Lake Highway, Tasmania
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The Lake Highway, or A5, is a main highway and A-road in Tasmania. Although still known as the Lake Highway the official title of the road was changed in recent years to Highland Lakes Road.
The Lake Highway branches off the Midlands Highway at Melton Mowbray in Southern Tasmania and continues for 148 kilometres, with Bothwell being the main town of any size on route, it terminates in Deloraine. It is the only major A-road in Australia that is partially unsealed. The highway is one of the least used in Tasmania, except during the summer months when the road is used by Great Lake commuters. The portion of the highway on and near the Great Lake in Tasmania's central plateau, averages a height of about 1000 metres. During the winter months it is sometimes snowed under.
Two major roads that branch from the Lake Highway are the Marlborough Highway (which connects to the A10 Lyell Highway), and the B51 (which leads to the power station village of Poatina). The highway is 218 kilometres long, with an average travelling time of 2 1/2 hours - similar in both respects to the midlands highway.