The once busy highway, the main artery linking Maitland to Newcastle, is an eerie part of the city’s history that local John Buck recently stumbled across.

An afternoon drive turned into a trip down memory lane for John who took photographs of what remains of the old New England Highway and placed them on the You know You’re From Maitland Facebook page to jog a few memories. He is still keen to learn when the old road closed and the new highway, adjacent to Metford TAFE, opened. “I can remember driving along the old highway on Four Mile Creek and the memorials on the side of the road,” he said.

His post prompted over 60 comments from locals who recalled the road claiming several lives and the new highway opening in the early 1970s.

One woman who commented lived on a farm at Four Mile Creek and said teenagers were killed in a VW on her tenth birthday in January 1962. “The shrine has been there all those years. There were many accidents on that corner, supposedly 84 fatal accidents. We would hear the screech of brakes from our house and wait for the bang,” the woman said.

John said walking along the old road, near Heritage Gardens Nursery, was eerie. “It blew my mind. There was a little grotto on a bend, there’s nothing but bends through there.” He said it was good to see memorials still in tact. “It shows respect for those who are no longer with us. One memorial may have been relocated but someone has made the effort to keep it going. I’d like to see the names of those who lost their lives documented as a tribute to them and a reminder for drivers to slow down.

“In this fast paced world we seem to lose sight of these old things but someone has made an industrial quality stainless steel box containing what I believe are the original photos of Mary and Jesus.” John said the road now receives little traffic giving access to a handful of homes. “The bridge is still there but vegetation is taking over. The old double yellow lines are still visible on the tar. It’s like a little time capsule.”