PILGRIMAGE DRIVE

Pilgrimage drive from Gulgong to Grenfell

Source: Newspaper, 2 June 2005

The annual Henry Lawson Pilgrimage Drive first took place in 1999 and continued annually to commemorate the journey of the six-week-old Henry Lawson and his family in a sulky from Grenfell to Gulgong in 1867.

The drive’s finishing point alternated each year between Gulgong and Grenfell. Participants would spend two weeks travelling in their horse-drawn vehicles and stopping at various campsites. They visited schools and chatted to people along the way. The event was timed to arrive at the destination town on the Queen’s Birthday Long Weekend in June. Each town put on a street parade on the Saturday and it was customary for the Henry Lawson Pilgrimage participants to lead the parade at the end of their two week journey.

Henry Lawson Pilgrimage Drive organiser John Hetherington, 2010

Source: Justin Huntsdale - ABC Local

Local participants included Chris Hill and John Hetherington of the Gulgong Heritage Harness Association who attended the first 15 drives. The most difficult part of the pilgrimage was not the journey but the paperwork involved in organising traffic management plans across four different local government areas.

Source: Mudgee Guardian, 20 May 2015, Wellington Times, 27 May 2013 

Source: Mudgee Guardian, 20 May 2015, 

More information here.