of convict men in a short period of time and with no loss of life caused by road-making or other substantial difficulties, was reflective of his reputation as a more humane employer and magistrate than many of his contemporaries. The leadership qualities, vision and skill he showed constructing the road would also be evident in later government contracts won by Cox for other public works. The place is important in demonstrating aesthetic characteristics and/or a high degree of creative or technical achievement in New South Wales. The surviving precincts of Cox's Road have state technical significance for their ability to demonstrate simple, pre 1820s road building techniques. Improvement of the 1814 route throughout the 1820s also provide important evidence of later road building techniques and demonstrates the ongoing use of this key route to the interior, before it was superseded by the new Great Western Road laid out by Sir Thomas Mitchell in the 1830s. The Old Bathurst Road Precinct of Cox's Road is one of the longest, largely intact and still legible surviving sections of the 1814 road. It extends for over a kilometre beside and overlapping with an unsurfaced local road along the top of the ridge. The remains of the 1814 road are the central feature of the ridge-top landscape. They relate historically, physically and visually to the undisturbed landscape to the east and to the various later transport and settlement developments to the west. From the apex of the ridge near the Woodford Trig Station there are extensive views on both sides of the road which conform with those described by early travellers giving a sense of the experience of travel along the early nineteenth century road even though parts of the surrounding area have been gradually developed with infrastructure such as sewerage pumping stations, pipelines and electricity power poles. The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group in New South Wales for social, cultural or spiritual reasons. Cox's Road and its remnants are demonstrated as having social significance by the substantial interest in identifying and promoting Cox's Road for cultural tourism and education, and celebrating the bicentenary of the road by the general public, state and local government bodies and a range of community organisations. The road is of particular importance to Cox descendants. The William Cox Fellowship first nominated sections of Cox's Road for heritage listing in