page_title: Forrest Highway
section_title: 19th century road
hierarchical_section_title: Forrest Highway / History / 19th century road
caption_attribution_description: English: View along Old Coast Road in Western Australia in 1920. Original caption: "THE NOW NOTORIOUS GHOST-ROAD: It is really the old coast road from Pinjarra to Bunbury, but a sequence of tragedies in the Lake Clifton district has given it its sinister name.
context_page_description: Forrest Highway is a 95-kilometre-long highway in Western Australia's Peel and South West regions, extending Perth's Kwinana Freeway from east of Mandurah down to Bunbury. Old Coast Road was the original Mandurah–Bunbury route, dating back to the 1840s. Part of that road, and the Australind Bypass around Australind and Eaton, were subsumed by Forrest Highway. The highway begins at Kwinana Freeway's southern terminus in Ravenswood, continues around the Peel Inlet to Lake Clifton, and heads south to finish at Bunbury's Eelup Roundabout. There are a number of at-grade intersections with minor roads in the shires of Murray, Waroona, and Harvey including Greenlands Road and Old Bunbury Road, both of which connect to South Western Highway near Pinjarra.
  The settlement of Australind by the Western Australian Land Company in 1840–41 prompted the first real need for a good quality road to Perth. A coastal Australind–Mandurah route was completed by 2 November 1842. Though the road was rebuilt by convicts in the 1850s, its importance was already declining.
context_section_description: During the winter of 1842, the existing route became impassable, and Clifton undertook the creation of the proposed coastal route. He sent his company's men to clear the path and make a road. The first report of the new road was on 19 October, praising the new route but deriding the almost impassable obstacles presented by the large rivers en route. The Australind–Mandurah route was completed by 2 November, and the speed of the new route allowed almost daily communication. It could be travelled in 32 hours, with a ferry to cross the estuary at Mandurah. The ferry was operated, and later owned, by nearby resident Mrs Lyttleton, as the government was not interested at that time in owning or leasing out the ferry. The government later appropriated the ferry on 2 February 1843, and imposed standardised tolls for passengers and livestock. Ten years later, the ferry service was made available to the public free of charge.
  The road was rebuilt by convicts in the 1850s, but by that decade, the importance of the coast road was diminishing. For most of its length, the road went through well-timbered, sandy limestone country of little value to agriculture, and settlers in the vicinity of the road were scarce. In contrast, settlements had spread and prospered in the foothills of the Darling Scarp, and on 1 July 1853, Colonial Secretary Frederick Barlee announced a new proposal for a Perth–Pinjarra–Bunbury route along the foothills, with a one chain (66 ft; 20 m) width, mostly following the alignment of previous tracks. Between 1864 and 1876, two parties of convicts were involved in the making of the road.
  From 30 June 1868, the government discontinued the ferry's operation and the position of caretaker, leaving travellers to work the ferry themselves. The news was not well received, with newspaper letters complaining of the great inconvenience to the users of the shorter coastal route. As a result, the government reappointed a caretaker on 30 March 1869. In 1894 the ferry was finally abandoned in favour of a 600-foot-long (180 m) wooden bridge adjacent to old ferry jetties, which was built by contract at a cost of £1700. However, following the completion of the Perth–Bunbury railway in 1893, few people travelled up the coast road. While the adjacent land was still privately owned, it was uninhabited.
caption: The track of Old Coast Road in 1920
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