Highway 1 (Australia)

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The National Route 1 shield was once a familiar sight in all states

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 is the longest national highway in the world.^{[citation needed]}

Highway 1 also goes through Tasmania. It starts in Hobart and then works its way past Launceston and up to Burnie.

1 History
2 Track
3 Road conditions
4 Sights
5 References
6 See also

[edit] History

Stretches of Highway 1 which is a part of the National Highway network sports the green and gold shield and is designated as National Highway 1 instead of National Route 1

When the National Route Numbering system was adopted in 1955, Highway 1 was the only true national highway, although it was not 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 However, almost all has been replaced by State Route or Alpha-numeric Numbering.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 is not 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.

The National Route Alternative 1 shield

[edit] Track

Princes Highway, part of the Highway 1 network, at Moruya, New South Wales

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 is not part of the National Highway, which follows the Hume Highway and Freeway.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.