Hume Highway
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Image:Humehwy.png Image:Humefwy.png The Hume Highway (also known as the Hume Freeway) is one of the most important roads in Australia, linking the country's two largest cities - Sydney and Melbourne. The Hume Highway is part of the National Highway system spanning Australia, and is signed as National Highway 31 in New South Wales and National Highway M31 in Victoria.
The Hume Highway is by far the shortest, quickest and safest road between Sydney and Melbourne, if the least interesting to the tourist. The main alternative route is the Princes Highway which goes via the coast rather than inland.
At the Sydney end of the Hume Highway, the last 10 km of road is also known as Liverpool Road, before it terminates at an intersection with Parramatta Road, in Summer Hill. At the Melbourne end, about 27 km north of Melbourne at the suburb of Craigieburn, the new Craigieburn Bypass , diverts the Hume Freeway (and the M31 designation) off to the east of the original highway to terminate with the Western Ring Road (M80). This allows traffic to travel from the Melbourne Freeway Network in suburban Melbourne, on a freeway standard road for the entire distance to the NSW border at Albury. The original alignment of the Hume Highway is Sydney Road, which runs straight south into the heart of Melbourne's CBD, bearing metropolitan route ("blue-shielded") 55.
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History
The Hume Highway travels through the states of New South Wales and Victoria and got its name in the 1920s during a nationwide highway naming scheme. Before this, the road was known as the "Great Southern Road" in New South Wales and "Sydney Road" in Victoria. In 1914 the highway was declared a main road. The road was named in 1929 after Hamilton Hume, a famous explorer in the early 19th century who in conjunction with William Hovell first traversed an overland route between Sydney and Port Phillip, in what later became Victoria.
Route Information
The Hume Highway is approximately 900 km (550 miles) long, of which over 80 % is now dual carriageway or Freeway standard. The principal towns through which it passes are Liverpool, Campbelltown, Camden, Picton, Mittagong, Goulburn, Yass, Gundagai, Holbrook and Albury in New South Wales; and Wodonga, Wangaratta, Glenrowan, Benalla, Euroa, Seymour and Wallan in Victoria.
Road standards
On the Victorian side, freeway conditions from the outskirts of Melbourne to Wodonga. Normal dual carriageway for the remaining sections. The freeway has high grade bitumen surface. On NSW side, approximately 400 km of duplicated freeway with remaining road consisting of a two way road with frequent overtaking lanes.
The Australian Government aims to duplicate the highway between Melbourne and Sydney by 2012. By 2008 the Sheahan Bridge crossing the Murrumbidgee floodplain at Gundagai will be duplicated and Coolac will be bypassed.<ref>{{cite web
| author= | year=2005 | url=http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/constructionmaintenance/majorconstructionprojectsregional/southwest/coolac/ | title=Coolac Bypass | format= | work= | publisher=New South Wales Road traffic Authority | accessdate=2006-02-22 | accessyear= }}</ref>
Speed limit
Image:Hume Hwy (NSW) Distances Updated.gif
On the NSW side, Sydney Airport-King Georges' Road (East Tunnel) 90 km/h, King Georges' Road-Moorebank Tollgates 110 km/h, Through Moorebank Tollgates 70 km/h, Moorebank Tollgates-Casula 100 km/h, Casula-Coolac 110 km/h, Through Coolac 100 km/h and 80 km/h, Coolac-Sturt Hwy Junction 110 km/h, Sturt Hwy Junction-Albury 100 km/h. On the Victorian side, constant 110 km/h until outskirts of Melbourne.
Despite the comparatively light traffic, the good-quality road, and usually good driving conditions, the speed limits of 110 kilometres per hour on the dual carriageway and usually 100 km/h for the remaining single carriageway sections, are vigorously policed and unbendingly enforced, including through the use of fixed and mobile speed cameras.
Views
Heading north from Melbourne, the road passes through the hills of the lower Great Dividing Range, some of which is covered with box eucalypt forest but of which much is cleared for farmland, before levelling out through flat, mostly cleared farming country through to Wodonga and the Victoria-New South Wales border.
Whilst hardly the true Australian Outback, a dry summer can leave the almost featureless ground parched and give travellers from greener foreign lands some idea of the actual outback that lies to the north and west. All of the Victorian section of the road is dual carriageway, and all the towns have been bypassed. There is not much of note to see on the highway itself. Mount Buffalo can be seen in the distance at one point, and a museum commemorating Ned Kelly is located just off the highway near Glenrowan.
Image:Hume Fwy (VIC) Distances.gif
After crossing the Murray River, the south bank of which is the Victoria-New South Wales border, the highway passes through the only major city not bypassed on the route - Albury. From there, the road continues to the north-east approaching Sydney from the south-west of the city. Most of the New South Wales countryside has been developed for wool production, with Yass and Goulburn noted for their fine wool.
Towns
Almost all towns en route in both Victoria and New South Wales are bypassed by the Hume Highway. On the Victorian side, from Melbourne, practically all towns are bypassed; they are in southwards order from the NSW border, Wodonga, Chiltern, Wangaratta, Benalla, Euroa, Seymour and Broadford.
On the New South Wales side, from Sydney, southwards to Victorian border, the bypassed towns are Camden, Picton, Mittagong, Bowral, Moss Vale, Goulburn, Yass, and Gundagai. The highway passes through Holbrook through to Albury until the Victorian border.
Camden
Camden lies 60 km south west of Sydney on the Nepean River, and the town (now city) dates back to 1840. It retains a lot of character where many historic building of interest remain and there is an aviation museum at nearby Narellan. Sydney urban sprawl has made it part of the Sydney metropolitan area.
The old section of the Hume Highway follows a winding southwards track through the Razorback Ridge passing through pretty towns such as Picton and Bargo before heading towards Mittagong. This section today is State Route 89 and renamed as Camden Valley Way. Between Bargo and Yerrinbool this road is known as Remembrance Drive. The current alignment of Hume Highway takes a completely different and more straight path. The old Hume Highway meets with the current Hume Highway at Yerrinbool, just before Mittagong.
Southern Highlands
Mittagong lies 110 km south-west of Sydney, just off the Hume Highway at the start of the Southern Tablelands. It is lined with various species of deciduous trees from the Sydney entrance (the previous Hume Highway) and has busy town centre. Once trucks would be rolling along it until the bypass was built as the continuous stretch of Hume is broken by the town centre. In winter it is also busy with skiers' traffic on the way to the Australian Alps. Today the Hume Highway baypasses Mittagong and all the towns of the Southern Tablelands.
The highway bypass was first evaluated as having a slightly negative impact on the economy about a year after its opening, due to the loss of traffic-serving business. Expectations were re-evaluated as mildly positive in 1994 taking into account hard-to-quantify benefits such as the increased appeal of the town as a place to live.<ref>Australia. Bureau of Transport and Communications Economics (BTCE) Working Paper, 11, 1994, pp 22p, AGPS, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia, 1036-739X, 0-642-20440-3. PY: 1994</ref>
The town of Berrima has flourished since the bypass took effect with tourists finding the historic town an easy day trip from either Sydney or Canberra.
Goulburn
Goulburn is the first regional city along the Hume Freeway upon leaving Sydney and the primary city of the Southern Tablelands. It is a farming and municipal centre. Goulburn was bypassed in 1992.
South of Goulburn, the Federal Highway connects to Canberra.
Coolac
The 11 kilometre section at Coolac is the last two lane section of highway between Sydney and Gundagai. The bypass will be completed by 2008.<ref>{{cite web
| author= | year=2006 | url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/australia/nsw/riverina/200602/s1569224.htm | title=More delays to highway bypass | format= | work= | publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation www.abc.net.au | accessdate=2006-02-22 | accessyear= }}</ref>
Gundagai
The highway bypassed Gundagai in 1974. Near Gundagai a tourist attraction is located at Snake Gully, with a statue of the "Dog on the Tuckerbox". This statue is based on a poem about bullock carts stuck in the mud near Gundagai. The story was retold in a popular Australian poem by Jack Moses. The town is also well-known by a folk song of the early twentieth century "The Road to Gundagai". Consequently, a statue (with souvenir shop next door) was erected five miles (eight kilometres) from Gundagai depicting the scene. Snake Gully serves as a waystation for many highway travellers.
At Gundagai, the highway crosses the Murrumbidgee River via a long-span bridge. Nearby, the Sturt Highway, which leads to Adelaide, begins here.
Tarcutta
Image:Tarcutta truckie memorial.jpg
Tarcutta, located almost exactly halfway between Sydney and Melbourne, has been a popular stopover and change-over point for truck drivers making their way between the two cities. There is a poignant memorial to the truck drivers who have died on the infamously-dangerous local stretch of the Hume Highway.
With the improvements to the Hume Highway, which cuts travelling time from Sydney to Melbourne to less than a day, the town's importance to the average motorist has diminished.
Holbrook
Holbrook lies on the Hume Highway between Gundagai and Albury and like Albury, is one of the few remaining towns yet to be bypassed. Notorious for its speed traps. There is also the large HMAS Otway Submarine that cannot be missed as the town is approached from the north.
Albury/Wodonga
Image:HumeHighwayAlburyBypassConstructionDecember2005.jpg Albury's history is linked with the two famous Australian explorers, Hume and Hovell, as the city's location sprung from their discovery 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 is by far the most noticeable city that is yet to be bypassed by the Hume Highway.
After decades of debate about the route and the funding obligations of the state and federal governments, a freeway "internal bypass", running close to the city itself, commenced construction in 2005 and is expected to be completed mid-2007. In addition to catering for through traffic, the new route will serve local residents as a second road crossing of the Murray River between the twin cities.
Wangaratta
Wangaratta is one of the larger towns in northeast Victoria. It is located on the Old Hume Highway and the Great Alpine Road (Ovens Highway). The area around it was first discovered by Hume and Hovell in the 1820s and the township was founded in 1837 when the surrounding area was open for farming.
The attractions around town include Merriwa Park, a sunken garden adjacent to King River, Airworld at Wangaratta Airport, old goldfield areas of nearby Beechworth and gateway to Victorian Alps for skiers.
Benalla
Image:Sydney Road near Benalla 1914.jpg
Benalla is a large town located just off the Hume Freeway between Melbourne and Wangaratta. Founded in 1848, town growth was slow until the 1850s goldfields rush. 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 Thai Burma Railway in World War Two.
Euroa
The area around Euroa was first discovered by Hume and Hovell in the late 1830s. Euroa is famous for a Ned Kelly robbery. The town itself is pretty with gardens.
Seymour
The Hume highway bypass of Seymour opened in December 1982. Seymour remains on the Goulburn Valley Highway. The town is in a rich valley which supports the local vineyards and large military base at Puckapunyal to the west. Once the centre of the bushranging area of Victoria. It has a museum and displays many period relics of that era.
See also
References
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