Hartley Court House - 1837 to 1937

HISTORIC GLENROY, COX’S RIVER. 17
River, and the third at Bathurst. W hen these French tourists
with Lawson reached Mount York it was long past nightfall,
and after negotiating the headlong descent, whose depth and
extent were invisible in the darkness, they found themselves at
the end of a quarter of an hour in the marshy Yale of Clwydd.
The solitudes were wrapped in the utter silence of the mild, still
night. N ot a word was spoken as they went forward singly,
the rhythmic beat of the horses’ feet the only sound that broke
the religious calm. The barking of dogs at midnight and the
sound of a running stream heralded the approach of the military
depot on the banks of Cox’s River. Here they spent the whole
of the next day to rest their horses and to wait for their
impedimenta. In their exploration of the neighbourhood they
soon noticed the change in the geological nature of the country,
which was of granite in contrast to the sandstone of the Blue
Mountains, whose excessive dryness was succeeded b y the
agreeable freshness of the valley, watered as it was by several
streams. Leaving Bathurst on the morning of December 5,
it was again after midnight when these Frenchmen returned to
the depot at Cox’s River. Everyone was astir very early the
next morning and eager to view in daylight Mount Y ork and
the bold pass they had descended on the last night in November.
C o m m is s io n e r B ig g e f r o m L o n d o n S e e k s I n f o r m a t io n a t
C ox’s R i v e r .
John Thomas Bigge, sent to the colony as Commissioner
of Inquiry, visited Bathurst in 1820. Evidence given on
October 7, at C ox’s River, byC orporal James Morland, showed
that all men returning from Bathurst, whether Government or
William C ox’s, were victualled there, the beef coming from
Bathurst and the flour from the Nepean, and the carters who
brought it were victualled. According to Morland, the huts
were very badly put up and were in constant need of repair.
The local timber was poor. He stated also that he had taken
twenty-five bushrangers in all, including thirteen who had
recently attacked the post at Springwood. The detachment,
totalling five, was occupied in forwarding letters and guarding
Government carts of provisions to Bathurst, one of which arrived
every five weeks. The bushrangers were captured by surprise,
and the corporal examined every passing traveller he did not
happen to know. He said it was a bad cattle river in the winter
but good both winter and summer for sheep. Richard Lewis