HUME HIGHWAY

The 'Hume Highway / Hume Freeway' is one of Australia's most important and notable interstate highways which runs for 880 km inland 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 serving Albury, Wodonga and Canberra.
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.
At its Melbourne end the original alignment of the Hume Highway began until 2005 at the intersection of Elizabeth St, Flemington Road and Royal Parade. The first section of the former Hume Highway was Royal Parade, which becomes 'Sydney Road' at Brunswick Road and then becomes the Hume Highway itself at Campbellfield. This route is numbered as .
However as the Hume Freeway approaches Melbourne at the suburb of Craigieburn, 27 km north of the city centre, since 2005, the Craigieburn Bypass diverts the Hume Freeway (and the M31 designation) to the east of the original highway, to terminate at the Western Ring Road .
This diversion allows traffic from the Melbourne freeway network in suburban Melbourne to travel on a freeway standard road for the entire distance of 330 kilometres to the Olympic Highway (10 kilometres north of Albury), also from the Sydney Orbital Motorway to just north of Coolac for about 360 kilometres.
The main alternative route is the / Princes Highway which goes via the coast rather than inland.

Contents

History

Early road construction

Route Information

Road standards

Albury bypass

The ‘issues’ and ‘controversies’ about widening

Victoria's Hume Freeway

Speed Limits

Traffic lights

Views

Towns

Camden

Southern Highlands

Berrima

Marulan

Towrang

Goulburn

Gunning

Yass

Coolac

Gundagai

Tumblong

Tarcutta

Holbrook

Woomargama

Table Top

Albury-Wodonga

Wangaratta

Benalla

Euroa

Seymour

Donnybrook

Craigieburn

See also

References

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, but 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.
At the time of early European exploration, this area was heavily wooded, 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".^[1] Many of the early explorers would most likely have used aboriginal guides, but they do not appear to have given them credit.

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 Goulburn in 1820, but it is unlikely that even a primitive road was finished at that time.

In the 1830s the Great South Road was rebuilt and completely re-routed between Yanderra and Goulburn by Surveyor-General Thomas Mitchell. This route, except for the bypasses at Mittagong, Berima and Marulan, built in the 1980s & 1990s, 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.^[2] Mitchell's work on the Great South Road is best preserved at Towrang Creek (10 km 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 in with William Hovell were the first Europeans to traverse an overland route between Sydney and Port Phillip, in what later became Victoria.

Route Information

Of the 880 km length of the Hume Highway, 90% is dual carriageway or freeway standard in NSW, (96% by 2009, except for just 20 kilometres near Tarcutta, Holbrook and Woomargama) and the entire length of the highway or 100% in Victoria is of freeway-grade standard. The principal towns which it passes through or bypasses are (from north to south) Campbelltown, Mittagong, Goulburn, Yass, Gundagai, Holbrook and Albury in New South Wales; and Wodonga, Wangaratta, Benalla, Euroa, Seymour and Craigieburn in Victoria.

Road standards

In NSW the Hume Highway is dual carriageway from the Sydney Orbital Motorway to 22 km south of Tarcutta (440 km from Sydney and the halfway point on the highway), except for a section of 11 km at Coolac (Where a dual carriageway 'alignment' deviation will be put in place) [1], also the Sheahan Bridge across the Murrumbidgee River at Gundagai [2] (Which will both be duplicated by 2009), and between the Sturt Highway interchange and the Olympic Highway are about couple of additional lengths of dual carriageway, with the remainder of this section of the highway consisting of about 87 kilometres (67 kilometres to be duplicated by 2009, leaving only 20 kilometres left until 2012) of two-lane road with overtaking lanes at most intervals (about every 4 kilometres). Road duplication soon to commence in late-2007 on the following; Sturt Highway to Tarcutta (6 kms), Kyeamba Hill (9 kms), Little Billabong (8 kms), Yarra Yarra to Holbrook (12 kms) and Woomargama to Mullengandra (10 kms) by 2009 by Abigroup. The other 22 kilometres (including a deviation of the highway just south of Mullengandra to the Olympic Highway, this section has funding and planning approval since May 2006 and will commence construction of dual carriageways in late-2007. [3] [4]
[5] [6] [7] [8]
The Australian Government, which funds maintenance and construction of the Hume Highway, aims to duplicate the remaining single carriageway sections by the end of 2009, except for bypasses of Tarcutta, Holbrook, and Woomargama, totalling about 20 kilometres. These are intended to be duplicated by 2012.^[3]

Albury bypass

Since March 2007, a bypass of Albury has been opened after a history of announcements and changes of plans throughout 1990 and first discussed or talked about in 1964, when Albury residents failed to agree on whether an 'internal' or 'external' bypass route was more appropriate. The 'internal bypass' argument won the day and approval granted in 2004, and construction began in January 2005, with construction completed and opened to traffic in March 2007. This route is parallel to and on the eastern side of the Sydney-Melbourne railway, beginning at the present highway overpass of the railway 10 kilometres north of Albury. After crossing the Murray River, the bypass route crosses the railway to rejoin the highway at the southern end of the Lincoln Causeway, where the freeway section, bypassing Wodonga, to Melbourne begins. The Albury bypass includes a freeway standard connection to the Murray Valley Highway at Bandiana, east of Wodonga.

The ‘issues’ and ‘controversies’ about widening

North of Brooks Road to the "Roden Cutler" interchange (M5/F5/M7 interchange) is already almost an 8-lane freeway (from May 2008), for about four kilometres because of the 'induced traffic' linking onto the Westlink. [9] [10] However, the section between Brooks Road and Narellan Road is "extreamly congested" with traffic since 2001 in peak times, now in 2007, it is mostly congested during most daylight hours every day - Because of the 'massive Canberra sized' subdivision housing near the Camden/Narellan area with this section being just two lanes in each direction and is not uncommon that the traffic on this section does 10 km/h, when the speed limit is actually 110 km/h. There is a joint campaign and a video called: "GRIDLOCK ON THE F5" [11] between the local paper of the Macarthur Chronicle and Campbelltown City Council's Mayor, Aaron Rule for the F5 (Hume Highway), south of Brooks Road to Cambbelltown Road to be 8 lanes, and 6 lanes from Campbelltown Road to Narellan Road. From September 2007, Major planning, anonchments from Politicians and $150 million in funding has commenced for widening the F5 south of Brooks Road to Narellan Road to be completed by the end of 2009 [12] [13] [14]
[15]
''Current situation'':
M7 to Brooks Road F5 widening, ONLY northbound (from 2 lanes to 4 lanes), near Ingleburn in Campbelltown ($30.1m: 20% funded by New South Wales) - To be opened in May 2008.^[4][5][6]
Brooks Road to Raby Road, widening from 4 lanes to 8 lanes and from Raby Road to Narellan Road from 4 lanes to 6 lanes (both northbound and southbound - $150 million, 80% commonwealth Government, the other 20% NSW Government) MEDIA RELEASE Hope at last, Marcathur Chronical.

Victoria's Hume Freeway

In Victoria, the Hume is of freeway standard for its entire length, from the Metropolitan Ring Road at Thomastown, then straight on to the Albury bypass at the NSW/VIC border. This interchange connects the Hume to Melbourne's freeway network.^[7][8][9]

Speed Limits

Like most roads in Australia, the Hume Highway is speed-limited, although it was as recent as late 1977 that speed limits were introduced on the section between the Federal Highway interchange and Albury.
Speed limits on the Hume Highway are as follows:
'New South Wales'
''Arterial standard (with traffic signals)''

★ Parramatta Road Summer Hill-Centenary Drive South Strathfield: 60 km/h

★ Centenary Drive - Brunker Road Greenacre: 70 km/h

★ Brunker Road - Hector Street Bass Hill: 60 km/h

★ Hector St - Woodville Road: 70 km/h

★ Woodville Road - M5 tollway Casula: 60 km/h

★ M5 - Camden Valley Way Prestons: 70 km/h

★ Camden Valley Way - freeway on-ramp at Glenfield: 80 km/h
''Freeway standard (no traffic signals)''

★ Glenfield - Coolac: 110 km/h

★ Coolac: 80km/h (Coolac bypass opens May 2009 will be 110km/h)

★ Coolac - Sheahan Bridge: 110 km/h

★ Sheahan Bridge and approaches: 100km/h (When the Sheahan Bridge duplication opens in 2009, the speed limit will be 110km/h)

★ Sheahan Bridge - Sturt Hwy interchange 110km/h

★ Sturt Hwy interchange - Albury:

★
★ Dual carriageway sections: 110 km/h

★
★ Rural single carriageway sections: 100 km/h (an extra 87 kilometres of these, will be turned into dual carriageway by 2009 and will be 110km/h)

★
★ The towns of Tarcutta, Holbrook, Woomargama and Mullengandra 50 km/h (Tarcutta, Holbrook and Woomargama will not be bypassed until 2012, then it will be 110km/h).

★
★ Albury Bypass: 110 km/h.
'Victoria'
''Freeway standard (no traffic signals)''

★ New South Wales / Victoria border - Beveridge: 110 km/h

★ Beveridge - Western Ring Road: 100 km/h
''Arterial standard (with traffic signals)''

★ Hume Highway from Craigieburn - Melbourne:

★
★ Craigieburn - Campbellfield: 80 km/h

★
★ Campbellfield - Melbourne: 60 km/h
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 100 km/h on single carriageway sections are vigorously policed and unbendingly enforced, including through the use of fixed and mobile speed cameras.
Fixed speed cameras locations: In Sydney: near Culdees Road Burwood, Willee St Enfield, Brennan St Yagoona, and Knight St Lansvale. Rural: between Gobarralong and Coggans Roads, 5 km north of Coolac, where 350 km of dual carriageway suddenly ends at the bottom of a long incline and the Highway reverts to a poorly-aligned route with limited visibility, and between Dellateroy Creek and Conja Settlement Rd, 5 km north of Tarcutta, again where dual carriageway ends and the Highway reverts to a single carriageway.

Traffic lights

Today, there is ony one set of traffic lights along the whole current route from Melbourne to Sydney. It is located in the town of Holbrook.

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 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 rural section of the highway in Victoria (280 km) is dual carriageway, and all towns have been bypassed. There is not much of note to see on the highway itself, and from Seymour north the driving is often tedious. 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.

Travelling north, after crossing the Murray River, the south bank of which is the Victoria-New South Wales border, the highway continues to passes through the Albury-Wodong bypass a major regional centre in NSW, that has been bypassed since March 2007 in Albury. North of Albury, a major deviation of the highway was constructed in the 1930s due to the inundation of the original route caused by the raising of the wall of the Hume Dam on the Murray River. The deviation commences at Guinea St (the first part of the Riverina Highway east from Albury as far as what is now Old Sydney Road was until then the Hume Highway), and terminates at Bowna. At either end of the original route is the strange sight of the road disappearing into the waters of Lake Hume.
From Albury, the road continues generally north-east to Yass, before heading due east past Gunning and Goulburn to near Marulan, 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.

Towns

Almost all towns on the Hume Highway are bypassed. In New South Wales, from Sydney, southwards to Victorian border, the bypassed towns are Ingleburn, Campbelltown, Camden, Picton, Mittagong, Berrima, Marulan, Goulburn, Gunning, Yass, Bowning, Bookham, Jugiong, Coolac (opens 2009), Gundagai and Albury. By 2012; The only towns on the Hume Highway are yet to be bypassed are: Tarcutta, Woomargama and Holbrook.
In Victoria; 100% of all towns are bypassed; they are in southwards order from the NSW border Wodonga, Chiltern, Wangaratta, Benalla, Euroa, Violet Town, Seymour, Broadford and Craigieburn.
The old route 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

Camden lies 60 km south west of Sydney on the Nepean River, and the town dates back to 1840. It retains a lot of 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.
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.

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 where it joins the Hume Highway at Hoddles Crossroads (named after Surveyor Robert Hoddle who also laid out the Melbourne CBD).
'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.^[10] 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' 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' 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.
'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, all, except Wingello, being located in Argyle county, along with Goulburn. Counties and their divisions called parishes never became serious units of government in New South Wales, but they are still used in land administration.
In the early 19th century Bungonia was expected to become a major centre, but it subsequently proved unsuitable for intensive agriculture. Much of Old Argyle Road give the impression of dating from the 1820s, although clearly there must have been a fair amount of human and mechanical maintenance over the last 180 years. It is not recommended after significant rain.
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

A major stockade for chain-bound convicts and others involved in the construction of the 'Great South Road' was located on the western side of the Highway at Towrang Creek 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^[11]
The stockade used to be accessible by a stile, but this has been taken down to discourage use of the daunting intersection of the Highway with Towrang Road, especially for those turning right onto the Highway towards Goulburn. 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 the designer of impressive early bridges in New South Wales, David Lennox) and a 1960s concrete box culvert can be viewed.
The intersections of the Highway with Towrang and Carrick Roads (Currently in construction since March 2007) and will be finished by late 2007, this will be upgraded to improve traffic safety by a seagull intersection for careful merging for vehicles all turning right in and out [16] . funded under AusLink and it is to be hoped that access to the stockade site will be restored.

Goulburn

Goulburn is the first city along the Hume Highway from Sydney. It is a farming and admnistration centre, and 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. Near Belmore Park is located a number of architecturally and historically significant buildings, including the courthouse, the post office and the railway station. Also in central Goulburn are two cathedrals, both of architectural note. Near the railway station on Sloane Street is a number of old houses and hotels.
13 km south of Goulburn along the Hume Highway is the interchange with the Federal Highway which connects to Canberra and the Snowy Mountains. Goulburn also has the very famous "Big Merino" (a type of sheep that is drought tolerant) is at the service station at the southern interchange for more tourism to attract .

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 impressive and 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.

Coolac

The 11 kilometre section at Coolac is the last two lane section of highway between Sydney and Gundagai. Construction of the bypass is scheduled for completion in May 2009. After a delay due to indigenous heritage issues, the construction contract was awarded to Abigroup Contractors Pty Ltd in February 2007.^[12][13]

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.
The highway bypassed Gundagai in 1977 with the completion of the Sheahan Bridge over the Murrumbidgee River. 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. The Sheahan Bridge is the second longest bridge in NSW. 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 new grade-separated interchange opened up at West Street in 2006 [17]. Currently the Shehan Bridge is only 1 lane in each direction since 1977, at that time there was no need to have duplication because there was only 2,000 vehicles crossing per day (vcpd), today it is about 10,000 vcpd. Construction work on duplicating the bridge will commence sometime in late-2007 for a second bridge on the Gundagai side of the Sheahan Bridge [18] [19]

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 has been preserved, and is visible on the western side of the highway close to the interchange with the Snowy Mountains Highway.
Thirty eight km southwest of Gundagai is the interchange with the Sturt Highway, which leads to Wagga Wagga Mildura and Adelaide.

Tarcutta

Tarcutta, is one of the three remaining towns yet to be bypassed until 2012. Tarcutta is 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 memorial to truck drivers who have died on the 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. It was near Tarcutta that the final section of the Hume Highway was sealed in 1940.

Holbrook

Holbrook lies on the Hume Highway between Gundagai and Albury and like Tarcutta and Woomargama, is one of the three remaining towns yet to be bypassed until 2012. It is notorious for its speed traps. 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 addition, Holbrook can also hold a very famous claim to besides a submarine, that it has the only one set of traffic signals (for pedestrians) on the whole of the Hume Highway from the Melbourne's Western Ring Road to the Sydney Orbital Network.

Woomargama

Woomargama, is a village between Table Top and Holbrook and is one of the three remaining towns yet to be bypassed until 2012.

Table Top

Table Top is a community in the south east part of the Riverina. It is situated on the Hume Highway, about 16 kilometres north of Albury. It has a population of approximately 4510 people. Roadworks on a bridge from two to third lanes on a bridge has been completed since October 2006 [20] [21].

Albury-Wodonga

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 is by far the largest centre that has been bypassed since March 2007 [22] by the Hume Highway. The population of Albury-Wodonga is approaching 80,000.
After decades of debate about the route and the funding obligations of the state and federal governments, construction of a freeway 'internal bypass', running through the city itself, commenced in 2005 and was completed March 2007.^[14]
In addition to catering for through traffic, the new route will serve local residents as a number of interchanges are to be built and it will provide a second road crossing of the Murray River.
Source:

★ RTA Albury Wodonga Hume Freeway project

★ Albury Wodonga Hume Freeway project

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'). The area around it was visited by Hume and Hovell in 1824 and the town was founded in 1837 when the surrounding area was open 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

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 Ponds 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.

Donnybrook

Donnybrook is just 5 kilometres north of Craigieburn. The Federal or Commonwealth Government of Australia under AusLink is providing $13 million for construction of a grade-separated interchange with the Hume Freeway, currently it is an extremely dangerous at-grade interchange at Donnybrook. Completion of the grade-separation interchange is expected to be 2009 [23] [24] [25] [26] [27].

Craigieburn

Prior to 2005; the Hume Freeway ended just outside of Craigieburn, this was a major bottleneck in Craigieburn with 12 sets of traffic signals - Just to get into Melbourne or even onto the Melbourne Freeway system. Since 2005; the Craigieburn Bypass linkes directly to the Western Ring Road to avoid a notorious bottleneck.

See also

★ Old Hume Highway

★ Highways in Australia

★ Highways in Victoria

★ List of highways in New South Wales

References

1. Official Year Book of the Commonwealth of Australia 1931
2. History of Australian Roads, , Max, Lay, Australian Road Research Board, , ISBN 0-86910-164-1
3. Media release
4. http://www.macarthurchronicle.com.au/article/2007/06/12/3051_news.html F5 roll-out: Widening work could start as soon as next year (South of Brooks Road)
5. http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/constructionmaintenance/majorconstructionprojectssydney/f5widening/index.html RTA, F5 Freeway northbound widening Between Prestons and Ingleburn
6. http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/trafficreports/sydney/sydney_sw_south.html Hume Highway - Between Prestons and Ingleburn Roadworks
7. Coolac Bypass
8. Coolac Bypass
9. Sheahan Bridge
10. Media release: Plan to Bridge the Hume Highway at Mittagong
11. Travel - Goulburn
12. More delays to highway bypass
13.
14. Albury-Wodonga Hume Freeway Upgrade

13. Road plans on public display