Putty Road

[Garry]

Hi

Has anyone driven Putty Road through the Gardens of Stone National Park in NSW or Route 69 from Singleton to Wilberforce?

Me and the boy are on a road trip south to get his hours up driving and to pick up a few things for the 2a Workshop

I dont really want to head into or close to Sydney and this route looks a good one but a guy from work said it was a terrible road

Any comments?

Garry

[stikman]

Hi Garry,

Used to live at Colo Heights as a kid which is about 35mins from Wilberforce so used to travel that end of the road daily on the school bus etc About once a year when traveling north on holidays we would head straight up the Putty to Singleton and up the New England.

It is a very windy road (both ends) and has a long history of accidents, almost a major truck accident a year that I can remember as a kid, but in my opinion is a nice drive, but I grew up traveling it a lot. I have only personally driven it a couple of times but would have no hesitation doing it if needed.

As a learner I would suggest slow and steady, but it does get a bit of traffic (inc trucks) and from memory most is single lane each way so traffic passing your slow and steady might become an issue.

Wilberforce end of the road was very good last time I drove it, with a lot of new sections/upgrades. Given the amount of traffic it gets I cannot imagine the quality of any portion would be sub par but that is an assumption, so don't hold me to it Grimace or any of the boys that go to Tuff Truck may be able to give feedback on the first Singleton stretch though, but the large middle bit inbetween maybe somewhat unknown unless anyone has recently traveled it.

Hope that helps a little.

[LowRanger]

Gary
I don't live all that far from the Windsor end of the road.It is my preferred way of travelling north,as I hate going any where near the city.
Like all major roads,you get your share of trucks,especially early morning and at night.But the road is much nicer to drive these days than it was 20 years ago.
There are a few twisty sections,but the surface has been renewed on these sections,and they good to travel on.
As hopefully you will be travelling at the speed limit,you should have no problems,just look out for the police that patrol the length of the road these days,and enjoy the views,beats the city any day.

[Garry]

Thanks for the feedback

He will be doing the driving and the speed limit

I will plan that road in for the trip,

Garry

[Timj]

Hi Garry,

Don't forget that if he is a learner then in NSW he is restricted to 80kph no matter what road he is on. From experience I can tell you that this is not very pleasant for the learner when the trucks sit about 2 inches off the back trying to get them to go faster.

Cheers,

Tim.

[Garry]

That might make it a longer than normal run

Why cant all the states be the same?

Thanks for bringing that up though Tim, i didn't know that

Garry

[Tank]

On the windy section at the Northen end there are many switchback corners which semis have trouble getting around without some wheels crossing the centre lines. There were certain corners that 2 semis could not take in opposite directions at the same time, I used to know the names of the corners and all semi drivers would warn any approaching trucks when they were coming into these corners (CB radios). Most of the truck road deaths were on the straights up on the tops, take care and stay wide in the corners, night time is best as you can see headlights before you see the oncoming vehicle, Regards Frank.