New England Highway - National Highway Function

National Highway Function

The national highway network is a subset of the national routes for which the Commonwealth, rather than the state governments, has responsibility for maintenance and upgrading. When the national highway network was established in 1974 national route 15 was designated as part of the national network. This route number covers the New England Highway, from Hexham to Warwick, which is the majority of the highway.

Between Warwick and Tamworth the New England Highway, as well as being part of the national route between Sydney and Brisbane, is also an important interstate link between Queensland and Victoria, connecting to Melbourne via the Oxley Highway to the Newell Highway (which becomes the Goulburn Valley Highway where it crosses the Murray River).

Whilst, as a national highway, the New England Highway is part of the official major route between Sydney and Brisbane, most traffic uses the parallel Pacific Highway. Rapid growth of population and tourism along the NSW North Coast since the 1970s led to the Commonwealth and NSW governments jointly funding reconstruction of the Pacific Highway to freeway standard from the early 1990s onward (see separate entry on the Pacific Highway). As a result the New England Highway has become the only national highway in Australia with a lower intercapital traffic volume than an alternative route.