Landsborough Highway
Template: Infobox several high-level roads / maintenance / AU N
States:
Queensland
The Landsborough Highway is a major highway in the west of the Australian state of Queensland. The road is 1030 km long and runs from Cloncurry in far north-west Queensland's southeast to Morven, a small town about 660 km west of the capital Brisbane. It is named after the Scottish explorer William Landsborough, who explored much of the surrounding area in the 19th century.
The Landsborough Highway is an important part of the Australian highway system, as it is part of the connection between Brisbane and Darwin. The Landsborough Highway is also known as the Matilda Highway, named after the famous Australian song Waltzing Matilda.
The highway is asphalted, away from larger villages, however, often only one lane in the middle of the roadway. This makes at the meeting of wheeled vehicles, a Dodge on the soft shoulders required.
Course
The Landsborough Highway and about 12 km east of Cloncurry in northwest Queensland. There ends the Barkly Highway ( NA2 ), which leads from the Northern Territory to Queensland. The road forks and begin the Flinders Highway ( A6), the running leads east to Townsville, and the Landsborough Highway, which branches off to the southeast.
The Landsborough Highway runs first through rural areas with numerous farms, operate the cattle and sheep. As the first large village of Winton is reached after about 340 km.
Then Longreach, located about 170 km south-east of Winton on the Tropic of Capricorn follows.
After Longreach the road makes a bend and runs for approximately 100 km to the east until it reaches Barcaldine. From there, the Capricorn Highway ( A4) runs eastwards next to Rockhampton. The Landsborough Highway runs then about 100 km to the south until it reaches the town of Blackall. Behind Blackall changes the highway its direction again to the southeast and leads to Augathella. There, the Mitchell Highway ( A2) branches off to the south-west and leads to Charleville, while the Landsborough Highway moves on towards the southeast to its end west of Morven. There the Warrego Highway ( NA2 ) then continues to Toowoomba in the east.
The highest point in the course of the highway is 476 m and the lowest at 166 m. The maximum slope is 5%.
Source
Steve Parish: Australian Touring Atlas. Steve Parish Publishing. Archerfield QLD 2007 ISBN. 978-1-74193-232-4. Page 8, 16, 17, 19