Snowy Mountains Highway

Snowy Mountains Highway
Proposed to replace
Length	370 km (230 mi)
Direction	Northwest-Southeast
From	Hume Highway, 26km south-west of Gundagai, New South Wales
via	Tumut, Cooma, Bega
To	Tasman Sea, Tathra, New South Wales
Allocation	Cooma - Nimmitabel: (duplex with )
Major junctions	Monaro Highway Princes Highway

Fred Piper lookout on Brown Mountain, named in memory of a bus driver who conducted the regular run up and down the mountain.

The Snowy Mountains Highway is a state highway in New South Wales, Australia which traverses the Snowy Mountains.

The highway runs across the highland region in the southern part of the State. It starts at its junction with the Hume Highway near Gundagai. From there, the highway runs generally south-east, through the town of Tumut, then through Talbingo and up onto the southern highland plateau past Yarrangobilly Caves and the historic Kiandra Goldfields, then down through Adaminaby to Cooma. From Cooma the highway continues in a south easterly direction through Nimmitabel then descends down Brown Mountain to Bemboka then continues on to Bega and Tathra on the south coast of New South Wales.

In winter, much of the highway is subject to heavy snowfalls and the highway is the access route to Selwyn Snowfields ski resort. Skiing in Australia began at the Kiandra goldfields (now located on the Snowy Mountains Highway) around 1861. The ski lifts were transferred to Selwyn Snowfields in 1978.

Gallery

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  The Star Hotel, Tumut

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  The highway passes Talbingo Dam, a part of the Snowy Mountains Scheme

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  Yarrangobilly Caves is located off the Snowy Mountains Highway

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  Skiers at Kiandra, c. 1900. Skiing in Australia began at Kiandra around 1861

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  The restored former courthouse and ski chalet of Kiandra in 2010

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  Adaminaby's Big Trout

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  A view of the Monaro plain between Adaminaby and Cooma

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  Cooma courthouse

See also

• Highways in Australia
• Highways in New South Wales