 For most of its length, the road went through well-timbered, sandy limestone country of little value to agriculture.The area's first European settler was John Fouracre, who built a house in this area in 1852 and had established a wayside inn and changing station at Wellington Location 205 in 1854.The townsite of Lake Clifton was developed in 1920 as a result of the W A Portland Cement Co. seeking to mine a lime deposit there.