New England Highway - Route Numbering

Route Numbering

The numbering of the New England Highway is confused by the fact that route names and numbers in Australia are often not contiguous or consistent with each other. In addition, in Queensland there have been numerous name and number changes and extensions to the New England Highway since 1970.

At the time of the rerouting of the New England Highway to Wallangarra and the naming of the Mount Lindesay Highway, arrangements were made by the NSW Department of Main Roads with the Queensland Main Roads Department to name the onward routes from Wallangarra and Mount Lindesay to Brisbane as the New England and Mount Lindesay Highways respectively. At this time they were allocated the national route numbers of 15 for the New England Highway Hexham-Tenterfield-Warwick-Brisbane and 13 for the Mount Lindesay Highway Brisbane-Tenterfield.

In the 1970s, the Queensland Main Roads Department rerouted the designation of the New England Highway north of Warwick to follow the former Lockyer-Darling Downs Highway (national route 17) so that it terminated in Toowoomba. The section of the highway between Brisbane and Warwick was renamed as part of the Cunningham Highway, which until that time had extended only westward from Warwick to Goondiwindi. The rerouted section of the New England Highway from Warwick to Toowoomba was renumbered from 17 to become part of national route 42, which until then also had only extended westward from Warwick to Goondiwindi. In the 1990s, the Queensland Main Roads Department again extended the name New England Highway, north from Toowoomba to the D'Aguilar Highway at Yarraman, but this section carries state route number 85 as far as Hampton, and state route number 61 to Yarraman, rather than a national route number. However north of Toowoomba it carries little traffic and performs a regional rather than a national function.

In September 2012, NSW Roads and Maritime Services announced that it would be introducing alpha-numeric route numbering across New South Wales during early 2013. As part of this scheme the New England Highway will be identified as route A15 from the New South Wales-Queensland border to the northern terminus of the Hunter Expressway at Belford, where it will become route A43 to the end of the highway at Hexham. The route 15 designation will be carried towards Newcastle by the Hunter Expressway (as route M15) to its southern terminus at the Pacific Motorway at Cameron Park, then by Newcastle Link Road, Thomas Street, Newcastle Road, Griffiths Road, Donald Street and Parry Street to the intersection with the Pacific Highway in Newcastle West (as route A15).