The Peats Ridge Road Expressway: Lost Sydney 

Have you had a good week? Word up homie.

I was nearly killed on the old Pacific Highway, around about 1960 or 1961. My family was returning from holidays in an old DeSoto van. In front of us, a big lorry carrying logs broke its axle; the load shifted and came out the back of the truck onto our DeSoto. Had we been in an ordinary car, we would surely have been killed: the logs would have come through the windscreen. As it was, they hit the van's radiator and engine. The hand brake - old style - was forced back, pinning my father to the seat but doing him no real harm. I hit my head on the dashboard - I was 4 or 5 years old at the time - and the shattered window glass caused a few minor cuts. My baby brother, asleep in the rear seat, slept through the whole smash. My mother, too, had just a few minor cuts. We were all picking little pieces of glass out of the corners of our eyes for a few days, though! The lorry went over the side, and down a steep embankment. The driver was thrown out one side, and his young son who was a passenger went out the other. Both got off with a few scratches. Seeing the chaos, the policeman attending was astonished that there were no fatalities. Guardian angels must have worked overtime, but the construction of the expressway was appreciated by us all ... we didn't want to have to rely on miracles another time! 😅

The days of stopping at OAK at Peats Ridge was a part of a trip North

The "New" Freeway might officially be called the M1 but it was called the F3 before that n that's what I'll call it for the rest of my days!

Audio mixing felt pretty good this episode. Background music wasn't too loud and your voice came through clear. Keep it up!

Spent the first half of the 70s travelling on this road, and all over Sydney and Newcastle, in a truck (before moving over to the west) .Thank you for all these stories that bring back so many memories.

You need to get further from Sydney. In rural NSW 100kmh is the normal speed limit on "quiet rural roads" even narrow ones without centrelines or side markings and gravel roads too. The only unusual thing about Peats Ridge Rd is that the divided sections are not 110kmh because that would be normal.

Shame you had to stop at Ourimbah, you missed another section of "abandoned" freeway through Kangy Angy that runs alongside the M1 for local traffic. It was part of the Sydney-Newcastle Freeway until 1997/98, and in hindsight you should've gotten a Heathbrae's pie for a late lunch because they built one on that very section of road haha.

With the road alignment through peats ridge, as you mentioned there was meant to be a freeway that headed to Singleton. The reason for this is the route to Brisbane via the New England highway is what was planned to be upgraded to be the main route north rather than the pacific highway which is now the main route. Also no mention of the Oak Milkbar at Peats Ridge. It was an institution on that section of road.

This presentation has been well researched. I spent a lot of the 70's travelling on this road between Sydney and Newcastle. I have also travelled on the old highway and the new expressway allignment. I also appreciate the other presentations that you have presented on the lost expressway around Sydney.

As someone who grew up in Newcastle in the 70s & 80s, the highlight of a trip to Sydney was stopping at the OAK Milk Bar at Peats Ridge. I can't believe it didn't get a mention. I always looked forward to a milkshake and a crumbed sausage. OAK, the local dairy co-operative, had a series of milk bars on the highway north of Sydney where drivers could take a break. In addition to Peats Ridge, there were also OAKs at Freemans Waterhole and Hexham. The one at Freemans Waterhole even had a small native animal zoo with kangaroos, emus and birds. And I seem to remember the one at Hexman had a surf boat on display. Leaving the OAK out on a video about travelling Peats Ridge road is almost criminal.

As a truck driver who goes through the heavy vehicle station I've always wondered about that cutting under the bridge. I did read a few things but you cleared it up for me perfectly. Thanks👍subscribed

I'm now a young 55 year old living in Newcastle. I grew up in Sydney and travelled north to Taree many times to see relatives. Peats ridge hamburgers were always the best part of the trip.

I remember travelling in the old man's 38 Chev going to Sydney to visit relatives.Near the roadworks they had signs telling you to switch of your car radio incase it set of the explosives they were using to blast through the rock.

Can you please adjust your hat? It’s doing my head in 😅

I loved the shout out to ‘Secrets of the motorway’ I’d love if someone could cover every Australian freeway/motorway/expressway in a series.

I was a very regular driver from Wollongong to central coast from 1964 and saw every step of the construction. I was originally referred to as the Calga Freeway and commenced at Calga travelling through to Ourimbah. The reason for the long route was Mooney Mooney Creek which would take the construction of the long multi lane bridge that followed much later around 1986. I do not drive the trip as often these days but the fastest run I ever had was around 1967....two hours ten minutes on one early Sunday morning.

Geoff Marshall and Auto shenanigans on one channel what a great channel

You should check out the old Pacific Highway sections between Catherine Hill Bay and Swansea. There are still many km of very much intact road sitting unused in the bush east of the current road.

You will have to do another vid about "the Oak" at Peats Ridge & maybe the other OAK @ Hexham!! The only place to stop on the long gruelling trips back to Sydney ona Sunday afternoon/Night!

Reminds me of what became of the former Eagle on the hill section of the Princes highway in the Adelaide hills before it was bypassed by the Heysen Tunnels in 2000 - once a busy highway carrying four lanes of interstate traffic up and down the steep winding section of the Adelaide hills, and is still a nice detour that is readily accessible at anytime, but is now practically deserted, a ghost of it's former self with little evidence to suggest that it was once a busy highway.

I’ve never go my head around the highway from Sydney to Newcastle. Every 10 years it seemed to radically change. My parents drove it in the 1960s and I’ve driven it sporadically for the last 5 decades. Never worked out a unified theory of what’s going on. I just follow the signs.

Thanks for covering the phantom interchange at Mount White heavy vehicle station...the drone footage put into perspective something I've been trying to get my head around for ages! How about a peek at the (now closed) Mooney Mooney bridge lookout from the drone? I always wanted dad to pull in there as a kid and now I'm old enough to do it myself it's closed :(

I'm glad to see you liked the road signs. My father was the guillotine operator at the DMR workshop in Sydney. His job was to cut the signs to size from lengths of sheet metal.

Fascinating video. I worked on the M1 back around 1989 when major works were happening, which eliminate around 120+ bends. See Wootton Way formerly Pacific Highway near Bulahdelah. Probably the last most notoriously dangerous section of the highway. I would love to see a video showing the old highway route/alignment.

I hope you do a series on abandoned/forgotten sections of the Pacific Hwy

Came back from Newcastle today and we turned off the freeway at Ourimbah and traveled a fair bit of the old highway just for the fun of it. Our next planned trip is to follow the full length of the old highways from Hornsby to Newcastle.

A friend of mine was an engineer with the DMR, as it was known back then. I asked him "why the long deviation via Peats Ridge when much shorter routes were possible?". He said he believed that someone either in the Govt. or high up in the Department had property there and wanted better road access. Take it for what it is worth but it is a plausible explanation for such a huge waste of money..

G'day John, This video brings back some long & very fond memories from when I was a kid growing-up in the 1960's, I now live in Perth but originally grew-up in Mayfield in Newcastle. Now for a bit of nostalgia & short story, back in the mid 60's we use to travel down to Hornsby every two or three weeks to visit my older brother who worked for the ANZ bank. Now back then driving down to Sydney was a major family outing & a (for the time) huge road trip, because back then you had a combination of the Pacific Hwy & only a bit of the newly constructed Express Way (Pacific Hwy being the longest section). Anyway we would get up at around 04:00 in the morning after having packed the old VW Kombi van the night before & hit the road at 05:00. Now try & think of this mate, to travel from Mayfield to Hornsby back in the day took just under 5 Hours, but if we got a good run without to many Semi's we could accomplish this feat in just over 4.5 hours. A highlight of our trip was that Dad would always stop at Peats Ridge going either direction because there was an OAK Roadhouse/Rest area there & they had the best fresh chicken sandwiches & chocolate milkshakes any side of the Black Stump. Sorry to dribble on but your video just brought back so many good memories of my childhood & those epic road trips. Thank's Mate, Steve.

It's not Ooh-rim-bah it's Ah-rim-bah :P

Every time I drove down the old southbound carriageway - which, if memory serves me, meant reducing speed to 80km/h I think, on account of it narrowing to two lanes at this particular section and also being a bit too curvy and windy for 110 - I used to look down the gap in that rock and wonder what was originally planned. Way before the internet and OzRoads and RU-vid, there were few readily available resources to help average Joe’s like me find the answers to questions like that. And now look at everything we have at our fingertips! Another fantastic video mate - keep it up! :)

Thank you. I've ridden Peats Ridge road and Dog Trap road many times on the motorcycle and had no idea of its history. I always though that interchange with Peats Ridge road and the Old Pacific Hwy was over complicated.

I just had a thought, while your in Hobart, check out the suburban rail corridor which still has the 3'6" gauge rail intact and would service the northern suburbs all the way to the city, if you can have a chat with Christy Johnson, currently an independent member of Parliament, and a light rail advocate. It would be really interesting to get your take on it.

This explains those mysterious grade-separated interchanges on Peats Ridge Rd. One thing tho: on 3:45, most country roads have a speed limit of 100 km/h. Many, especially in South Australia, have speed limits of 110 km/h.

Following the old Hume Hwy to Mittagong would be very interesting. Lots of history

Can you do the Castlereagh Freeway section that was meant to go from M7 near Richmond Rd to Londonderry

Love your Lisa Simpson and the Union Pacific moment at the beginning 😂 Great video, have always wondered about Peats Ridge Road as I pass by that numerous times. Well researched and I learned something new again!

I remember well the OAK restaurant at Peats Ridge, we used to stop there all the time when going on holidays.

Two drone tips to get better colours straight off the micro SD card: 1. underexpose by about 0.7 stops 2. change from auto white balance to 5500°K) Cheers, Greg.

Hardly lost , we often go up there to get fresh fruit and veggies from the shops at Kulnura .

I grew up on Parklands Rd at Mt Colah. I had a hustle as a kid in the early 60's of selling lemonade to all the folks at a literal standstill, playing cards on the bonnets of their cars, on Peats Ferry Rd/Pacific Highway, trying to get north for the weekend. The difference the F3 made was incredible. And I still occasionally take my bike for a fang along the now very quiet Peats Ridge Road Expressway.

Thank you once again John/Sharath...your shenanigans are always greatly appreciated by those of us whom enjoy watching the lost and more less known "future" motorways and traffic corridors of Sydney and its surrounds...always a good watch and always...as usual...so informative and well researched...keep up the great work...and always looking forward to your next video!!!! Cheers from western Sydney!!!! and by the way...enjoy the Tassie trip!!!!

Your channel keeps getting better, loving the humor you bring - keep it up!

A bit of trivia for you to marvel at. The Peats Ridge Road was also the first road in Australia to have outer edge markings. It was done there to test out the concept. Seems to have been successful.

Such a blast from the past, been driving through that area since about 1973. Seems well researched.

I've ridden around there quite a bit an always wondered about the oddities at Peats Ridge. Thanks John.

Thanks, please this is constructive criticism, but when confronted with location names you’re not sure of the pronunciation, just ask some locals. Ourimbah is spoken by all locals and 90% of others as O rimba. With the O pronounced as in orange. I’m Australian and travelled much of our country and not knowing ‘local’ pronunciation can lead you a long way out of your way or lead to blank looks like your from another planet. Example: try these 2 Coolangatta and Tallangatta. Most will know the former but I’ll bet a beer most except locals will fail on the latter. Take care and if you would like to know the locals pronunciation reply and I try to explain. It’s tricky many will get it wrong.

All quiet roads should be 100km/h and duel carriage 110km/h or greater. Australia has a major issue of driver education and its time we remove bad drivers from the roads and change the rules more for common sense not revenue raising. due to the long distances we have to drive dropping limits from 100 to 80 or 80 to 60km/h adds travel time leading to less time available to rest. within the last 6 years in country Victoria my daily work trip has increased 8 min each way that's 1 hour and 20 min each week i need to be on the road and that's excluding any extra traffic. reducing the speed limit doesn't lower the risk of serious injury from a crash. it just relocates it to another area where fatigue sets in normally on a straight section of road that doesn't have chassis bending holes in the surface of the road

Ummmmm.....if you get out of capital cities such as Sydney, you'll find that most "quiet country roads" do indeed have a speed limit of 100km/h -- or in Sth Australia's case, 110km/h. An interestesting story, John, and one that I wasn't aware of. A great doco!

Still good for speed testing!!

I remember that in the 60s/70s the 'Calga-Ourimbah Expressway' was a notoriously deadly accident black spot.

Awesome! I read about this road on OZ Roads, and watched the DMR archive videos. Then visited the Peats Ridge Road in 2018 where I stopped and took heaps of photos. You did an excellent job at explaining all the details, including the phantom Mt White interchange! I travelled thru that interchange many times from the 1990's to today, and It changed a lot in the early 2000's.

Oh my, I spent many an hour taking this road, and George Down Dr, to visit relatives in Kulnura in the 80s, some of whom still live there. I recall how it used to be bumper to bumper at Christmas, basically all the way from Sydney. Fun fact, back in 80s, at least, at the intersection of Peats Ridge Rd and George Down Dr, was the original Oak milk bar. My brother and I always begged dad to stop there when we were in the area, and every once in a while he relented for us to enjoy a milkshake.

Peats Ridge Expressway. a safer alternative. At least on that old road. You don’t get Bathurst wannabes. Or stupid unnecessary road workers. And speed traps.

Great video. Very enjoyable series - Question, have you ever done a video about the abandoned couple Km of freeway on the M1 (Princes Motorway) Near Wollongong, between Picton Road and and the top of Bulli Pass? I'm guessing the old abandoned alignment was too steep or the corner was too tight, so they duplicated it a bit further north. It used to be possible (when driving northward) to drive a car up the abandoned alignment several years ago (Which I did) but I think there is a gate across the entrance these days. Maybe it's still walkable. You could park on the old road and watch the cars fly past below you on the newer alignment. Something to check out if you are curious.

Very informative m8.. I love the m1 such a big job getting through the cliffs.. a true rd of the world.. peats ridge is very poorly maintained now witch is sad

Hi. Can someone tell me where the abandoned bridge is, that was mentioned whilst discussing "Dog Trap Road". Thanks

"...completely abandoned, forgotten, lost" - really??? - Click bait mate.

I remember there were alot of people killed at Calga and along that strech of hiway. Also remember Oak use to have a shop at Peats Ridge a popular stop with alot of people.

Man... algorithm doing its job. I'm guessing because I follow Not Just Bikes, City Beautiful & Unfinished London, algorithm realised I enjoy well researched & presented viewpoints on city planning & road design. Nice to get a local taste too. Thoroughly enjoyed this, and have subscribed for more. Have many childhood memories of travelling on narrow, windy, tracks called the Pacific Hwy (or the Hume, Monaro & Princes or Kings Hwys) and I forget how much road systems and bypasses and highway upgrades have changed the nature of driving to the coast for summer holidays since the 80s and 90s. Things like stopping at truck stops, fuel stops. Driving through tiny little towns or villages where the highway through town brought tourists and thus money. Modern multilane freeways and motorways are such a different experience.

Unbelievable how much money was wasted on bad choices At least the locals can use Pete’s ridge road 😂😂

This road was both confusing and surprising when I first discovered it riding north from Calga on a push bike. It was the host to the most famous of time trial courses for many years. Less used by cars but still very popular for cyclists

Moved to Berowra back in 61. Should of seen the Pacific Highway then.

3:38 literally every country road has a speed limit of 100km/h (outside of residential areas) unless signposted otherwise. So not a very good point to be honest

you need to do a video on the station upgrades Unanderra Train Station has been waiting 20 years for and is still having to wait

Can you do a documentary on the Southern Highlands Train Line??

Does John know his fame has spread down under? 😄

Keep up the good old roads info 👍😎

At the time of building the Mooney Mooney bridge and 'shorter' freeway a story went around that they could not use the Mt White interchange as they where unable to find bed rock at the creek crossing to build the bridge on. By the way Ourimbah is pronounced A-rim-bah and say it fast (nice imitation of Auto Shenanigans also)

Still use it on occasion. Good drive

Just for future reference, Ourimbah is pronounced OR-IM-BAH. Fascinating video! I'm going to go for a drive on the weekend and check out that part of Dog Trap Road. I live just north of there and have travelled that road a number of times to avoid congestion and never even knew about that part.

Great information , i got no idea of this road was a high speed express way.

Great video Sharath, and have you had a good week? One constant about the road from Sydney to Newcastle while being developed was how it was always going to be built differently to last year’s plan. I reckon you’ve captured the highlights really well.

I live at Berowra, awsome to see aerial views of these roads

Great video! I had no clue this whole thing existed!

I am glad I stumbled on your channel. That was well researched, well documented and presented. Thank you.

Well researched and presented. The road was know formally as State Highway 26. The only section gazetted as a Motorway (Limited Access Road) was the northern section with the interchanges. The originally planned route from Mt White would have been built to a low standard as it was going to wind down to Mooney Mooney Creek and back up the other site. The new route was selected when advances in bridge building allowed for the higher structure over the creek. I think this may have been the real reason for the change however saving the national park makes for a good sales pitch by the government. The southbound ramp on the phantom interchange was the scene of many accidents and became well known as beer truck corner. In the 70’s a beer truck crashed and hundreds of cases of beer were scooped up and taken home by the workers who cleaned up the accident.

I love the concept that Auto Shenanigans could host "Secrets of the Motorway/Highway/Autobah" from other countries

Building roads that should not have been built or are stop-gap measures at best. I recall when the 'Great' Western Hwy was one lane in each direction over the Blue Mountains and was also the main street of Penrith and Emu Plains, long before the M4. Then, the M4 was built from Blactown to The Northern Rd, Penrith. Years later, it was extended to Mulgoa Rd and finished at a T- intersection at which you turned right to go along Mulgoa Rd to turn left at the GWH, across the river and through the main street of Emu Plains. More years later, the M4 was extended over the river but only with two lanes as only one bridge had been built. It ended at a T-intersection at Russell St where you'd turn right, go along Russell St, and turn Left onto the GWH. Even more years later, the other bridge was built and it became four lanes that went up the hill towards Lapstone where, to this day, it ends at traffic lights at Glenbrook and becomes a main road (not a feeway or what I'd call an interstate highway). For the rest of its length, it has traffic lights, pedestrian crossings and despite a couple of deviations, passes through the main street of several towns and is still only two lanes in some sections. So, they must've realized decades ago that the GWH needed a major upgrade but all these years later, it's still not finished and even when it is, it'll only ever be a main road, not a freeway. The other road over the mountains is the Bell's Line of Road from Richmond to Lithgow via Kurrajong. It's only two lanes but once past North Rickmond, there are no traffic lights or anything else to slow your progress. So what? I moved to Cranebrook in 1994 and was looking for a nearby address in the Gregory's Street Directory and on a certain page it showed a 'proposed freeway' going through Cranebrook and passing within a km or two to my house. It doesn't take Einstein to work out that the plan was to branch off the M4 somewhere around Blacktown, head NW through Cranebrook and on to Richmond and then over the mountains, converting the BLoR into 4-lane. Had they put their money into that instead of the GWH, it would be a true freeway as it doesn't pass through any towns but intead of that, we have the GWH that will never be a freeway and still carries local traffic. Had they done the BLoR, the GWH could've been left as it was for locals only and through traffic would all go the other way. In other words, they've spent millions on upgrading the wrong road. They had a better plan but never followed it.

Far from abandoned, far from quiet. A road linking mountain communities to each other and local industry to Sydney and Newcastle. Yes many people reside along this road and others adjoining it. Please enjoy the drive/ride but please be mindful of residents need for privacy and peace. Please turn your engines off if you choose to stop outside our homes, or there are many other places to stop where you can get refreshment, Drive and ride safely. .Walkabout Park at Calga on Peats Ridge road is a must. Generally a great listen. Thanks

I recall a town planner describing a gov idea in the early 50s to split Sydney in half with a green corridor or it may have a road thru also. It was proposed to run from blakehurst in the south to homebush, but I'm not 100% sure of the details now. The person who told me also said it was possibly to divide classes of people, any ideas???

Looking forward to seeing your take on Sydney's future rail!

O-RIMBAH (You're welcome)

Pronounced Or-Im -bah. Not Or-eem-Ba

I've been looking at this on google maps lately, I'm so glad you made this video, it's very interesting! Really looking forward for to your future metro proposal!

All "quiet country roads" have a 100 kph speed limit unless there's some other reason to post a lower speed limit. So it's far from unusual. (I live in semi-rural NSW, in New England).

That dangerous road claimed so many lives especially with the stupid roadside fruitshops

I've always wondered about this stretch of road since I found it on a random bike ride. Enjoy Tassie

Thanx. I used to do a lot of riding around those roads, loved the desolate interchanges.

Lol Auto Shenanigans! :D

You should do a video on the unused train lines/stations under Sydney City.

One of my favourite stretches of road in NSW. Thanks for the vid. 👍

Hi Sharath - great content. Have you considered doing a video on the Eastern (Paddington) Freeway?

Crises. Bit late, but yeah, the plural of crisis is crises. Pretty sure.

been watching you for a while love the music you've chosen in this video, sound is a massive improvement.

Put a tram on it like they do

Thanks for this one. I love local history and the little mysteries everywhere. Another one you should look into would be the "North Western Expressway". Separately, There's also a bit of carriageway somewhere in the CBD that was once something but is now inaccessible ... Need to find that one again! I also imagine there's merit to keeping roads like this one as they are incase they ever need to be used as a detour route for some reason. Also you should check out Knapsack Viaduct.

Lol Geoff Marshal… Wait That Jokes Old Now…

I agree with my learned friend and presenter of this video and all that he has said and offer my personal stamp of approval, the value of which is measurable.

I’ve always been fascinated by the abandoned on/off ramp of the western distributor, as well as the abandoned train tunnels underneath st james station.