Bowens Hollow
Convict Stockade

Comleroy Road > Comleroy Rd Convict Camp > NSW Stockades > Lithgow Stockades > Bowens Hollow

Bowens Hollow Stockade was one of five convict stockades in the Lithgow area of NSW (see map). Ollie Leckbandt says that main task of the convicts at this stockade would have been to quarry stone, run lumberyards, build Bowen's Creek bridge and perhaps construct some roadwork along Mitchell's Road in the Old Bowenfels area of NSW.

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Five stockade sites along the Mitchell's Road between the Blue Mountains escarpment at Mt Victoria and Rydal on the way to Bathurst: Mt Victoria, Hassans Walls, Bowens Hollow, Mt Kirkley and Mt Walker.

There was no formal barricade made of upright stakes enclosing the convicts' quarters at Bowens Hollow Convict Stockade, as there was at the Mount Walker and Mount Victoria Stockades. Instead the convicts seem to have been housed in portable boxes at this stockade.

Ollie Leckbandt has made a detailed study of this site. However, unfortunately few pertinent relics were found due to the disturbed nature of the site. Ollie believes that it was rather a small stockade with only one or two buildings.

Ollie has documented the relics that were found and explained their history in his book, Convict Stockades from Mount Walker to Mount Victoria. This book also provides site photographs, maps and historical notes about the Bowens Hollow Convict Stockade and the nearby Forty Bends Cemetery.

References

Convict Stockades from Mount Walker to Mount Victoria. Ollie Leckbandt. (1998).

The No. 2 Stockade Cox's River - Its Life and Times. An Historical and Archeological Investigation. Sue Rosen and Michael Pearson. (1997). Environmental Services, Pacific Power.