Category:Luddenham Road, South West Sydney

English: Luddenham Road is a rural road through Luddenham and Orchard Hills in New South Wales. It connects Mamre Road to the northeast with Elizabeth Drive at the southeast. The road is undulating through adjacent farmland and, in some sections, is cut into the side of the hills. The roadway itself is an asphalted two lane road with grassed verges and some areas with remnant stands of trees. Some sections of the road retain stretches of old timber post and rail fencing that provides evidence of the use of the local area for grazing purposes over a long period of time.

Luddenham Road provides evidence of the early nineteenth century pastoral activities in the Penrith region, connecting the estates of Luddenham and Lee Holme owned by brothers John and Gregory Blaxland respectively. It continued to be an important link through the nineteenth century, connecting Bringelly with St Mays.

The sparsely settled landscape around Luddenham Road and the long surviving post and rail fencing continue to provide evidence of the predominant pastoral activities in the district in the nineteenth century through to the present time (2008) and give the road a high level of aesthetic appeal.

The village of Luddenham is named after the Luddenham estate established by John Blaxland on his 1813 grant of 6,710 acres. Most of Blaxland’s activity on Luddenham took place around the present village of Wallacia. Blaxland’s brother Gregory had received a grant of 2,000 acres called Lee Holme at Orchard Hills in 1809. Luddenham Road connected the two Blaxland estates.

In the later decades of the nineteenth century, Luddenham Road provided a link between Bringelly and St Marys. The road was important enough that it was first metalled in 1887.

The road eventually became a Government Road, first appearing on the Claremont Parish Map c.1900 as a government road running north from the present Elizabeth Drive.

• Portions of this description come from the NSW description, which is licensed under CC-BY 4.0.