The portion of the road between Gloucester and Nowendoc began as a marked tree line blazed by William Telfer Snr for the Australian Agricultural Company. His son recalled those early days:

“In about 1838 the Company got my father to mark a tree line from Port Stephens to Dungowan Creek. It went by way of Barrington, Nowendoc and Callaghan’s Swamp, which at that time was one of the wildest parts of Australia. The line was of great service as all the sheep, except the breeding ewes, were taken down to Port Stephens and shorn there, returning after shearing to the Peel River Estate.”

By 1840, before the village of Walcha had begun to form, there was a primitive track from Nowendoc Station to William Denne’s Tia River Station. It was said to pass through reasonably level country and was known as the New England Road.

In the first half of the 1850s the A.A. Company improved the dray road over Hungry Hill and opened up a new road to Walcha in an attempt to encourage New England graziers to ship their wool clip via Port Stephens.

As a result of the ongoing construction of the Main Northern Railway Line, which reached Maitland by 1857, the Company ceased privately maintaining the road from Port Stephens to New England, which quickly fell into a state of disrepair.

The Armidale Express of July 12, 1873, said: “The road from Walcha to Nowendoc may be classed amongst the most wretched in the colony. It is barely safe to travel on.”

The Walcha Witness of September 22, 1906, was also unimpressed with the state of the road, saying: “The road is in a bad state at present. The Walcha-Nowendoc mailman had great difficulty last week owing to several large trees being across the road. He had to take the horses out of his buggy and pack them with mail for the final 12 miles to Nowendoc.”