I started writing this post and then got very embarrassed.
Back on 16 June, Gordon Smith let me know that the Armidale/Kempsey Road had been reclassified as a local road rather than as a road of regional significance. It's bad enough that I have let that email sit for a month, but there is worse. Then I suddenly realised that I had dome something far worse!
Back in January 2010 in response to a post I wrote on that road, Jamie Schmidt wrote to me:
Hi Jim my name is Jamie Schmidt my ancestor Henry Sauer built several sections on the Armidale to Kempsey road between 1878 and 1881.The section at Flying fox cutting sent him bankrupt as the superintendent asked him to widen it, perhaps unwisely he borrowed to pay for the work but the government refused to pay him.I have a great article from the Macleay Chronicle 28.04 1904 in which he explains some of the difficulties experienced in building the road.
Jamie sent me a copy of the clipping, but I never responded. I put it aside to do so, it got packed in a box and then vanished! Jamie, my apologies. I will write a post on the road, but in the meantime here is a photo from John Caling showing bullock drays on that road. 
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