Princes Highway
| Princes Highway | |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
Also  &
 in
SAFormerly in SA and Vic. |
|
| Length | 1784 km |
| General direction | West-East |
| From | 
Stuart Highway, Port Augusta,
South Australia |
| via | Tailem Bend, SA, Mount Gambier, SA, Warrnambool, Vic., Geelong, Vic., Pakenham, Vic., Sale, Vic., Orbost, Vic., Batemans Bay, NSW, Wollongong, NSW |
| To | 
Princes Highway, Chippendale,
Sydney |
| Allocation | Port Augusta-Port Wakefield,Murray Bridge-Tailem Bend:
Formerly  Tailem Bend-Mt. Gambier:  Formerly Mt. Gambier-Corio (Waurn Ponds from 2009):  Formerly Waurn Ponds-Corio (When Geelong Bypass complete):  Formerly  /  Werribee-Hoppers Crossing: Image:Australian Alphanumeric State Route C109.svg
Formerly Laverton North-Footscray:  Formerly /  Melbourne-Berwick: Formerly Berwick-Nar Nar Goon:  Formerly Traralgon-VIC/NSW Border: Formerly VIC/NSW Border-Wollongong: Wollongong-Waterfall:  Waterfall-Kogarah:  Formerly Newtown - Sydney: |
| Major Junctions | 
Main North Road Mallee Highway
Dukes Highway Southern Ports
Highway Riddoch Highway Glenelg Highway (Casterton
Road) Henty Highway Hopkins Highway Great Ocean Road Surf Coast Highway Bellarine Highway via
McKillop Street Hamilton Highway Midland Highway Princes Freeway Western Ring
Road
Ballarat Road Flemington Road West Gate Freeway
Nepean Highway EastLink South Gippsland
Freeway Monash / Princes Freeway Strzelecki Highway Hyland Highway South Gippsland
Highway Great Alpine Road Monaro Highway Snowy Mountains Highway Kings Highway Illawarra Highway
Appin Road |
The Princes Highway is a segment of Australia's Highway 1 that extends from Sydney to Adelaide and Port Augusta, South Australia via
Melbourne. The Highway approximately follows the coastline between the three cities, and thus
takes quite an indirect and lengthy route. By contrast, the National
Highway takes the
Existing roads were re-named ‘Princes Highway’ after the visit to Australia in 1920 of the Prince of Wales (later to become King Edward VIII, and after abdicating, the Duke of Windsor). The highway was officially opened on August 10 1920 at Warragul, Victoria.
Route
New South Wales
The Princes Highway starts in the Sydney suburb of St. Peters as a continuation of King Street, as a typical, clogged Sydney single carriageway arterial road with two lanes in either direction. Further south, the Princes Highway is a dual carriageway of two or three lanes in metropolitan Sydney, although in some very short stretches it becomes a single carriageway again.
It heads south through the Illawarra region of New South Wales and the city of Wollongong, though this section of highway has been superseded by the Southern Freeway. At the southern end of the Southern Freeway, the highway continues south as an undivided single carriageway, through the South Coast of New South Wales, passing through Nowra and Batemans Bay, and finally crossing the border into Victoria south of Eden.
Victoria
In Victoria the highway passes through the Gippsland region. After Traralgon, the highway is upgraded to freeway standard with two lanes in either direction, passing the Latrobe Valley and continues heading west into the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, to Dandenong.
While the road continues through Melbourne, the name subsequently changes to Dandenong Road and Queens Road. Closer to Melbourne, the road's name becomes Kings Way, and King Street in central Melbourne. The name changes to Curzon Street after leaving the central business district, and later becomes Flemington Road, Racecourse Road, Smithfield Road and Ballarat Road, in that order, before it clearly starts again at Geelong Road. This reason for this confusing alignment of the highway is that former alignments, originating in western Melbourne were renamed to become the highway.
However, the route of National Route 1 is on the Monash Freeway, which stems from the Princes Freeway in the eastern outskirts of Melbourne and the West Gate Freeway from the Princes Freeway in the western outskirts, and these have been linked together by the southern link of the CityLink tollway. This avoids the confusing and congested arrangement of roads that is Princes Highway in central Melbourne.
Heading towards Geelong in a south-west direction, the West Gate Freeway and Geelong Road join together in a junction to become Princes Freeway, which, unusually for a intercity freeway, has enough traffic on it to merit three lanes in either direction. On the northern outskirts of Geelong, the freeway standard road ends, and the road becomes a three lane dual carriageway with traffic lights and grade intersections, and is frequently clogged. A bypass, called a "ring road" by some, of Geelong is currently under construction to avoid these traffic lights, and to ease traffic congestion inside the city.
After Geelong, and now heading generally west, the highway, now undivided, passes through Colac, before reaching Warrnambool. This last leg avoids the slower, but scenic Great Ocean Road. From Warrnambool, the Princes Highway passes through Portland before crossing the border into South Australia at Mount Gambier.
South Australia
At Mount Gambier the highway takes a more northward track, passing Coorong National Park. It wanders through Murray Bridge and over the Murray River, becoming a freeway standard road (the South Eastern Freeway), heading into Adelaide, where it loses its freeway status and becomes a divided highway. Beyond, the mostly undivided Port Wakefield Road links Adelaide to the small industrial town it was named after, Port Wakefield, before - confusingly - the Princes Highway continues north again from Port Wakefield to the semi-desert town of Port Augusta, where the highway ends, and splits into the Eyre Highway, heading west to Perth, and into the Stuart Highway, heading north to Darwin.
See also
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
