Warrego Highway

Warrego Highway Queensland
Warrego Highway (green on black)
General information
Type	Highway
Length	715 km (444 mi)
Route number(s)	State Highway M2 (Ipswich Motorway - Pine Mountain Road, Brassall) National Highway A2 (Pine Mountain Road, Brassall - Landsborough Highway) Alternate National Highway A2 (Landsborough Highway - Mitchell Highway)
Former route number	National Highway 54
Major junctions
SE end	Ipswich Motorway / Cunningham Highway, Ipswich, Queensland
	Brisbane Valley Highway (State Highway A17) New England Highway (State Highway A3 / State Route 85) Gore Highway (National Highway A39 / State Route 85) Bunya Highway (State Route 49) Moonie Highway (State Route 49) Leichhardt Highway (State Highway A5) Carnarvon Highway (State Highway A7) Landsborough Highway (National Highway A2)
NW end	Mitchell Highway, Charleville, Queensland
Location(s)
Major settlements	Toowoomba, Dalby, Miles, Roma, Mitchell, Morven
Highway system
Highways in Australia National Highway • Freeways in Australia Highways in Queensland

The Warrego Highway is located in southern Queensland, Australia. It connects coastal centres to the south western areas of the state, and is approximately 715 km in length. It takes its name from the Warrego River, which is the endpoint of the highway. The entire highway is part of the National Highway system linking Darwin and Brisbane: formerly National Highway 54, Queensland began to convert to the alphanumeric system much of Australia had adopted in the early-2000s and is now designated as National Highway A2.

Route description

The highway commences at the end of the M2 Ipswich Motorway, near Ipswich, and climbs the Great Dividing Range to Toowoomba. After reaching the top of the Toowoomba Range, the highway passes through the city via Cohoe, James, Tor and Bridge streets (although many smaller vehicles prefer to turnoff at the top of the range and use Margaret Street). The Warrego then crosses the Darling Downs, bypassing the town of Oakey and then passing through the towns of Dalby, Chinchilla and Miles, in the Western Downs. The highway continues through the towns of Roma and Mitchell in the Maranoa Region of South West Queensland. After Morven, the highway's thoroughfare continues down the Landsborough Highway, with the western turnoff continuing the Warrego Highway down to its terminus at Charleville.

The first section of highway between Ipswich and Toowoomba is mostly motorway grade; a four lane divided highway with motorway-style on-ramps and off-ramps. After the final set of traffic lights in Toowoomba, the highway merges from 4 to 2 lanes (however, throughout 2017-2019, the highway will be duplicated up until Oakey) Then, the highway mostly continues in a straight line with minimal turns. At Dalby, the highway briefly returns to 4 lanes (with a longer stretch of the highway to be duplicated in 2017). The Warrego then continues as a rural 2 lane highway, until Charleville.

Terrain

The Warrego Highway's lowest point along its length is 3.69 m just east of where it crosses the Bremer River near Ipswich, and its highest elevation is 665 m at the top of the Great Dividing Range in Toowoomba.

Speed zones

• Ipswich Motorway - Blacksoil 100 km/h
• Blacksoil - Toowoomba Bypass merge 100 km/h, with a drop to 80 km/h and/or 60 km/h through some towns
• Withcott 60 km/h
• Great Dividing Range (Toowoomba) 60 km/h to 100 km/h
• Redwood - Wilsonton 60 km/h
• Cotswold Hills/Torrington - Charlton 70 km/h, briefly raised to 90 km/h through a part of Charlton
• Toowoomba - Kingsthorpe 90 km/h
• Kingsthorpe - Dalby 100 km/h except through Jondaryan, which is 80 km/h.
• Dalby - 60 km/h
• Dalby - Charleville 100 km/h except running through towns, which speeds can drop to 60 km/h

Towns along the route

Approximate road distances (in kilometres) of towns from Brisbane along the highway

From east to west, the highway passes through or close to the cities and major towns of:

• Ipswich (Bypassed)
• Gatton (Bypassed)
• Toowoomba (Bypassed)
• Oakey (Bypassed)
• Dalby
• Chinchilla
• Miles
• Roma
• Mitchell
• Morven
• Charleville

Gallery

• 
  Highway at Haigslea, 2014
• 
  Stretch of Highway between Ipswich and Toowoomba
• 
  A signpost
• 
  View from Picnic Point, 2014

History

In January 2011, the highway was extensively damaged where it crosses the Toowoomba Range. This included land slips, shoulder and embankment erosion, the erosion of drains and damaged rock fall netting. The road wasn't fully repaired with all four lanes open until September 2011.

The Toowoomba Bypass was completed in September 2019 and bypasses the urban area of Toowoomba and provides a better crossing of the Great Dividing Range. Warrego Highway (A2) was rerouted via the bypass between Helidon Spa (in the east) and the interchange at Charlton (in the west). The bypass continues as the Gore Highway (A39) and is 41 km in length. The original section of Warrego Highway through Toowoomba was renamed Toowoomba Connection Road (A21).

Future developments

Dalby Eastern & Western Access Upgrades

These upgrades will begin in 2017 and will fully duplicate the highway to 4 lanes, between Cecil Plains Road and Black Street. 4 new traffic signals will be added at Black Street, Jandowae Road, Orpen Street and a pedestrian signal near Owen Street.

Other items of interest

Darren Lockyer Way

On 28 September 2011 the Queensland Main Roads Minister, Craig Wallace, announced that an 85 km stretch of the Warrego Highway was to be renamed Darren Lockyer Way, in honour of the retired Brisbane Broncos, Queensland and Australian rugby league captain. The section of road renamed is from Riverview to the bottom of the Toowoomba Range at Withcott. Special signage including "Welcome to Darren Lockyer Way" has been erected.

The "Toll Bar"

The section of the Warrego Highway from Withcott to the top of the Toowoomba Range was first opened in January, 1855 as a toll road, named Toll Bar Road. The toll collection point was marked by a bar across the road and a fence on either side. The upper section of Toll Bar Road was initially unsealed and very steep, with grades up to 14%. This road remained in use until December, 1939, when work on a new, less steep, upper section was completed. Part of the upper section is now a suburban street named Old Toll Bar Road. The term "The Toll Bar" is sometimes used by locals to describe the current road, and it is also used in the mapping software distributed with Navman GPS systems.

Major intersections

LGA	Location	km	mi	Destinations	Notes
Ipswich	Riverview	0	0.0	Ipswich Motorway (National Route M2) - east – Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast Cunningham Highway (National Highway A15) - west - Dinmore	South-eastern end of Warrego Highway (State Route M2 / National Highway A2)
	Karalee / Chuwar / North Tivoli boundary	6.3	3.9	Mount Crosby Road (State Route 37) - north - Mount Crosby south - Tivoli	Modified diamond interchange. Part of Chuwar is in the Brisbane LGA.
	Brassal / Muirlea boundary	12.9	8.0	Fernvale Road (State Route 38) - south - Brassall Pine Mountain Road - north - Pine Mountain	Modified diamond interchange. The road changes to National Highway A2 from this point.
	Blacksoil / Ironbark / Karrabin boundary	15.4	9.6	Brisbane Valley Highway (National Route A17) - north - Fernvale Wulkuraka Connection Road - south - Wulkuraka	Modified diamond interchange.
Lockyer	Gatton	55.9	34.7	Eastern Drive (State Route 80) - south-west - Gatton Gatton Esk Road - north - Esk	Modified diamond interchange.
Toowoomba	Toowoomba	94.6	58.8	New England Highway (State Route A3) - north - North Toowoomba Hume Street - south - Centenary Heights	Eastern concurrency terminus with New England Highway.
		95.1	59.1	New England Highway (State Route A3) - south - South Toowoomba Ruthven Street - north - North Toowoomba	Western concurrency terminus with New England Highway.
	Newtown / Harristown boundary	97.3	60.5	Gore Highway (National Highway A39) - south - South Toowoomba Anzac Avenue - north - Newtown
	Oakey	123.9	77.0	Oakey Pittsworth Road (State Route 68) - north-east - Oakey
Western Downs	Dalby	175.9	109.3	Dalby Cecil Plains Road (State Route 82) - south - Cecil Plains	Eastern concurrency terminus with State Route 82.
		179.3	111.4	Bunya Highway (State Route 49) - north-east - Bell Condamine Street - south-west - Dalby	Eastern concurrency terminus with State Route 49.
		179.8	111.7	Moonie Highway (State Route 49) - south-west - Moonie Nicholson Street - north-east - Dalby	Western concurrency terminus with State Route 49.
		180.5	112.2	Jandowae Road (State Route 82) - north - Jandowae	Western concurrency terminus with State Route 82.
	Miles	305.5	189.8	Leichhardt Highway (State Route A5) - south - Condamine	Eastern concurrency terminus with Leichhardt Highway.
		306.7	190.6	Leichhardt Highway (State Route A5) - north - Wandoan	Western concurrency terminus with Leichhardt Highway.
Maranoa	Roma	440.7	273.8	Carnarvon Highway (State Route A55) - south - Surat	Eastern concurrency terminus with Carnarvon Highway.
		446.7	277.6	Carnarvon Highway (State Route A55) - north - Injune	Western concurrency terminus with Carnarvon Highway.
Murweh	Morven	627.7	390.0	Landsborough Highway (National Highway A2) - north-west - Augathella	The road changes to Alternate National Highway A2 from this point. National Highway A2 continues as Landsborough Highway.
	Charleville	714.5	444.0	Mitchell Highway (State Route A71) - north - Augathella south - Cunnamulla	North-western end of Warrego Highway.
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi       Concurrency terminus       Route transition

See also

• Highways in Australia
• List of highways in Queensland

External links

Media related to Warrego Highway at Wikimedia Commons