Victoria Highway
Template: Infobox several high-level roads / maintenance / AU N
States:
Northern Territory Western Australia
The Victoria Highway is a highway in the northwest of Australia's Northern Territory and in the north east of Western Australia. It connects the Stuart Highway south of Wyndham and west of Kununurra in Katherine with the Great Northern Highway. The Victoria Highway is part of the Australian National Highway 1, along with the Great Northern Highway, the most important connection by land between Darwin and Perth. It received its name from the Victoria River, but he reached in just two short points on the entire route.
History
Originally there were in this area, just a series of smaller unpaved farm roads. In the 1950s there was a first major building project that created a continuous road link.
A further expansion of the road took place in the 1960s during the construction of the Ord Dam. This is also a navigability of the road was given by road trains.
Only in the 1990s, the highway was extended again, straightened and fixed.
Course
Northern Territory
The Victoria Highway branches off in Katherine to the southwest of the Stuart Highway ( N1). It runs through vast, parched in the dry season savannah grass, acacia and eucalyptus bushland, which are characterized by some stunning mountain ranges and gorges. Rest areas, farms and branches of roads are rare.
After 125 km branches at the settlement, ' Willeroo '' to the south of the Buntine Highway ( R96 ), who leads Top Springs and then to Duncan Road ( R80 ) in Western Australia. About 35 km further enters the Victoria Highway in the eastern part of the Gregory National Park. He crossed the eponymous Victoria River and runs through the same settlement on the west bank. The Victoria River, which bends at right angles coming here from south to west, is crossed on a low bridge. This river crossing ( Victoria River Crossing ) is often impassable for days during the rainy season. During this time, the bridge, which spans the river, there are several meters under water.
There is an access road from the highway to the river bank ( Victoria River Access) to a ford, which already crossed Alexander Forrest in 1879 on his expedition from the Kimberleys to the Top End. During the dry season the Victoria River is a popular barramundi fishing paradise and is traversed with excursion boats. Several trails lead from the Roadhouse to vantage points for spectacular sandstone gorges and steep cliffs on the Victoria River ( Escarpment Walk and Joes Creek Walk ).
161 km further west, turns south of Buchanan Highway ( R80 ), which also leads to the Victoria River and two entrances open to the western part of the Gregory National Park. 16 km west of the junction branches turn to the south another, difficult -wheel piste to the heart of the Western Gregory National Park (so- called Bullita Stock Route ). 12 km to the northwest of the town of Timber Creek is reached. The Victoria River approaches from the north again on the road to and accompanies them for about 20 km. Where he leaves again, the expedition leader, Augustus Charles Gregory has a reference to his stay in a Boab Tree scratched ( Gregory 's Tree called ) on 2 July 1856.
The highway turns to the southwest and crosses the East Baines River and the West Baines River. On the southern edge of the Keep River National Park, he puts the northwest the last few kilometers to the border of Western Australia back ..
Western Australia
3 km from the border branches off to the west with the ' Lake Argyle Road '' from the Ord Dam from the road. The dam impounds Ord Ord River and several small rivers of the region to Lake Argyle, the largest artificial lake in Australia.
35 km to the northwest is the easternmost major city of Western Australia, Kununurra, where the road crosses the Ord River. A further 45 km long and leads the Victoria Highway to the southwest, along the sandstone formation of the Carr Boyd Ranges, before it hits 56 km south of Wyndham on the running in a north-south direction Great Northern Highway and ends.
The highest point in the course of the highway is 225 m and the lowest at 8 m.
Source
Steve Parish: Australian Touring Atlas. Steve Parish Publishing. Archerfield QLD 2007 ISBN. 978-1-74193-232-4. Pp. 89 96