when was the eyre highway sealed

[7][8] Road trains (A-double or B-triple) up to 42.5 metres (139 ft) are permitted on Eyre Highway, with Quads upto 49.5 metres (163 feet) between Ceduna and Colona Station turnoff[9] but are limited to 100 kilometres per hour (62 mph). Eyre Highway (January 1977). With increased priority given to the project from 1966, Western Australia's portion of the highway was completed in 1969, with a ceremony held in Eucla on 17 October. Though the Eyre Highway is dotted with roadhouses, the Nullarbor is still a remote area and when travelled by road you can expect to pay high prices for fuel and food. [37] The federal government did not see the road as important enough for its involvement. Western Roads: official journal of the Main Roads Department, Western Australia, 2(1), p. 2–6. [25], Edward John Eyre was the first European to traverse the coastline of the Great Australian Bight and the Nullarbor Plain by land, in 1840–1841, on an almost 2,000-mile (3,200 km) trip from Adelaide to Albany, Western Australia. The construction of the East–West Telegraph line in the 1870s, along Eyre's route, resulted in a hazardous trail that could be followed for interstate travel. Stretching between Port Augusta in South Australia and Norseman in Western Australia the Eyre Highway covers an astonishing 1,675 kilometres of land across plains as far as the eye can see. The Eyre Highway is the main road that connects South Australia with the south of Western Australia.It runs for 1668 km. The Eyre Highway is one of Australia’s epic self-drive adventures. [13], Main Roads Western Australia and the Department for Infrastructure & Transport in South Australia monitor traffic volume across the states' road networks, including various locations along Eyre Highway. Eyre Highway is punctuated with historic and natural sights including caves, a telegraph station and bird observatory. (ABC Goldfields: Rhiannon Stevens) Ms Lal told the ABC there had been some scary situations along the way. Apart from Eucla, 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) from the South Australia border, roadhouses serving the highway are the only settlements on the 720-kilometre-long (450 mi) stretch through Western Australia. [45], In the 1930s and 1940s, the Western Australian Nomenclature Advisory Committee[c] had been choosing directional names for the state's main arterial roads (such as Great Eastern Highway),[47] while the South Australian Highways Department had been naming the major roads to other states after explorers (such as Flinders Highway, named after Matthew Flinders). Eyre Highway and Eyre Peninsula Roads . Taking a route east from Norseman, with some detours around limestone ridges, would allow a road to be formed quickly and easily. [24], After crossing the border at the settlement of Border Village, the highway passes through the Nullarbor Wilderness Protection Area and then through the localities of Yalata, Penong and Ceduna. Eyre Highway closure for such a long period of time is unusual. Signed as National Highway 1/A1, it forms part of [34], The construction of the telegraph had resulted in a trail that could be followed for interstate travel, but it was a haphazard route which only the more adventurous motorists would take. Murray Jenning kindly provided some anecdotes regarding Eyre Highway before it was fully sealed, I crossed it first in a friend’s reconditioned Holden ute in December, 1962 when there was only a 70 mile stretch of bitumen before we hit the bulldust and potholes. After Kyancutta, the highway turns to the east towards the town of Kimba. The Nullarbor Plain is home to the earth’s largest piece of limestone. About the Eyre Highway. Archived. Road condition: You'll drive on Eyre Highway (A1) and it is fully sealed from Ceduna (SA) to Norseman (WA). Department for Infrastructure & Transport, trip from Adelaide to Albany, Western Australia, Royal Automobile Club of Western Australia, "Eyre Highway: Driving directions from Norseman via Ceduna to Port Augusta", "Route Numbering System in Western Australia", "Operation of Road Train vehicles in South Australia", Department for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure, "Statewide Traffic Digest 2009/10 – 2014/15", "How Safe are our Roads? dangerousroads.org is not responsible for the information contained in these pages. In October 1972 the Ceduna to Penong seal was finished and the final link, between Penong and the State Border was completed with a ceremony held on September 29, 1976 near Wigunda Tank. Drive from Caiguna Roadhouse 65 kilometres (40 miles)… The wildlife in the region, which includes kangaroos, emus, and camels, is known to do serious damage to cars. The finished road, while an improvement over the previous route, still was not much more than a track, and remained such throughout the 1940s and 1950s. Some years later it was transformed into a rough highway, before the current route was sealed in the early seventies. The Eyre Highway starts in Western Australia in Norseman which is about a two hour drive south of Kalgoorlie. You are still completely responsible for your decisions, your actions, and your safety. Continuing to the South Australian town of Ceduna, it then crosses the top of the Eyre Peninsula before reaching Port Augusta. When this challenging trail between Ceduna, SA, and Norseman, WA, was realigned and fully sealed back in the 1970s, the old Eyre Highway became disused virtually overnight and, since then, has been totally unmaintained and has progressively deteriorated. [35]:186–7, Work to seal Eyre Highway was undertaken in the 1960s and 1970s. Before arriving at Ceduna, it enters the Eyre Peninsula. Nevertheless, even if you don’t have to navigate around an oncoming kangaroo, the highway’s loneliness and remoteness is known to cause driver fatigue, which in turn leads to a higher chance of accidents and fatalities. As of this morning, hundreds of drivers have received the news they have been waiting for as emergency services re-open the Eyre Highway for the first time this year. Hundreds of travellers were left stranded when the 1660-kilometre highway was shut because of a large fire burning near Norseman. This may prove to be a tourist winner. of Tourism. The country west of Pt Augusta looks fantastic and so much better than our previous visit in 2005, shortly after disastrous and lethal fires had ravaged parts of Eyre Peninsula.That is seriously green for this region, even… With a war in the Pacific seemingly imminent, construction soon began, in July 1941. You can stay at one of the roadhouses or motels along the way, or camp. This lonely road starts at Norseman, a town located in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia and ends in Port Augusta, the seventh most populous city in South Australia. The Eyre Highway linking WA and South Australia has been closed since last week. [35]:367 The upgrade from Cocklebiddy to the state border was completed in October 1994. Work began in mid-1985 near Cocklebiddy, with a 58-kilometre-long (36 mi) section completed in 1986. The Western Australian Government had completed its share of the task of developing a good road link with the east in … In South Australia, 49% was rated as one- or two-star, mostly from Yalata to Ceduna, and across the Eyre Peninsula, with the remaining 51% rated as three- or four-star. from Port Augusta in the east to Norseman in the west. Before the highway was sealed, in 1976, the crossing was a treacherous one. Travelling this expansive plain, you’ll experience the remoteness of the Great Victoria Desert, the pounding Southern Ocean of the Great Australian Bight and the beautiful Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. - ABC licensed Almost 340 people have been successfully evacuated from roadhouses on a remote Nullarbor highway after becoming stranded by bushfires that have closed down the border between Western Australia and South Australia. Posted by 1 year ago. [35]:388, Since the 1990s, regular maintenance and minor improvements have been an ongoing effort; $3.9 million was spent on these works in Western Australia in 1996. At first it was little more than a rough track, but was gradually sealed over the next thirty years. A friend in Margaret River, an ex-biker turned Baptist priest, remembers driving across on his Harley dodging potholes the size of oil drums. PacNat and SCT can become accredited to carry pax. In other words, it’s rather plain and boring, a sort of long and lonely road in the middle of nowhere -that is, until you take into consideration how many wild animals exists in southern Australia. Eyre blazed the way for the highway, Forrest surveyed it, linesmen established a rough track, overlanders confirmed it, and world events forced its proper establishment. It's 1.675 km (1,041 mi) long and includes what is said to be the longest straight stretch of road in the country: 146.6 kilometres (91.1 mi) without any turn. [22], Because of its remoteness, some widened sections of the highway serve as emergency airstrips for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. [58] Another section from the Nullarbor Homestead to Nundroo Motel also travelled further inland than the new alignment, past Ivy Tank Motel and Yalata Roadhouse. A major project to improve Eyre Highway, rather than just repair the damage, began in 1984 with federal government funding to reconstruct 300 kilometres (190 mi) in Western Australia. [61], Map of South Australia and southern Western Australia with Eyre Highway highlighted in red. [58], The 1960s standard of a twenty-foot (6.2 m) sealed width[59] with four-foot-wide (1.2 m) gravel shoulders was proving to be inadequate by the 1980s. The Eyre Highway, which connects Norseman in Western Australia to Port Augusta, was carved across the continent in 1941. Rating Australia's National Network for Risk, 2011", "Eyre Highway: Balladonia Hotel to Mundrabilla Roadhouse", "Sign at the start of 90 mile straight, Australia's longest straight road", "An inventory and condition survey of the Western Australian part of the Nullarbor region", "Nullarbor: Take the long way to Western Australia", "Naming of State Rural Roads – Eyre Peninsula", "Protected Areas of South Australia September (Map) 2014 Edition", "Army Presence in South Australia, 'Maintaining the Momentum, "Bridge named in honour of Joy Baluch AM", "Joy Baluch AM Bridge officially unveiled", Flinders Highway and Lincoln Highway road signs, "Nomination of the East-West Telegraph Line for a National Engineering Landmark", "The Trans-Australian Railway: Nomination For Award As A National Engineering Landmark", "Land Act, 1933–1956: Naming and Change of Name of Roads in the Coolgardie, Dundas and Esperance Road Districts (per 798/42)", "The Diamond in the Desert: The Story of the Giant Readymix Logo on the Nullarbor", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eyre_Highway&oldid=1009080009, All Wikipedia articles written in Australian English, WikiProject Australian Roads articles with a junction list using templates, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, National Highway 1 eastern terminus, National Highway A1 western terminus, T-junction: Eyre Highway continues north-east, Highway terminus: National Highway A1 continues south east as Augusta Highway, Western Australia. 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