Everything about Highway 1 Australia totally explained
Highway 1 is
Australia's coastal
highway joining all mainland's state capitals and coastal towns circumnavigating the entire Australian continent. At a total length of more than 24,000 km (14,900 miles), it's the longest national highway in the world.
Highway 1 also goes through
Tasmania. It starts in
Hobart and then works its way past
Launceston and up to
Burnie.
History
When the
National Route Numbering system was adopted in
1955, Highway 1 was the only true national highway, although it wasn't necessarily the shortest distance between many town centres. Most of the other national routes are at some point a tributary of Highway 1.
The highway links the
central business districts of
Brisbane,
Sydney,
Melbourne,
Adelaide,
Perth and
Darwin, and includes major highways such as the
Bruce Highway (north of Brisbane),
Pacific Highway (Brisbane-Sydney),
Princes Highway (Adelaide-Melbourne-Sydney) and the
Eyre Highway.
With the introduction of
National Highway system, the significance of Highway 1 diminished. In the
1990s,
Victoria and
South Australia adopted alphanumeric route numbering but retained the number 1 along the length of the highway in both states, with the letters M, A,B,C or D denoting the quality of the road.
Under the original Highway 1 scheme, certain stretches parallel to the main track was marked as
National Route Alternative 1. However, almost all has been replaced by State Route or Alpha-numeric Numbering. This isn't the case in parts of Melbourne, where the old Princes Highway from Dandenong to South Melbourne retains the Alt 1 signage. The M1 route follows the Monash Freeway, CityLink and the West Gate Freeway and connects with the Old Princes Highway at Laverton. Sections of the old Princes Highway carry national routes A79 and A8, and metropolitan route B83.
Track
From Sydney, it heads southwards to Melbourne and then on to Adelaide via
Princes Highway. From then on to Perth via
Port Wakefield Road and the
Eyre Highway,
Coolgardie-Esperance Highway,
South Coast Highway,
South Western Highway .It then heads to Darwin via
Brand Highway,
North West Coastal Highway,
Great Northern Highway,
Victoria Highway and
Stuart Highway.
From Darwin, Highway 1 follows the
Stuart Highway to
Daly Waters, and thereafter the
Carpentaria Highway to
Borroloola. From then on it follows the unsealed
Savannah Way through
Burketown and
Normanton in Queensland.
From there, it follows the
Gulf Developmental Road to
Cairns and southwards via
Bruce Highway to
Brisbane and thereon back to Sydney by
Pacific Highway.
In
Tasmania it starts at the
Brooker Highway in
Hobart and heads towards
Launceston via the
Midland Highway. At Launceston it becomes the
Bass Highway to
Burnie. Highway 1 ends at Burnie; the Bass Highway continues to
Marrawah on the west coast as Highway A2.
Large sections of Highway 1 are shared with the Australian
National Highway, though the two are not synonymous. For instance, the
Princes Highway from Sydney to Melbourne is part of Highway 1, but isn't part of the National Highway, which follows the
Hume Highway and Freeway.
Road conditions
With such incomparable length that takes it around Australia its road condition varies from high-speed expressways in the big cities and busy country freeways like stretches of Pacific Highway and Princes Freeway to isolated and remote areas like the
Nullarbor Plain and north western coasts and
4WD-only dirt tracks in the top end of the
Northern Territory.
Some stretches across the
Nullarbor Plain and along the north-western coastline are quite isolated, with roadside settlements supporting the passing traffic the only noticeable human activity for hundreds of
kilometres. Still other stretches are high-speed high-capacity expressways with six lanes or even more such as
Brisbane's Gateway and Pacific Motorways,
Sydney's Eastern Distributor and
Melbourne's
Monash Freeway.
Average daily traffic counts on Australia's
Highway 1 range from as few as 500 vehicles to over 100,000 vehicles every day.
Sights
Highway 1 covers practically every major inhabited part of Australia. It includes large capital cities, busy holiday resorts, dramatic coastlines, forests ranging from tropical through to temperate gum forests and giant
karri stands, scrubland, deserts and huge tropical swamps are some of the variety of landscapes that can be found along en route.
Stretches of Highway 1 are very popular with interstate and overseas tourists. A drive around Highway 1 with a major detour to
Uluru and back again practically covers most of Australia. The number 1 shield became part of the bush landscape to many travellers, truckers and country people.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Highway 1 Australia'.
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