population was over a 1000 people, but because of the bypass it was down to 500, Mcgirr says “there’s more people buried there then what there is living there. Gunning used to have two hotel/pubs open one at the entrance of the town and one at the back of the town. Both were such popular businesses from the tourists travelling through the town on the Hume. Now gunning only has the one hotel/pub open, and it’s usually only visited by the locals. A little cafe just outside of Yass used to be a popular cafe with dozens of shops surrounding. All the long distance traffic would come through spending all their money all the cafe and shops, but now the Hume highway has changed, the shops surrounding the cafe are all now closed, the street is empty. Same as gunning the only people who really visit the cafe is the locals. The Hume highway once offered small towns along the old Hume hope, excitement, business and tourism. Now that the Hume has changed its direction to a quick, fast more direct route these small towns businesses have been deserted only leaving the people who had already lived there. The Bypass has affected the lives of the people living along the Hume highway hugely and dramatically.