Designed to encourage more people to visit the 240-kilometre stretch of road including the historic town of Wollombi, the map was developed as part of the Convict Trail Project and put together by Cartoscope Touring Maps.

The map was made possible through funding from the Australian Government’s ‘Your Community Heritage’ competitive grants programs, which is aimed at protecting and conserving nationally significant sites.

Representing the Department of Environment, Assistant Secretary from Program Delivery and Support, Gregory Andrews officially launched the map and said that it was a terrific example of successful community heritage programs.

“I am delighted to be here in Wollombi today on behalf of the local government,” he said.

“This map is a valuable resource that is going to go far in raising awareness for areas that a lot of people still don’t know about.

“This was a competitive program; your project was one we saw value in one that we wanted to see continued.

“It goes without saying that this has been made possible because of the excellent work done by the Convict Trail Group and I congratulate them on creating such a high quality project.” 

Also present at the launch was Member for Cessnock Clayton Barr and Cessnock Mayor Bob Pynsent, along with numerous councillors attending the 2014 Local Government NSW Tourism Conference (which was held at Crowne Plaza Hunter Valley from March 10 to 12).

Cr. Pynsent said that Wollombi is a great example of the unique tourism attractions that the Cessnock local government area has to offer.

“This is a great day and I am very happy to be here and to have so many representatives from other councils here to share in this terrific initiative,” he said.

“This map is a great example of diversity in tourism, which is such an important part of our area.”

In total 100,000 maps have been printed and will now be distributed from visitor information centres.

The map also contains a QR code feature which is a first of a kind and allows users to connect to place relevant video content on the Great North Road’s website, which assists in telling the story of the history of the sites.