Sturt Highway

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sturt Highway
Length	959 km
General direction	West-East
From	Main North Road / Barrier Highway , Gawler, South Australia
via	Nuriootpa, SA, Renmark, SA, Mildura, Vic, Balranald, NSW, Hay, Narrandera, Wagga Wagga
To	Hume Freeway, 9 km north of Tarcutta, New South Wales
Allocation	Gawler SA - NSW/Vic. Border: Formerly NSW/Vic. Border - Hume Highway:
Major Junctions	Barossa Valley Highway Calder Highway Silver City Highway Murray Valley Highway Mid-Western Highway via Cobb Highway Kidman Way Newell Highway Olympic Highway

The Sturt Highway is an Australian highway in New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia.

The Sturt Highway is part of the Auslink National network and is part of the main highway route between Sydney and Adelaide. The Sturt Highway commences at its junction with the Hume Highway near Gundagai south west of Sydney. The Highway heads more or less due west, passing through the northwest of Victoria, and linking the towns of Wagga Wagga, Narrandera, Hay, Balranald, Mildura, Renmark and Gawler. The highway carries the and throughout its entire route. Route continues from Gawler south towards Adelaide along Main North Road^[1].

None of the Sturt Highway is constructed as dual-carriageway, although a number of overtaking lanes have been added in recent years to help make it safer with the high volume of traffic.^[2] Major 'S'-bend curves near Waikerie have been realigned, and further upgrades to the road are planned up to 2009.^[3]

The Sturt Highway is named after Charles Sturt, who explored south western New South Wales, the Murrumbidgee and Murray rivers and also parts of the deserts of central Australia in the 1820s and 1830s. The highway crosses the Murrumbidgee at Balranald having followed that river for much of the route from the Hume Highway, and crosses the Murray a total of four times:

• At Mildura over a high arched bridge
• At Paringa (near Renmark) over a lift-span bridge which used to have a railway through the middle as well as the road carriageway on each side
• At Kingston over a high bridge from an embankment on the right bank to the cliffs on the left bank
• At Blanchetown over another high bridge to cliffs on the right bank.

As well as linking with the Hume Highway, the Sturt Highway connects with:

• the Newell Highway at Narrandera
• the Mid-Western Highway at Hay
• the Mallee Highway at Balranald
• the Murray Valley Highway east of Euston
• the Silver City Highway at Buronga
• the Calder Highway at Mildura
• the Barossa Valley Highway at both Nuriootpa and Gawler.
• Main North Road at Gawler

The Sturt highway is proposed to be extended by 22 km from Gawler southwest to meet Port Wakefield Road at Waterloo Corner as part of the AusLink project creating a new road known as the Northern Expressway. This will provide better access for road transport to Port Adelaide and the industrial areas west and northwest of the city.^[4]

[edit] Towns on the Sturt Highway

New South Wales Forest Hill Gumly Gumly Wagga Wagga Narrandera Darlington Point Hay Balranald Euston Gol Gol Buronga

Victoria Mildura Merbein South Cullulleraine

South Australia Yamba Paringa Renmark Monash Barmera Kingston Waikerie Blanchetown Truro Nuriootpa Gawler

[edit] See also

• Highways in Australia
• Highways in Victoria
• List of highways in New South Wales
• List of highways in South Australia

[edit] References