National Highway (Australia) - History

History

The National Highway was established by the National Roads Act 1974 when Gough Whitlam was Prime Minister of Australia. Before then, while the Federal Government helped to fund major roads, it did not assume direct responsibility for their construction or upkeep. The National Highway was financed entirely by the Federal Government, though State and Territory Governments are responsible for the actual construction and maintenance of the roads that form part of the National Highway.

Under AusLink, established in July 2004, the AusLink National Network has additional links, both road and rail. The Federal Government encourages funding from state, territory and local governments and public-private partnerships to upgrade the network and requires state government funding contributions on parts of the network, especially for new links. For example, the Pacific Highway and the Calder Highway are now part of the National Network, but new projects are being funded 50/50 by Federal and State Governments. State contributions (generally 20%) are required on some sections of the old network near major cities.

Various superseded Acts (most recently, the Australian Land Transport Development Act, 1988) specified which roads were eligible to become part of the National Highway. To qualify, a road or a series of connected roads had to be a direct connection between two State or Territory capital cities. The city of Cairns in the far northern part of the State of Queensland was also included in former Acts.

The National Highway also includes a small (by comparison) 320 km segment in Tasmania – from the northern port cities of Burnie, Devonport, to Launceston and ending in the southern capital Hobart. The Melbourne-Devonport ferry route is sometimes described colloquially as the 'sea highway', providing a link from Tasmania to the rest of the country by road.

Some of the well-known highways that are part of the National Highway include the Hume Highway, the Bruce Highway, the Eyre Highway and the New England Highway.

National Highways are denoted by a route marker in the shape of the highway route number shields found around Australia. The word "NATIONAL" is printed in the upper portion of the shield above the highway's number. The shield, text and number are coloured yellow while the background is dark green – Australia's national colours.

National Highway numbering originates from the earlier National Route network. Many of the routes that are now National Highways with the signature green and gold shields, continue beyond the official National Highway as the black and white shielded National Routes. Certain stretches of the National Highways have "A" and "M" tag on their shields; particularly those in Victoria and South Australia. They have completely revised their route numbering, basing it on the British M, A, B, C classifications. These states have retained the original National Highway numbering and shield decal, having added the appropriate M and A classification.

In 1977, the 1974 Act was replaced by the State Grants (Roads) Act 1977, which contained similar provisions for the definition of "National Highways".

In 1988, the National Highway became redefined under the Australian Land Transport Development (ALTD) Act of 1988., which had various amendments up to 2003 after which it was replaced by the new 2005 Act. The 1988 Act was largely concerned with funding road development in cooperation with the State Governments. The Federal Transport Minister defined the components of the National Highway, and also a category of "Road of National Importance"(RONI), with federal funding implications. Section 10.5 of the Act required the state road authorities to place frequent, prominent, signs on the National Highways and RONI projects funded by the federal government.

In 2005, the National Highway became the National Land Transport Network, under the AusLink (National Land Transport) Act 2005. The criteria for inclusion in the network was similar to the previous legislation. All of the roads included in National Land Transport Network as of 2005 were formally defined by regulation in October 2005. The Minister for Transport may alter the list of roads included in the network. Three amendments to the scheduled list of roads have been made, in February 2007, September 2008 and February 2009. The third variation, published in February 2009, is current as of September 2012.