Victoria Highway

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Victoria Highway
Length 524 km
General direction West-East
From Great Northern Highway, 56km south of Wyndham, Western Australia
via Kununurra, Victoria River
To Stuart Highway, Katherine, Northern Territory
Allocation National Highway 1
Major Junctions Duncan Road
Buchanan Highway
Buntine Highway

Victoria Highway is a 524 kilometre highway linking Great Northern Highway in Western Australia with Stuart Highway in the Northern Territory. It is a part of the Perth - Darwin National Highway link. It is signed as National Highway 1 and is also a part of the Highway 1 network. It is 555 km long and most of the route – some 470 km – lies within the Northern Territory. In some areas it runs in parallel with the Northern Territory's Victoria River, from which its name originates.

Contents

[edit] 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.

[edit] Tourism

The highway is 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 - is accessed via Victoria Highway just west of the Western Australia / Northern Territory border.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Towns

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  • (1999) The Penguin Australian road atlas, 18th edition. Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin Books Australia Ltd.. ISBN 0-670-88570-3. 
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