Victoria Highway

Victoria Highway Western Australia – Northern Territory

Map of north-western Australia with Victoria Highway highlighted in red
General information
Type	Highway
Length	557 km (346 mi)
Route number(s)	National Highway 1 A1 (future route in Northern Territory)
Major junctions
West end	Great Northern Highway (National Highway 1), 56km south of Wyndham, Western Australia
	Duncan Road Buchanan Highway (National Route 80) Buntine Highway (National Route 96)
East end	Stuart Highway, (National Highway 1), Katherine, Northern Territory
Location(s)
Major settlements	Kununurra, Victoria River
Highway system
Highways in Australia National Highway • Freeways in Australia Highways in Western Australia Highways in the Northern Territory

The Victoria Highway links the Great Northern Highway in Western Australia with the Stuart Highway in the Northern Territory.^[1] The highway is a part of the Perth - Darwin National Highway link. It is signed as National Highway 1, and is part of Highway 1, a circular route around the country. It is 555 kilometres (345 mi) long, and most of the route – some 470 kilometres (290 mi) – lies within the Northern Territory. In some areas it runs in parallel with the Northern Territory's Victoria River, from which its name originates.

History

Originally a series of unformed tracks linking pastoral holdings, the route was developed as a gravel road in the 1950s to aid the beef industry. Improvements took place in the 1960s which tied in with the development of the Ord Irrigation Scheme, which enabled the introduction of road trains. It was designated as National Highway in 1974 and was fully reconstructed and sealed to a good standard by the early 1990s. The highway serves pastoral, mining and tourism industries, as well as the Ord Irrigation Scheme agricultural development near Kununurra.

Route description

The highway is described as spectacular, with escarpment ranges, the unique boab trees and the mighty Victoria River that runs into deep valleys and spectacular gorges. Its eastern terminus is at Katherine which is renowned for Katherine Gorge. In Western Australia, the access road to the Ord River Dam which holds back Lake Argyle - Australia's largest artificial lake - begins at the Victoria Highway just west of the Western Australia / Northern Territory border. The western terminus is at Great Northern Highway, south of Whyndham.

The highway connects the towns of Kununurra, Timber Creek, and Katherine

Flooding

The highway crosses Victoria River near Timber Creek, and this crossing is particularly flood-prone in the wet season. Water overtopping the bridge can cut the main Western Australia - Northern Territory link for days or even weeks during the November - April rainy period. It is not unheard of for the bridge surface to at times be submerged below 10 metres of floodwaters. Ultimately, in May 2008 a project was done to replace the old bridge with a new one. At 7 meters (23 feet) higher, it is high enough to avoid most floods. Only an average of one-in-twenty year floods will be high enough to flood over the new bridge. Additional bridges and height increases of other sections of the highway were undertaken at the same time.^[2] As of September 2014, the new bridge has not yet been flooded over.

Major intersections

State	LGA	Location	km^[3]	mi	Destinations	Notes
Western Australia	Wyndham-East Kimberley	Lake Argyle	0	0	Great Northern Highway (National Highway 1 south) – Wyndham, Halls Creek	T-Junction: Victoria Highway continues west as Great Northern Highway; National Highway 1 concurrency terminus: continues south
Western Australia	Wyndham-East Kimberley	Lake Argyle	87.6	54.4	Western Australia / Northern Territory border
Northern Territory	Victoria Daly	Baines	87.6	54.4	Western Australia / Northern Territory border
		Baines	101	63	Duncan Road – Halls Creek
		Timber Creek	300	186	Buchanan Highway (National Route 80) – Dunmarra
		Delamere	432	268	Buntine Highway (National Route 96) – Nicholson
	Katherine	Katherine	557	346	Stuart Highway (National Highway 1) – Darwin, Tennant Creek, Alice Springs	Eastern highway terminus
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi Concurrency terminus

References

↑ Hema, Maps (2007). Australia Road and 4WD Atlas (Map). Eight Mile Plains Queensland: Hema Maps. pp. 89,96. ISBN 978-1-86500-456-3.
↑ "Victoria Highway Upgrade". Steelcon Constructions (NT). Archived from the original on 15 December 2014. Retrieved 29 September 2014.
↑ Google (14 June 2013). "Victoria Highway" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved 14 June 2013.

The Penguin Australian Road Atlas, 18th edition. Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin Books Australia Ltd. 1999. ISBN 0-670-88570-3.

Road infrastructure in Northern Territory

National highways	Barkly Highway Stuart Highway Victoria Highway

Highways	Arnhem Highway Carpentaria Highway Kakadu Highway Lasseter Highway Roper Highway Tablelands Highway

Major urban roads	Bagot Road Berrimah Road McMillans Road Tiger Brennan Drive

Outback tracks and numbered state routes	Buchanan Highway Buntine Highway Central Arnhem Road Colson Track Cox Peninsula Road Daly River Road Dorat Road Duncan Road Gary Junction Road Great Central Road Gunbarrel Highway Larapinta Drive Plenty Highway Sandover Highway Sandy Blight Junction Road Savannah Way Tanami Road

Road infrastructure in Western Australia

Freeways	Graham Farmer Freeway Kwinana Freeway Mitchell Freeway

Metropolitan highways	Albany Highway Canning Highway Great Eastern Highway (Bypass) Leach Highway Reid Highway Roe Highway Stirling Highway Tonkin Highway Wanneroo Road West Coast Highway

Highways and major roads	Albany Highway Brand Highway Brockman Highway Brookton Highway Bussell Highway Coalfields Road Coolgardie–Esperance Highway Dampier Highway Derby Highway Eyre Highway Forrest Highway Geraldton–Mount Magnet Road Goldfields Highway Great Eastern Highway Great Northern Highway Great Southern Highway Indian Ocean Drive Mandjoogoordap Drive Muirs Highway North West Coastal Highway Old Coast Road South Coast Highway South Western Highway Vasse Highway Victoria Highway

Outback tracks	Anne Beadell Highway Buntine Highway Canning Stock Route Cape Leveque Road Connie Sue Highway Duncan Road Gary Highway Gary Junction Road Gibb River Road Great Central Road Gunbarrel Highway Kalumburu Road Sandy Blight Junction Road Talawana Track Tanami Road

Road routes in Western Australia

National Highway 1

National Highways

National Routes

1
Alt 94

State Routes

2
3
4
5
6
7
8
10
12
13
14
18
19
20
21
22
26
27
30
Alt 30
31
36
40
41
50
51
52
53
55
56
60
61
64
65
66
71
72
75
76
77
78
81
82
83
84
85
87
102
104
107
115
116
120
123
136
138

Tourist Drives

List of road routes in Western Australia

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, March 21, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.