Kennedy Highway
| Kennedy Highway Kennedy Developmental Road Queensland | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Kennedy Hwy (yellow on black), Kennedy Developmental (green on black) | |
| General information | |
| Type | Highway |
| Length | 1,179.8 km (733 mi) |
| Route number(s) |
 National Route 1(Smithfield - Forty Mile Scrub)  State Route 62(Forty Mile Scrub - Bouila) |
| Major junctions | |
| NE end |
 Captain Cook Highway, Smithfield, Queensland |
 Mulligan Highway Malanda-Atherton Road Gulf Developmental Road Gregory Developmental Road Flinders Highway Landsborough Highway | |
| SW end | Diamantina Developmental Road, Boulia, Queensland |
| Location(s) | |
| Major settlements | Mareeba, Ravenshoe, Hughenden, Winton |
| Highway system | |
|
Highways in Australia National Highway • Freeways in Australia Highways in Queensland | |
| |
The Kennedy Highway is a highway in northern Queensland, Australia. It runs as National Route 1 for approximately 243 km from Smithfield, on the northern outskirts of Cairns, to the Gulf Developmental Road in the vicinity of Forty Mile Scrub and Undara Volcanic national parks (about 40 kilometres south of Mount Garnet).[1] South of this junction, the road continues as the Kennedy Developmental Road (State Highway 62) to Boulia about 936 kilometres away, via Hughenden. West of the junction, National Route 1 continues as the Gulf Developmental Road to Normanton.
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 has several long sections of single lane bitumen. The section between The Lynd junction and Hughenden is mostly unsealed and is also known as the Hann Highway.[2]
For a distance of more than 100 km, from the crossing on the Diamantina River to a point southwest of Middleton, the Kennedy Developmental Road passes across a roughly circular zone measuring some 130 km across that has been identified by Geoscience Australia as a crustal anomaly. Proof is currently lacking as to the cause, but it is believed likely that the anomaly was caused by an asteroid strike that happened about 300,000,000 years ago.
Two northern councils are proposing development of the Hann Highway which 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.[3]
Major intersections
| LGA | Location | km | mi | Destinations | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cairns | Smithfield | 0 | 0.0 | Captain Cook Highway (State Route 44) north - Port Douglas / south (National Route 1) Cairns | North-eastern end of Kennedy Highway (National Route 1) From here to Kuranda the road is more commonly known as Kuranda Range road. |
| Barron River | 12.6 | 7.8 | Bridge at Kuranda | ||
| Barron River | 47.3 | 29.4 | Bridge at Mareeba | ||
| Mareeba | Mareeba | 48.1 | 29.9 | Mareeba Connection Road - North - Mareeba | |
| 48.9 | 30.4 | Mulligan Highway (State Route 81) - North - Mareeba and Mount Molloy | |||
| Tablelands | Atherton | 80.3 | 49.9 |  Atherton-Herberton Road (State Route 52) - south - Herberton | Western concurrency terminus with State Route 52 |
| 81.0 | 50.3 | Gillies Highway (State Route 52) (via Louise Street) - north, then east - Yungaburra | Eastern concurrency terminus with State Route 52 | ||
| 83.9 | 52.1 | Malanda-Atherton Road (State Route 25) - east - Malanda | |||
| Barron River | 90.1 | 56.0 | Bridge at Wongabel | ||
| Tablelands | Wondecla / Evelyn boundary | 108.4 | 67.4 | Longlands Gap-Herberton Road (State Route 52) - west - Herberton | |
| Evelyn | 117.2 | 72.8 |  East Evelyn Road (State Route 24) - east - Millaa Millaa | ||
| Wild River, which becomes Herbert River just downstream (south) of this point | 154.9 | 96.3 | Bridge at Millstream / Innot Hot Springs boundary | ||
| Tablelands | Minnamoolka | 243.5 | 151.3 | Gulf Developmental Road (National Route 1) - west - Georgetown | Kennedy Highway continues south as Kennedy Developmental Road (State Route 62) |
| Etheridge | Conjuboy | 338.4 | 210.3 | Gregory Developmental Road (State Route 63) - south-east - Charters Towers | From here to Hughenden the road is more commonly known by its former name, the Hann Highway |
| Flinders River | 603.7 | 375.1 | Bridge at Hughenden | ||
| Flinders | Hughenden | 604.1 | 375.4 | Flinders Highway (State Route A6) - south, then east - Charters Towers / west - Richmond | Eastern concurrency terminus with Flinders Highway |
| 604.4 | 375.6 | Flinders Highway (State Route A6) - west - Richmond | Western concurrency terminus with Flinders Highway. Kennedy Developmental Road continues south-west via Resolution Street. | ||
| Winton | Winton | 819.7 | 509.3 |  Landsborough Highway (State Route A2) - south-east - Longreach /north-west - Cloncurry | Eastern concurrency terminus with Landsborough Highway. Kennedy Developmental Road enters Winton as Manuka Street. |
| Corfield | 825.6 | 513.0 | Landsborough Highway (State Route A2) - north-west - Cloncurry | Western concurrency terminus with Landsborough Highway | |
| Boulia | Boulia | 1,179.8 | 733.1 |  Diamantina Developmental Road (National Route 83) - north-west - Dajarra and Mount Isa /south-west - Birdsville | Western end of Kennedy Developmental Road (State Route 62) |
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi
| |||||
Gallery
Kennedy Development Road viewed from Cornpore Lookout between Middleton and Boulia
See also
References
- ↑ Hema, Maps (2007). Australia Road and 4WD Atlas (Map). Eight Mile Plains Queensland: Hema Maps. pp. 13–14. ISBN 978-1-86500-456-3.
- ↑ ABC news Hann Highway upgrade
- ↑ Sam Davis (2 August 2012). "Queensland roads holding back nation's fresh fruit". ABC Far North Queensland. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 21 September 2012.
