The Kennedy Highway (Highway 1) is a highway in northern Queensland, Australia. It runs for approximately 250 km from Smithfield, on the northern outskirts of Cairns, to the Gulf Development Road in the vicinity of Forty Mile Scrub and Undara Volcanic national parks, about 40 kilometres south of Mount Garnet. South of this junction, the road continues as the Kennedy Developmental Road (State Highway 62) via Hughenden eventually to Boulia nearly 1,000 kilometres away; National Route 1 and the Gulf Developmental Road head west to Normanton via Georgetown.
From Smithfield, the highway climbs up into the Atherton Tableland before heading in a general south-westerly direction to the aforementioned junction. The highway is mostly two-lanes. Major towns on, or just off, the Kennedy Highway include Smithfield, Kuranda, Mareeba, Atherton, Ravenshoe and Mount Garnet. Past Mount Garnet, the Kennedy Highway is mostly single lane bitumen.
Development of the road would allow for the transport of products from Far North Queensland to markets in New South Wales and Victoria considerably quicker than via existing coastal routes which have rougher terrain and are sometimes impassable due to floods.
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“The highway leads to Heaven, but each finds his own way.”
—Chinese proverb.