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Australian highways, freeways and motorways

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Shadow Assassin:
An overview of many of the major highways, freeways and motorways located in Australia, with links to their relevant topics and links to Australian roadgeek sites is available here.

Australia has a national highway system with an unique set of markers used to determine whether a highway is of national significance. Perhaps the most significant of them all is National Route 1, which is a circumferential route going through all the capital cities, with the exception of Canberra, including a spur in Tasmania.


Source from Wikipedia

NSW
New South Wales has an extensive network of highways and freeways throughout the state linking the major cities, most of which has been constructed to a dual-carriageway divided limited access standard in the last 15 years. Sydney, as part of the Orbital system, has a relatively simple freeway network compared to that of Brisbane and Melbourne.
There have been numerous plans to expand Sydney's freeway system, many of which have never seen the light of day, such as the full length of the F3. Currently the main way of getting around Sydney is by using the Metroad system.

In addition to Sydney's major freeways, the city has a large network of arterial roads, which are built to expressway standards.

An overview of NSW's major freeways can be found below, with links to their respective topics. Some freeways have been grouped together:
Major Freeways within the Sydney Metro

* Sydney-Newcastle Freeway [F3]
* M1 Gore Hill Fwy, Warringah Fwy, Sydney Harbour Bridge & Tunnel, Cahill Expressway
* M1 Eastern Distributor & Southern Cross Drive
* M2 Hills Motorway & Lane Cove Tunnel
* M4 Western Motorway & City West Link
* M5 South-Western Motorway & General Holmes Drive
* F6 Southern Freeway
* M7 Motorway
* Cross City Tunnel & Western Distributor
Sydney's Metroad system has a number of arterial roads as part of it, some of which are not freeway-grade. This system, however, may be replaced by alpha-numeric marking:

* Metroad 1
* Metroad 2
* Metroad 3
* Metroad 4
* Metroad 5
* Metroad 6
* Metroad 7
* Metroad 9
* Metroad 10
Major Highways in regional NSW

* NR1 Pacific Highway - Newcastle to Brisbane
* NR1 Northern Distributor - Wollongong
* NR1 Princes Highway - Sydney to Melbourne
* NR15 New England Highway - Maitland to Brisbane
* NR31 Hume Highway - Sydney to Melbourne
* NR23 Federal Highway - Goulburn to Canberra
* NR25 Barton Highway - Canberra to Melbourne
* NR20 Sturt Highway - Mildura to Adelaide
VIC
Victoria, being the most densely populated state, has a far more complex network of freeways compared to NSW. Melbourne, in the 60s, had a particularly ambitious freeway plan, a la Los Angeles, however, much of that plan has never materialized for various reasons.

Melbourne's freeways were originally going to be laid out in a grid pattern, however only a few were constructed. It now uses an alpha-numeric route marking system, like SA, QLD and TAS. It follows the MABC system, as laid out below:
M = of motorway standard
A = a major arterial route that may not meet motorway standard due to not having limited access, etc
B = secondary arterial routes which may be alternatives to A routes
C = routes linking two focal points, may not justify a B route marking due to lack of use/road conditions/etc

Major freeways in Melbourne

* M1 - Princes Freeway
* M1 - Monash Freeway
* M1 - Citylink & West Gate Freeway
* M3 - Eastlink & Eastern Freeway
* M8 - Western Freeway
* M31 - Hume Freeway
* M79 - Calder Freeway
* M80 - Western Ring Road
* M420 - South Gippsland Freeway
Major Highways in regional Victoria

* A1 - Princes Highway
* A8 - Dukes Highway
* M39 - Goulburn Valley Freeway
* A39 - Goulburn Valley Highway
QLD
Queensland - coming soon

SA
South Australia - coming soon

WA
Western Australia - coming soon

TAS
Tasmania - coming soon

NT
Northern Territory - coming soon


SITES OF INTEREST

These are two sites that deal specifically with Australian roads.

* OzRoads
* Expressway
This is an overview topic of Australia's highway and freeway system. It is by no means complete, links will be added as new topics are created.

This list is by no means complete and will most probably result in a wall of text when once complete.

agentsteel53:
does the 1 not make it all the way around the island, or is it so diminished in significance north of Cairns that this map does not show it?

V'Ger:
So would these be considered the Interstate system of Australia? It seems like they have a whole system, if not an underdeveloped one.

njroadhorse:

--- Quote from: voyager on January 27, 2009, 01:12:47 PM ---So would these be considered the Interstate system of Australia? It seems like they have a whole system, if not an underdeveloped one.

--- End quote ---
Yeah, you could say that much.  Motorways/freeways are the interstates, and National Highways/roads are like the U.S. routes.  State roads are like our state roads

V'Ger:
Are most of those freeways only 4 or so total lanes?

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