Princes Highway

Princes Highway
see other route designations below
Length	1,898 km (1,179 mi)
Direction	East-West via the coast
From	Great Western Highway, Chippendale, Sydney
via	Wollongong, Batemans Bay, Orbost, Sale, Melbourne, Geelong, Warrnambool, Mount Gambier, Robe, Tailem Bend, Murray Bridge, Crafers, Adelaide, Port Wakefield
To	Eyre Highway, Port Augusta, South Australia
Established	1920
Allocation	Wollongong-NSW/Vic Border: Proposed to replace NSW/Vic Border-Traralgon, Geelong-Mount Gambier: Formerly Mount Gambier-Tailem Bend: Formerly Tailem Bend-Adelaide-Port Augusta: Formerly
Major junctions	Illawarra Highway Kings Highway Snowy Mountains Highway Monaro Highway Great Alpine Road South Gippsland Highway Hyland Highway Princes Freeway Geelong Ring Road Great Ocean Road Hopkins Highway Henty Highway Glenelg Highway (Casterton Road) Riddoch Highway Southern Ports Highway Dukes Highway Stuart Highway

For bypassed sections of the Princes Highway, see the following: Princes Highway, Sydney, Princes Highway, Wollongong, Old Princes Highway, Victoria, Princes Highway, Melbourne, and Princes Highway, Geelong.

The Princes Highway is a major road in Australia, extending from Sydney to Port Augusta, South Australia via the coast through the states of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. It has a length of 1,941 kilometres (1,206 mi) (along Highway 1) or 1,898 kilometres (1,179 mi) via the former alignments of the highway,^{[citation needed]} although these routes are slower and connections to the bypassed sections of the original route are poor in many cases.

The highway follows the coastline for most of its length, and thus takes quite an indirect and lengthy route. For example it is 1,040 kilometres (650 mi) from Sydney to Melbourne on Highway 1 as opposed to 870 kilometres (540 mi) the more direct Hume Highway (National Highway 31), and 915 kilometres (569 mi) from Melbourne to Adelaide compared to 730 kilometres (450 mi) on the Western and Dukes Highways (National Highway 8). Because of the rural nature and lower traffic volumes over much of its length, the Princes Highway is a more scenic and leisurely route than the main highways between these major cities.

History

The Princes Highway as a named route came into being when pre-existing roads were renamed ‘Prince's Highway’ after the visit to Australia in 1920 of the Prince of Wales (later to become King Edward VIII and, after abdicating, the Duke of Windsor).

The original submissions in January 1920 were in order for the Prince to have the opportunity during his visit to make the trip from Melbourne to Sydney overland along the route. Different routes were considered, including the inland route via Yass. This idea never came to fruition, due partly to the limited amount of time and the cost to construct the road to a suitable standard for him to undertake the trip. The Prince did, however, give his permission for the naming.

The highway had opening ceremonies in both New South Wales and Victoria during 1920. The first section of road from Melbourne was opened on 10 August in Warragul. The road from Sydney was opened on 19 October in Bulli, by the NSW Minister for Local Government, Thomas Mutch.

The approval was given by the Victorian executive to extend the highway west from Melbourne through Geelong, Camperdown, Warrnambool and Portland to the South Australian border in January 1922. The roads were renamed by the South Australian government from Adelaide east to the South Australian border in February 1922.

In August 2011, the stretch of the highway in South Australia between Port Wakefield and Port Augusta (commonly referred to as "Highway 1") was renamed "Augusta Highway" as part of a process to standardise the rural property addressing system across the state.

Route

New South Wales

See also: Princes Highway, Sydney and Princes Highway, Wollongong

Princes Highway at Moruya, New South Wales.

Princes Highway at Eden, NSW.

The Princes Highway starts at the junction of Broadway (Great Western Highway) and City Road in the Sydney suburb of Chippendale. City Road in fact forms the first section of the highway, and becomes King Street in Newtown, also part of the Princes Highway. Where King Street ends at Sydney Park Road, the Princes Highway continues in its own right.

It runs through Sydney's southern suburbs (the St George area and Sutherland Shire), via Kogarah, Sutherland and Engadine to the village of Waterfall.

After Waterfall the highway is paralleled by the Southern Freeway (national route 1) to the top of Bulli Pass outside the city of Wollongong, which carries the majority of traffic. The highway then enters the northern suburbs of Wollongong and the Illawarra region via Bulli Pass, whilst Mount Ousley Road, which is designated as part of national route 1, bypasses Wollongong's northern suburbs to meet the Princes Highway at Fairy Meadow, and carries inter-city traffic. Where Mount Ousley Road enters Wollongong, the Southern Freeway branches off Mount Ousley Road, and parallels the highway through the suburbs of Wollongong to Yallah. The Mount Ousley Road-Southern Freeway route is the inter-city and main urban arterial through Wollongong's southern suburbs, whereas the Princes Highway acts as a local arterial.

From the southern end of the Southern Freeway at Yallah, the highway is dual carriageway, mostly to freeway standard, to Kiama Heights (with the exception of the 3 km section from the Illawarra Highway to Tongarra Road in Albion Park Rail, which is four lane undivided. Beyond Kiama Heights, 120 km south of Sydney, the highway is single two lane carriageway to Cambewarra Road Bomaderry. Design and preparation works are underway for the duplication of the highway from Kiama Heights to Cambewarra Road. This is intended to include a bypass of Berry, but adheres to the extremely hilly route from the southern end of the Gerringong bypass to Berry, rather than the flat terrain immediately to the east, which the Illawarra railway follows.

From Cambewarra Road the highway is four lane divided through Bomaderry and Nowra to near the junction with Warra Warra Road in South Nowra. Duplication to dual carriageway standard of a 6 km length south from here to Forest Road is under construction and scheduled for completion in early 2014, following a three month cessation of work while measures were put in place to protect a hitherto unknown area of habitat of the endangered green and golden bell frog. Beyond this section is 4 km of four lane single carriageway from Forest Road to the junction with Jervis Bay Road.

From Jervis Bay Road southward the highway is mostly single two lane carriageway along the South Coast of New South Wales, passing through Ulladulla, Batemans Bay (where the 1 km town centre bypass is built as dual carriageway), Moruya, Narooma and Bega, then bypassing Merimbula and passing through Eden, before crossing the border into Victoria, 550 km from Sydney and 515 km from Melbourne.

Work is presently underway to deviate a section of the highway with a substandard alignment at Victoria Creek 13 km south of Narooma, and work commenced in May 2012 on the 3.5 km Bega bypass. Realignments with associated new bridges are also proposed at Termeil Creek (30 km south of Ulladulla) and Dignams Creek (20 km south of Narooma). Current identified future projects are a bypass of Nowra-Bomaderry (definite route identified only for section south of Shoalhaven River), and a bypass of Ulladulla-Milton.

The Princes Highway is considered a dangerous road by the New South Wales NRMA, with 10 fatalities and 729 people injured on the highway between Sydney and the state border in 2006.

Victoria

See also: Princes Freeway, Princes Highway, Melbourne, Princes Highway, Geelong, and Old Princes Highway, Victoria

The Princes Highway is beautified in some towns, such as Bairnsdale, Victoria, where the median strip has been made a garden.

In Victoria, the length from the South Australian border to the New South Welsh border is 955km; the highway passes (from east to west, from the border with New South Wales) through Orbost, Bairnsdale and Sale in the Gippsland region. The highway then passes through the Latrobe Valley, and from here the highway continues west, bypassing Morwell, Warragul and Pakenham to Dandenong and into the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne. Most of this section is to freeway standard, with the main outstanding work being the freeway bypass of Traralgon, although the highway through Traralgon has already been built to urban dual carriageway standard.

As the road passes through Melbourne, it first follows the route of Lonsdale Street (through Dandenong), then Dandenong Road to St Kilda, and Queens Road through Albert Park (this section of highway is shown in the 1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan as part of the F14 freeway corridor). Closer to Melbourne city centre, it follows the route of Kings Way, and then King Street through central Melbourne. It then follows Curzon Street after leaving the central business district to enter North Melbourne, and then follows Flemington Road northwest from Curzon Street, then Racecourse Road, Smithfield Road and Ballarat Road, in that order, before it starts again as Geelong Road where Geelong Road branches southwest off Ballarat Road, and Ballarat Road leads onto the Western Freeway. This reason for this confusing naming of the highway through Melbourne is that it follows streets and roads which were already named when the highway was named in 1920 and which were not renamed.

Through Melbourne and its suburbs the route of National Route 1 is not the Princes Highway, but rather the Monash Freeway, which intersects the Princes Highway on the eastern outskirts of Melbourne, and then the West Gate Freeway which bypasses central Melbourne. These two freeways have been linked by the southern link of the CityLink tollway. This avoids the confusing and congested arrangement of roads that is the Princes Highway in central Melbourne.

Heading towards Geelong in a south-west direction, the West Gate Freeway and Geelong Road join together in a junction to become the Princes Freeway, which, unusually for an Australian intercity freeway, carries enough traffic to merit three lanes in either direction. On the northern outskirts of Geelong, the highway reverts from freeway to three lane dual carriageway through Geelong and its suburbs, with traffic light-controlled at-grade intersections. Through Geelong the highway is often heavily congested.

With the completion of stages 1 and 2 in December 2008 and of stage 3 in June 2009 of the freeway standard Geelong Ring Road, the M1 (i.e. national route 1) now follows the freeway-standard road from Geelong to Traralgon, without encountering any traffic lights (with the exception of Yarragon and Trafalgar, which are yet to be bypassed). The ring road rejoins the highway at Waurn Ponds on the western edge of Geelong.

After Geelong the highway heads in a generally western direction and is mostly a single two lane carriageway. In May 2008 the Victorian and Federal Governments each committed $110 million to duplicate the Princes Highway from the soutern junction with the Geelong Ring Road to Winchelsea.

West of Winchelsea the highway passes through Colac, before reaching Warrnambool. The section from Geelong to Warrnambool runs inland, and so avoids the slower, but scenic Great Ocean Road. From Warrnambool, the Princes Highway passes through Portland before crossing the border into South Australia. At this point the highway is 1530 km from Sydney, 465 km from Melbourne and 510 km from Adelaide.

South Australia

At Mount Gambier the highway takes a more northward tack as the coast curves to the northwest, passing the Coorong National Park. After Robe, it turns inland (north) to avoid the lakes at the mouth of the River Murray. Shortly before Tailem Bend it is joined by the Dukes Highway, part of the main route between Melbourne and Adelaide. The highway then turns north-west and becomes the South Eastern Freeway, crosses the Murray River, bypasses Murray Bridge and continues to Crafers where it becomes the Adelaide–Crafers Highway until Glen Osmond on Adelaide's southeastern outskirts.

At this point the Princes Highway is 6 km from Adelaide and 2055 km from Sydney. It continues north-west via Glen Osmond Road to Adelaide city centre, where it runs west along South Terrace then turns north along King William Street through the city centre and then follows Main North Road to Port Wakefield Road where it rejoins the coast. From Port Wakefield it continues as the "Augusta Highway", and follows the coast, skirting Port Pirie to continue on to Port Augusta, where it terminates at the intersection of the Eyre Highway and Stuart Highway.

See also

• Highway 1 (Australia)
• Highway 1 (South Australia)
• Highways in Australia
• Highways in Victoria
• List of highways in New South Wales
• List of highways in South Australia

External links

• RTA Webcam Suburban Sydney