Argyle Cut

The Argyle Cut is a deep, jagged chasm carved directly through the sandstone ridge that separates The Rocks from the rest of Sydney. Its walls still bear the deep, vertical grooves left by the iron chisels of convicts in the eighteen forties. Those men worked in teams of three, one holding a steel drill while two others swung heavy hammers. They cleared a path for horse-drawn carriages to climb the steep hill, completing a job that previous attempts in the eighteen twenties had failed to finish.