Hume Highway

Hume Highway Hume Freeway
Proposed to replace in NSW
General information
Type
Length	812 km (505 mi)
Opened	1817
Route number(s)	Casula - Campbelltown: Campbelltown - NSW/Vic. Border: NSW/Vic. Border - Campbellfield: Formerly
	WestLink Narellan Road Appin Road Illawarra Highway Federal Highway Barton Highway Lachlan Valley Way Burley Griffin Way Snowy Mountains Highway Sturt Highway Olympic Highway Riverina Highway Murray Valley Highway Midland Highway Goulburn Valley Freeway Northern Highway Sydney Road for full list see exits and major intersections
Location(s)
via	Goulburn, Yass, Tarcutta, Albury, Wodonga, Wangaratta, Benalla, Seymour, Craigieburn

The Hume Highway/Hume Freeway is one of Australia's major inter-city highways, running for 880 km between Sydney and Melbourne. It is part of the Auslink National Network and is a vital link for road freight to transport goods to and from the two cities as well as serving Albury-Wodonga and Canberra.

The main alternative route between Sydney and Melbourne is the Princes Highway which follows the coast for most of its length. Other inland alternate routes include the Olympic Highway route between Albury and Sydney via Cowra and Bathurst, and also the Federal / Monaro Highway route via Canberra which links with the Hume Highway near Goulburn and the Princes Highway in East Gippsland.

History

The coast of New South Wales from the Queensland border to the Victorian border is separated from the inland by an escarpment, forming the eastern edge of the Great Dividing Range. There are few easy routes up this escarpment. To climb from the coast to the tablelands the Hume Highway uses the Bargo Ramp, a geological feature which provides one of the few easy crossings of the escarpment.

In the first twenty years of European settlement at Sydney (established 1788), exploration southwest of Sydney was slow. This area was heavily wooded at the time, especially the "Bargo brush", which was regarded as almost impenetrable. In 1798 explorers (Wilson, Price, Hacking, and Collins) reached the Moss Vale and Marulan districts, but this was not followed up. Any settlement would have to await the construction of an adequate access track, which would have been beyond the colony's resources at the time, and would have served little purpose as a source of supplies for Sydney, due to the time taken to reach Sydney. In 1804, Charles Throsby penetrated through the Bargo brush to the country on the tablelands near Moss Vale and Sutton Forest. On another expedition in 1818, he reached Lake Bathurst and the "Goulburn Plains". Many of the early explorers would most likely have used aboriginal guides, but they do not appear to have given them credit.

After Charles Throsby's 1818 journey towards present day Goulburn, followed by Hamilton Hume and William Hovell's overland journey from Appin (near Campbelltown) to Port Phillip and return in 1824, development of the Southern Tablelands for agriculture was rapid. The present route of the Hume Highway is much the same as that used by the pioneers.

The route taken by the Hume Highway to climb from the coast to the Southern Tablelands and thence across the Great Divide is situated between the parallel river gorge systems of the Wollondilly and Shoalhaven Rivers. This country consists generally of a gently sloping plateau which is deeply dissected by the Nepean River and its tributaries. The route of the Highway, by using four high-level bridges to cross these gorges, avoids the Razorback Range, and has minimal earthworks. The climb from the western side of the Nepean River at Menangle up to Mittagong is fairly sustained, a fact that is hard to appreciate at high speed on the modern freeway. The highway climbs non-stop over a distance of 16 km from the Pheasant's Nest bridge over the Nepean River to Yerrinbool, before dropping slightly before the final climb to reach the tablelands at Aylmerton.

Early road construction

Governor Lachlan Macquarie ordered the construction of a road, which became known as the Great South Road (the basis of the northern end of the Hume Highway) in 1819 from Picton to the Goulburn Plains and he travelled to Goulburn in 1820, but it is unlikely that even a primitive road was finished at that time.

Towrang bridge of 1839

The Great South Road was rebuilt and completely re-routed between Yanderra and Goulburn by Surveyor-General Thomas Mitchell in 1833. The Main Roads Management Act of June 1858 declared the Great Southern Road, from near Sydney through Goulburn and Gundagai to Albury, as one of the three main roads in the colony. However, its southern reaches were described as only a 'scarcely formed bullock track' as late as 1858. The road was improved in the mid 1860s with some sections near Gundagai "metalled" and all creeks bridged between Adelong Creek (approximately 10 kilometres south of Gundagai) and Albury.

Mitchell's route, except for the bypasses at Mittagong, Berrima and Marulan (dual carriageways were completed in 1986) is still largely followed by the current highway. Mitchell intended to straighten the route north of Yanderra, but was not granted funding, although his proposed route through Pheasants Nest has similarities to the freeway route opened in 1980. Mitchell's work on the Great South Road is best preserved at Towrang Creek (10 kilometres north of Goulburn), where his stone arch culvert still stands, although it was superseded in 1965 by a concrete box culvert which in turn was superseded by the current route of the highway when it was duplicated in 1972.

In 1914 the NSW section of the highway was declared a main road. Until it was named the Hume Highway in 1928 it was known as the "Great South Road" in NSW and "Sydney Road" in Victoria. It was named after Hamilton Hume, who with William Hovell were the first Europeans to traverse an overland route between Sydney and Port Phillip, in what later became Victoria.

Route

At its Sydney end, the Hume Highway begins at Parramatta Road, in Summer Hill. This route is numbered as . The first 35 km of the highway was known as Liverpool Road until August 1928, when it was renamed as part of the Hume or Great Southern Highway, as part of the creation of the NSW highway system. Sections of the highway through Sydney's suburbs continue to be also known by its former names of Liverpool Road, Sydney Road and Copeland Street (through Liverpool).

The main Hume Highway effectively commences at the junction of the M5 South Western Motorway and the Westlink M7 at Casula. Heading eastbound, the M5 provides access to Sydney Airport and the CBD; while the M7 provides access to Newcastle and Brisbane bypassing the Sydney CBD. Both of these routes are tolled.

Other than sections within the urban areas of Sydney and Melbourne, the Hume Highway is dual carriageway or freeway standard for its full length in Victoria, with three N.S.W. sections totalling 20 km, through the towns of Tarcutta, Holbrook and Woomargama. Projects to bypass these towns are presently at design stage, with construction envisaged to be completed by 2013.

Although (other than abovementioned three sections where town bypasses are proposed) the full length of the Hume Highway is dual carriageway (with at-grade intersections and restricted entry from adjoining land), there are considerable lengths of the highway which are of full freeway standard. Most of these sections are bypasses of the larger towns on the route, where the need to deviate the route to construct the bypass made it practical to deny access from adjoining land and thus provide full freeway conditions. In addition to these bypasses the sections between Casula (in southwestern Sydney) and Berrima (built 1973-92), and Broadford to Wallan (1976), which both were constructed as major deviations, are also of full freeway standard. The entire section in Victoria is categorised as a freeway by government roads authority VicRoads, although there a few intersections along the route that are not yet grade-separated. The speed limit on the full length of the highway, other than the three sections in New South Wales where bypasses are yet to be built, is 110 km/h.

As the Hume Freeway approaches Melbourne at the suburb of Craigieburn, 27 km north of the city centre, the Craigieburn Bypass now diverts the Hume Freeway (and the M31 designation) to the east of the former route, to terminate at the Western Ring Road/Metropolitan Ring Road . This bypass was opened in two stages, in December 2004 and December 2005.

At its Melbourne end, the original alignment of the Melbourne-Sydney route followed Royal Parade northward from where it begins at its intersection with Elizabeth Street and Flemington Road. Royal Parade becomes Sydney Road at Brunswick Road and then became the Hume Highway itself at Campbellfield. This ceased to be the designated route of the Hume Highway in 1992, with the completion of Stage 1 of the Western Ring Road, at which point the designation of the southbound highway was truncated. The former highway south from the Western Ring Road to Elizabeth street is route is now numbered as , and is now officially called Sydney Road (Hume Highway).

Current New South Wales Upgrading

Work commenced in January 2009 to widen both carriageways between Brooks Road and Narellan Road. This work is being undertaken in 3 stages. The first stage, widening to 4 lanes each way between Brooks Road and St Andrews Road St Andrews is expected to be completed in 2010. The second stage, widening to 4 lanes each way between St Andrews Road and Raby Road commenced in 2009 and be completed in mid 2011. The final stage, widening to 3 lanes each way between Raby Road and Narellan Road, is scheduled to commence in late 2010 (following completion of the first stage) and be completed in late 2011. Construction of a pedestrian bridge over the highway to link Claymore and Woodbine is also underway. This section of the highway, opened as part of the two stages opened in October 1973 and December 1974, was originally designed for widening of the carriageways to three lanes.

Work commenced in 2009 on bypasses of Tarcutta and Woomargama, and in 2010 on a bypass of Holbrook. These three projects are scheduled to completion from 2013, and will result in dual carriageway (much to freeway standard) over the full length of the Hume Highway/Freeway.

Distances to destinations along the highway from Sydney.

Approximate road distances (in kilometres) along the Hume Freeway southwards from the Victorian border

Current Victorian Upgrade Projects

VicRoads has undertaken a planning study for the upgrading of the Hume Freeway by removal of direct access from adjoining properties and grade-separation of the intersections between Kalkallo and Beveridge. These intersections have the highest accident rate of the Hume Freeway in Victoria. The study, completed in March 2009, intended to amend council planning schemes so as to reserve space for the upgrade, but no timetable has been set for the project.

In addition a 4-level interchange between the Hume Freeway and the Outer Metropolitan Ring Road is proposed for construction after 2020.

Views

Heading north from Melbourne, the road passes through the hills of the Great Dividing Range, some of which is covered with box eucalypt forest but of which much is cleared for farmland, before levelling out near Seymour to cross flat, mostly cleared farming country to Wodonga and the Victoria-New South Wales border. Victoria's landscape differs to that of the typical 'true Australian Outback', but a dry summer can leave the ground parched. Mount Buffalo can be seen in the distance to the east as the highway comes down off the Warby Range near Glenrowan, and a museum commemorating Ned Kelly is located nearby. At Wangaratta the highway passes close to the Rutherglen and Milawa wine-producing areas.

Continuing north, the Murray River, the south bank of which is the Victoria-New South Wales border, is crossed on the bypass of Albury-Wodonga. From Albury, the highway skirts Lake Hume and continues across undulating country generally north-east towards Holbrook and then Tarcutta. Just north of Tarcutta the highway encounters the first of several ranges which form outliers of the Great Dividing Range, and which are crossed as the highway climbs the slopes to the tablelands west of Yass. From here the highway runs eastward, to Goulburn where it again turns northeast. Most of the New South Wales countryside from Albury to Marulan has been developed for wool production, with Yass and Goulburn in particular noted for their fine wool.

Speed limits

Like most roads in Australia, the Hume Highway is speed-limited, although it was as recent as 1977 that speed limits were introduced on the section between the Federal Highway and Albury. The speed limit on most of the dual carriageway length of the Hume Highway is 110 km/h, with the speed limit reduced to 50 km/h through Tarcutta and Holbrook, and to 70 km/h through Woomargama (the remaining three towns yet to be bypassed).

Fixed speed camera locations

In Sydney: next to Ashfield Primary School, near Culdees Road Burwood, Willee St Enfield, Brennan St Yagoona, and Knight St Lansvale. In January 2008, fixed speed-cameras were installed in the median strip along the Craigieburn Bypass and northward to Seymour, in Victoria, at roughly 15–20 km intervals.

Point to Point speed camera on the Hume Highway in Victoria

Freeway section exits and major intersections

Hume Highway Hume Freeway South Western Freeway
Northbound exits / intersections	Distance to Sydney (km)	Distance to Melbourne (km)	Southbound exits / intersections
End South Western Freeway continues as South Western Motorway to Bankstown / Sydney	42	838	Start South Western Freeway from South Western Motorway and WestLink
Newcastle, Brisbane WestLink
Liverpool Camden Valley Way
no exit	47	833	Ingleburn Brooks Road
Denham Court, Ingleburn Campbelltown Road	48	832	no exit
no exit	52	828	Campbelltown Campbelltown Road
End Hume Highway continues as South Western Freeway	58	822	Campbelltown, Penrith Appin Road Narellan Road
Camden, Campbelltown, Bulli Narellan Road Appin Road			Start Hume Highway from South Western Freeway
Picton, Wollongong Picton Road	80	800	Picton, Wollongong Picton Road
Bargo, Picton Remembrance Drive / Old Hume Highway	92	788	Bargo Avon Dam Road
Colo Vale, Yerrinbool Church Avenue / Old Hume Highway	105	775	Yerrinbool, Colo Vale Old Hume Highway / Church Avenue
no exit	107	773	Mittagong, Bowral Old Hume Highway
Richlands, Mittagong, Bowral Wombeyan Caves Road / Old Hume Highway	115	765	no exit
Start Freeway	128	752	Berrima, Medway Medway Road
Berrima Mereworth Road / Old Hume Highway			End Freeway
Moss Vale, Wollongong Illawarra Highway	139	741	Moss Vale, Canyonleigh Illawarra Highway
Exeter, Bundanoon, Service Centre Sallys Corner Road	142	738	Exeter, Bundanoon, Service Centre Sallys Corner Road
Heavy vehicle checking station	166	714	Marulan, Heavy vehicle checking station George Street
Marulan, Service Centre George Street	167	713	Service Centre
Goulburn Sydney Road	190	690	Goulburn Sydney Road
Goulburn Hume Street	200	680	Goulburn Hume Street
Canberra, Queanbeyan, Cooma via U-turn	208	672	Barkers Lane
no exit	209	671	Canberra, Queanbeyan, Cooma Federal Highway
Breadalbane Cullerin Road	219	661	Breadalbane Cullerin Road
Gunning, Gundaroo Gundaroo Road	242	638	Gunning, Collector Gunning-Collector Road
Yass, Canberra, Queanbeyan Barton Highway	272	608	Yass, Canberra Barton Highway
Yass, Service Centre Yass Valley Way	281	599	Yass, Service Centre Yass Valley Way
Boorowa, Cowra Lachlan Valley Way	284	596	Boorowa, Cowra Lachlan Valley Way
Harden, Temora Burley Griffin Way	293	587	Harden, Temora Burley Griffin Way
no exit	334	546	Jugiong, Harden Riverside Drive
Murrumburrah, Jugiong Jugiong Road	337	543	no exit
no exit	339	541	Jugiong Riverside Drive
Coolac, Cootamundra Cootamundra Road	357	523	Coolac, Cootamundra Cootamundra Road
Pettit Coleman Street	361	519	Pettit Gobarralong Road
Dog on the Tuckerbox, Service Centre	369	511	Dog on the Tuckerbox, Service Centre
no exit	373	507	Gundagai West Street
Gundagai Sheridan Street	376	504	Gundagai Sheridan Street
South Gundagai Cross Street	378	502	South Gundagai Middle Street
			South Gundagai Mount Street
Tumblong Grahamstown Road	389	491	Tumblong Grahamstown Road
Adelong, Tumut, Cooma Snowy Mountains Highway	403	477	Adelong, Tumut Snowy Mountains Highway
Wagga Wagga, Narrandera Sturt Highway	413	467	Wagga Wagga, Narrandera, Mildura, Adelaide Sturt Highway
END SINGLE CARRIAGEWAY SECTION	414	466	START SINGLE CARRIAGEWAY SECTION Planned upgrade completion 2012
Tarcutta	421	459	Tarcutta
Holbrook	491	389	Holbrook
Woomargama	511	369	Woomargama
START SINGLE CARRIAGEWAY SECTION Planned upgrade completion 2012	515	365	END SINGLE CARRIAGEWAY SECTION
Culcairn, Wagga Wagga, Cowra Olympic Highway	535	345	Culcairn, Wagga Wagga Olympic Highway
no exit	544	336	Ettamogah, Jindera Wagga Road
Springdale Heights, Thurgoona Thurgoona Drive	549	331	Thurgoona Thurgoona Drive
North Albury, Wirlinga Dallinger Road	551	329	no exit
Albury, Lake Hume, Corowa Riverina Highway	555	325	Lake Hume, Albury Riverina Highway
South Albury Bridge Street	556	324	Albury Bridge Street
Start Hume Highway	558	322	End Hume Highway
MURRAY RIVER			MURRAY RIVER
NEW SOUTH WALES STATE BORDER VICTORIA
End Hume Freeway	558	322	Start Hume Freeway
no exit	559	321	Tallangatta Bandiana Link
continues as	560	320	Wodonga, Albury High Street Lincoln Causeway
Albury, Wodonga Lincoln Causeway High Street			continues as '
no exit	562	318	Wodonga Melrose Drive / Moloney Drive
Wodonga Melbourne Road	564	316	no exit
continues as	576	304	Yarrawonga, Echuca Murray Valley Highway
Yarrawonga, Echuca Murray Valley Highway			continues as
Barnawartha, Upper Indigo Indigo Creek Road	582	298	Barnawartha, Upper Indigo Indigo Creek Road
Chiltern, Beechworth Chiltern-Howlong Road / Beechworth-Chiltern Road	591	289	Chiltern, Beechworth Chiltern-Howlong Road / Beechworth-Chiltern Road
Springhurst, Rutherglen Rutherglen-Springhurst Road	603	277	Springhurst, Rutherglen Rutherglen-Springhurst Road
Bowser, Wangaratta Wangaratta Road	620	260	Bowser, Wangaratta Wangaratta Road
Wangaratta, Beechworth, Bright, Mount Hotham Great Alpine Road	627	253	Wangaratta, Bright, Mount Hotham Great Alpine Road
Wangaratta, Greta Greta Road	635	245	Wangaratta, Greta Greta Road
Wangaratta Wangaratta Road	638	242	no exit
Milawa Snow Road	640	240	no exit
Service Centre	642	238	Service Centre
no exit	645	235	Glenrowan, Moyhu Glenrowan-Moyhu Road
Glenrowan, Winton Winton-Glenrowan Road	647	233	no exit
Winton, Benalla Benalla-Winton Road	662	218	Winton, Benalla Benalla-Winton Road
Benalla, Shepparton, Mansfield Midland Highway	674	206	Mansfield, Shepparton Midland Highway
Violet Town, Harrys Creek Murchison-Violet Town Road / Harrys Creek Road	697	183	Violet Town, Harrys Creek Harrys Creek Road / Murchison-Violet Town Road
Euroa Euroa Main Road	714	166	Euroa Euroa Main Road
Euroa Euroa Main Road	721	159	Euroa Euroa Main Road
Avenel, Tarcombe Avenel-Nagambie Road / Tarcombe Road	753	127	Tarcombe, Avenel Tarcombe Road / Avenel-Nagambie Road
Seymour, Nagambie, Shepparton, Brisbane Goulburn Valley Freeway / Goulburn Valley Highway	766	114	Seymour, Shepparton Goulburn Valley Highway / Goulburn Valley Freeway
Seymour, Puckapunyal, Tooborac Seymour-Tooborac Road	774	106	Seymour, Puckapunyal, Tooborac Seymour-Tooborac Road
Service Centre	777	103	Service Centre
no exit	780	100	Tallarook Upper Goulburn Road
Tallarook Upper Goulburn Road	783	97	no exit
no exit	793	87	Broadford, Kilmore Broadford-Kilmore Road
Broadford, Flowerdale Strath Creek Road	794	86	no exit
Waterford Park, Clonbinane Broadford-Wallan Road	803	77	Waterford Park, Clonbinane Broadford-Wallan Road
Kilmore, Wandong Epping-Kilmore Road	811	69	Wandong, Kilmore Epping-Kilmore Road
Service Centre	815	65	Service Centre
no exit	820	60	Whittlesea, Wallan Wallan-Whittlesea Road
Wallan, Echuca Northern Highway	824	56	no exit
Beveridge Lithgow Street	827	53	Beveridge Old Hume Highway
Mickleham, Donnybrook Donnybrook Road	835	45	Mickleham, Donnybrook Donnybrook Road
Craigieburn Sydney Road via Amaroo Road	839	41	Craigieburn Sydney Road
Craigieburn, Wollert Craigieburn Road East	842	38	no exit
Roxburgh Park, Epping Cooper Street	849	31	Epping, Roxburgh Park Cooper Street
Start Hume Freeway from Western Ring Road and Metropolitan Ring Road	854	26	Greensborough Metropolitan Ring Road
			End Hume Freeway continues as Western Ring Road to Melbourne / Geelong

Source

Hume Highway on Google Maps.

Towns

The Hume Highway by-passing the Albury CBD.

Almost all towns on the Hume Highway are bypassed. In New South Wales, from Sydney, southwards to Victorian border, the bypassed towns include Campbelltown, Camden, Picton, Mittagong, Berrima, Marulan, Goulburn, Gunning, Yass, Bowning, Bookham, Jugiong, Coolac, Gundagai and Albury. The three remaining towns on the Hume Highway yet to be bypassed are Tarcutta, Woomargama and Holbrook, which are intended to be bypassed by 2012.

In Victoria; all towns have been bypassed. They are, in order from the NSW border, Wodonga, Chiltern, Wangaratta, Benalla, Euroa, Violet Town, Seymour, Broadford and Craigieburn.

Camden

Camden lies 60 km south west of Sydney on the Nepean River, and the town dates from 1840. It retains a rural character with many historic buildings of interest remaining. There is an aviation museum at nearby Narellan. Urban sprawl has made Camden part of the Sydney metropolitan area.

The old route (pre-mid 1980s) of the Hume Highway runs straight west from the Cross Roads at Prestons, 4 km south of Liverpool to Carnes Hill, where it joins the route of the Cowpasture Road. It then runs southwest to Camden (the section of the former highway from the Cross Roads to Camden is now called Camden Valley Way).

Camden has been bypassed by the Hume Highway twice. The first bypass was opened in 1973, via the Macarthur Bridge, and runs from Narellan to Benkennie (South Camden). This bypass was in turn bypassed in December 1980 when the section of what was then called the South Western Freeway (route F5) from Campbelltown to Yerrinbool was opened. This linked the freeway sections from the Cross Roads to Campbelltown Rd at St Andrews (opened August 1973) and St Andrews-Camden Road (opened December 1974) to its north with the section from Yerrinbool to Aylmerton (opened May 1977) to its south.

From Camden south to Aylmerton the former highway is now named Remembrance Drive. It climbs southwards from Camden through the Razorback Ridge to Picton, then begins to climb through Tahmoor and Bargo to reach the Southern Tablelands and rejoin the present route of the Hume Highway at Aylmerton, 6 km north of Mittagong. The designation Hume Highway and national route 31 were transferred from what are now Camden Valley Way and Remembrance Drive to the freeway route in the mid 1980s and the former highway route from the Cross Roads to Aylmerton is now state route 89.

Hume Highway through Southern Highlands

An alternative route to the highway runs from Aylmerton through Mittagong and Bowral to join the Illawarra Highway at Moss Vale and then follows the Illawarra Highway through Sutton Forest to rejoin the Hume Highway at Hoddles Crossroads (named after Surveyor Robert Hoddle who also laid out the Melbourne CBD).

Mittagong

Mittagong lies 110 km south-west of Sydney, just off the Hume Highway at the edge of the Southern Tablelands. It is notable for being the location of Australia's first ironworks. Mittagong's streets are lined with various species of deciduous trees and it has a busy town centre.

Until 1992 when the Mittagong bypass was opened, the town was dominated by trucks and in winter it was also busy with skiers' traffic on the way to the Australian Alps. Today the Hume Highway bypasses Mittagong and all the towns of the Southern Tablelands. In the late 1990s, engineers detected subsidence under part of the bypass where it runs along a steep slope near the Nattai River. This was caused by features of the local geology, and mining activity at the adjacent Mount Alexandra coalmine from the 1950s to the 1970s. The problem was remedied by closing one carriageway at a time and building a pair of 'land bridges' across the unstable section of the slope.

Bowral

Bowral is home to the famous Bradman Museum which not only celebrates the achievements of Bowral's favourite son, Sir Donald Bradman, but also contains a wealth of world sporting information and memorabilia. Bowral is also the setting for "Tulip Time", a Spring celebration where over 100,000 tulips and 25,000 flowers are planted in the town centre.

The population swells during winter when, thousands of visitors book into local hotels and B&Bs to enjoy romantic fires and secluded winter getaways. Spring is also very popular with gardening enthusiasts, who come to view some of the world's most beautiful formal gardens designed by eminent landscape architects such as Paul Sorensen, who designed the gardens of Invergowrie.

Key attractions are the glorious gardens, fine restaurants, many successful vineyards and fresh, local produce of a wide variety. Antique and book stores abound, as do quality fashion retailers and specialty stores.

Moss Vale

Moss Vale has several beautiful old and attractive buildings and Leighton Gardens, in the centre of the main street, is a pleasant park. It is best during spring when its flowers are in blossom or in autumn when the leaves of its exotic deciduous trees are changing colour.

Twin bridges carrying the Hume Highway over Greenhills Road north of Berrima 34°28′S 150°21′E

Sutton Forest is surrounded by farms, vineyards and is home to elegant country homes and estates. It comprises a church, and inn, a couple of restaurants and one or two specialty shops.

Berrima

Berrima has flourished since it was bypassed in 1989, with tourists finding it an easy day trip from either Sydney or Canberra to enjoy the town square and the Georgian architecture of this historic town.

Marulan

The Marulan bypass was opened in 1986. The southern part of Governor Lachlan Macquarie's road of 1819 ran from Sutton Forest roughly along existing minor roads through what is now Penrose State Forest to Canyonleigh, Brayton, Carrick and Towrang, where it joined the current route to Goulburn. Branching from this route (now part of the Illawarra Highway) just west of Sutton Forest, a road, now known as Old Argyle Road, developed in the 1820s. It ran to Bungonia, via Wingello, Tallong, and the southern outskirts of Marulan.

When Thomas Mitchell rerouted the Great South Road in the 1830s, he decided to bring these two roads together to meet at old Marulan, with roads proceeding west to Goulburn and south to Bungonia. When the railway reached Marulan in 1868, the town migrated 3 km north to the railway station. Nevertheless, the old cemetery remains at the Bungonia Road intersection. A quarry is about to be developed near the intersection, so an interchange is to be built. It is at this point that the highway climbs the Marulan Ramp, which is part of the divide between the Shoalhaven and Wollondilly River systems.

Towrang Stockade

Towrang Creek was the site of a major stockade for chain-bound convicts and others involved in the construction of the Great South Road. The stockade was located on the western side of the Highway and was used from around 1836 to 1842. The stockade became the principal penal establishment in the southern district and was noted for its harsh discipline. There were usually at least 250 convicts stationed there. They slept on bare boards with a blanket apiece, 10 men to a box or cell. One of the two official floggers was later found murdered The stockade used to be accessible by a stile, but this has been taken down to discourage use of the once daunting intersection of the Highway with Towrang Road. There are the remains of the powder magazine next to the Wollondilly River, three graves on the north bank of Towrang Creek, and the remains of a weir on Towrang Creek built for the stockade. Aboriginal stone tools have also been found on the banks of Towrang Creek, indicating that this was a route well-travelled long before Hamilton Hume came this way in 1824.

There is also a rest area on the eastern side of the highway, where a well-preserved bridge dating from 1839 (possibly designed by David Lennox) and a 1960s concrete box culvert can be viewed.

Goulburn

Goulburn is the first city along the Hume Highway from Sydney. It is the centre of a rich agricultural area specialising in fine wool production. From this area comes some of the world's finest wool. Goulburn was bypassed in 1992 and the main street (Auburn Street) is quieter, but still busy during Saturday morning shopping. Picturesque Belmore Park is located midway along Auburn Street. A number of architecturally and historically significant buildings are located near Belmore Park, including the courthouse, the post office and the railway station. Also in central Goulburn are two cathedrals, both of architectural note. A number of old houses and hotels are located near the railway station on Sloane Street.

Gunning

Gunning's 19th century main street was built very wide, for the time of horse and bullock-drawn wagons. This served the town well when the main highway between Sydney and Melbourne carried cars and trucks through the town, which ceased when the bypass was completed in 1994. It is now much quieter, and the town has been able to resume a more rural pace of life and to develop something of an industry in providing bed and breakfast accommodation.

Yass

Yass has an historic main street, with well-preserved 19th century verandah-post pubs (mostly converted to other uses). It is popular with tourists, some from Canberra and others taking a break from the Hume Highway. Hamilton Hume's farm Cooma Cottage is located east of Yass, close to the intersection of the former routes of the Hume and Barton Highways. He lived there until his death in 1873. Yass was bypassed in 1994.

Bookham

Bookham is situated 29 km west of Yass. The Hume Highway once passed through the village, but now bypasses it.

It is a popular site for police speed traps, hence some wags have rechristened the town "Book 'em"

The grazing lands around the village of Bookham were originally called Bogolong and were much sought after by the early pioneers. Childhood memories of the races at the old Bogalong Racetrack inspired Banjo Paterson to write his poem "Old Pardon the Son of Reprieve".

Bookham is the site of two very fine churches constructed from locally quarried granite: the Uniting Church (c1926) and the Catholic Church, St Columbas (c1910). It also features an old-fashioned cricket field, resplendent with a white picket fence, the site of many a bush bash.

Coolac

The 11 kilometre section at Coolac was the last two lane section of highway between Sydney and Gundagai until it was bypassed with a dual carriageway in August 2009., after a delay due to indigenous heritage issues, the construction contract was awarded to Abigroup Contractors Pty Ltd in February 2007.

An earlier monument to the Dog on the Tuckerbox between Coolac and Gundagai, photographed in 1926

Gundagai

At Snake Gully, adjacent to the highway north of Gundagai is the "Dog on the Tuckerbox". A statue (with souvenir shop next door) was erected five miles (eight kilometres) from Gundagai. Snake Gully serves as a way station for many highway travellers.

Gundagai was bypassed in 1977 with the completion of the first Sheahan Bridge over the Murrumbidgee River. This bridge was the second longest road bridge in New South Wales (the Sydney Harbour Bridge being the longest), until the completion of the duplicate Sheahan Bridge in May 2009, which is now the longest road bridge in New South Wales (1 m longer than the Sydney Harbour Bridge). The original Sheahan Bridge was only 1 lane in each direction.

The Prince Alfred Bridge, on the old route of the highway across the Murrumbidgee floodplain, is of major engineering interest, as it is one of Australia's longest timber trestle bridges, as is the adjacent 1903 railway bridge. Gundagai was originally located on the river flats directly beside the Murrumbidgee River, but a disastrous flood in 1852 destroyed the town and drowned 89 people. The town was then relocated to its present position. A grade-separated interchange was completed at the intersection of the Highway and West Street in 2006.

Tumblong

The route of the highway between Tumblong and Tarcutta is the third route of the highway in this location. The original route led west from Tumblong along the Murrumbidgee River, before turning south over difficult country, crossing what is now the Sturt Highway and rejoining the current route of the highway as Lower Tarcutta Road. This was replaced in December 1938 by the first Tumblong deviation, to the east of the current route. The main features of this section of the highway were a deep, narrow cutting and the reinforced concrete bowstring arch bridge over Hillas Creek. This bridge has been preserved as it is one of only two bridges in New South Wales built to this design, and is visible on the western side of the highway close to the interchange with the Snowy Mountains Highway.

38 km southwest of Gundagai is the interchange with the Sturt Highway, which leads to Wagga Wagga, Mildura and Adelaide.

Tarcutta

National Truck Driver Memorial at Tarcutta

Tarcutta is located almost exactly halfway between Sydney and Melbourne and has been a popular stopover and change-over point for truck drivers making their way between the two cities. There is a memorial to truck drivers who have died on the local stretch of the Hume Highway.

With improvements to the Hume Highway which have reduced travelling time between Sydney and Melbourne to about nine hours driving time in good conditions, the town's importance to the average motorist has diminished. It was near Tarcutta that the final section of the Hume Highway was sealed in 1940. Tarcutta is scheduled to be bypassed in 2012.

Holbrook

Holbrook was called Germanton until anti-German sentiment during World War 1 led to the town and the shire being renamed in honour of the wartime submarine captain, Lt Holbrook who was awarded the Victoria Cross. From 1995, a feature of the town has been a partial reconstruction of HMAS Otway, an Oberon class submarine. This landmark was in recognition of the town's namesake's connections with submarines. In Holbrook is the only set of traffic signals (for pedestrians) remaining on the Hume Highway between the Sydney Orbital and Melbourne's Western Ring Road. Like Tarcutta, Holbrook is scheduled to be bypassed in 2012.

Woomargama

Woomargama, is a village between Holbrook and Albury which acts as a local service centre for a rich woolgrowing area. It is the third of the towns scheduled to be bypassed in 2012, thereby completing the duplication of the Hume Highway.

Table Top

Table Top is about 16 km north of Albury. It has a population of approximately 4510 people.

Albury-Wodonga

Hume Highway bypass in Albury

Albury's history is linked with the two famous Australian explorers, Hamilton Hume and William Hovell, as the city's location sprung from their crossing of the Murray River. Albury, commonly associated with its Victorian twin, Wodonga, is one of the few rural Australian cities to experience a boom, mainly from industrialisation in recent times. Albury-Wodonga is the largest centre on the Hume Highway, with a population of nearly 80,000.

The Albury bypass, built by Abigroup, opened in January 2007, having been first proposed in 1964. Following a series of announcements and changes of plans through the 1990s, when Albury residents failed to agree on whether an 'internal' or 'external' bypass route was more appropriate, the 'internal bypass' option was chosen, with approval being granted in 2004 and construction commencing in January 2005. The route is parallel to and on the eastern side of the Sydney-Melbourne railway, beginning at the railway overpass 10 km north of Albury. After crossing the Murray River, the bypass route crosses the railway to rejoin the previous highway at the southern end of the Lincoln Causeway, connecting to the Wodonga bypass. The Albury bypass includes a freeway standard connection to the Murray Valley Highway at Bandiana, east of Wodonga.

Wangaratta

Hume Highway near Wangaratta

Wangaratta is, after Wodonga, the largest centre in northeast Victoria (population 17,000). It is at the junction of the Hume and Ovens Highways (the 'Great Alpine Road'). Hume and Hovell passed through this area on their 1824 expedition and the town was founded in 1837 when the surrounding area was opened for farming.

The attractions around town include Merriwa Park, a sunken garden adjacent to the King River, Airworld at Wangaratta Airport, and old goldfield areas of nearby Beechworth and Chiltern.

Benalla

A passable section of "Sydney Road" in the shire of Benalla, 1914.

Benalla is a large town located just off the Hume Freeway between Melbourne and Wangaratta. Founded in 1848, growth was slow until a goldrush in the 1850s. It had many associations with the Kelly gang and the courthouse was the venue for a number of their trials. It also has a memorial to the Australian war hero Sir Edward 'Weary' Dunlop, an Australian doctor who acted as a leader to allied troops on the Thailand-Burma Railway in World War II.

Euroa

Euroa is famous for a Ned Kelly bank robbery. The town is located on the Seven Creeks and has pretty gardens and a number of attractive 19th century buildings.

Seymour

The Hume Highway bypass of Seymour opened in December 1982. Seymour remains on the Goulburn Valley Highway. The town is in the rich Goulburn Valley which supports the local vineyards. The large Puckapunyal military base is located west of Seymour. Once the centre of the bushranging area of Victoria, it has a museum which displays many period relics of that era. It was until the 1970s a major railway maintenance centre, and part of the railway workshops now houses a railway museum. The museum's collection of rolling stock, including State carriages used by governors and monarchs, is extensive.

Kalkallo

Construction of the Donnybrook Road interchange, immediately to the north of the Craigieburn Bypass, replaced the dangerous at-grade intersection with (C723) at Kalkallo an overpass and entry/exit ramps in both directions, at a cost of $32 million. Works commenced in December 2007 and completion occurred in March 2009, 3 months ahead of schedule.

Craigieburn

Craigieburn Bypass

Prior to the opening of the Craigieburn Bypass in 2005, the Hume Highway skirted Craigieburn (the town centre was bypassed in the 1950s). The section of the Highway from Craigieburn to Campbellfield (on Melbourne's outskirts) was a significant bottleneck, with 12 sets of traffic signals in 17 km section of road. The Craigieburn Bypass now links directly to the Western Ring Road/Metropolitan Ring Road.

There was some opposition for the bypass by several local governments in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, including the City of Darebin and the City of Moreland, as well as local environmental groups. Their alternative proposal was rejected by the state government.

A pedestrian and cyclist cement path - the Galada Tamboore Pathway - runs the length of the bypass and connects with the Metropolitan Ring Road path, from where it is possible to connect to the Merri Creek Trail, Western Ring Road Trail, the City of Whittlesea Public Gardens and Edgars Road.

The Craigieburn Bypass is shown in the 1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan as part of the F2 Freeway corridor, which extended south along Merri Creek, Hoddle St, Barkly St in St. Kilda, south through Elwood and Brighton, then east along South Road, connecting to the Dingley Freeway corridor.

See also

• Old Hume Highway
• Highways in Australia
• Highways in New South Wales
• Highways in Victoria
• Freeways in Australia
• Freeways in New South Wales
• Freeways in Victoria

External links

• Hume Highway to receive $785m upgrade: Vaile
• Libs to finish Hume duplication by 2012
• QBR (Queensland Business review) Coalition to complete duplication of Hume Highway by 2012
• ALP to fix NSW rural transport corridors
• Vaile exhorts colleagues to keep up the fight to win

Construction news

• Coolac Bypass, RTA
• Coolac bypass better projects, RTA
• Hume Highway, Abigroup
• Coolac bypass, Abigroup
• Hume Highway duplication package, RTA
• Southern Alliance
• Northern Alliance
• Hume Highway to receive $785m upgrade: Vaile
• Liberals to finish Hume duplication by 2012
• QBR (Queensland Business review) Coalition to complete duplication of Hume Highway by 2012
• ALP to fix NSW rural transport corridors
• Media release - Warren Truss, Minister for Transport and Regional Services
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