Conscript Pass and Lorna Brand

It is a long trek down to Conscript Pass from Thornleigh Oval (NSW) but there is an interesting history behind it.

In the Great Depression of the 1930's, a Thornleigh local, Lorna Brand raised money for the construction of a walking track near the Lane Cove River as a way of providing relief work for the unemployed. The track is known as Lorna Pass and is now part of the Great North Walk. It begins just behind Thornleigh Oval at the the rock (pictured at left) with the left pointing arrow. It then goes parallel to the river for a short distance before looping back to the Comenarra Parkway.

An extension goes down to the river through a spot called Conscript Pass. Here there are rock carvings done by the men who worked on the track. Firstly their initials (in the main photo above) and then the caricature of Sir Bertram Stevens, the Premier of New South Wales from 1932 to 1939 (pictured at right) .

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