Hume Highway
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The Hume Highway (also known as the Hume Freeway) is one of the most important roads in Australia, linking the country's two largest cities - Sydney and Melbourne. The Hume Highway is part of the National Highway system spanning Australia, and is signed as National Highway 31 in New South Wales and National Highway M31 in Victoria.
Colloqually driving through it is termed "Up/down the Hume". There are other roads that can be used to travel between these two cities, but the Hume Highway is by far the shortest, quickest and safest, if the least interesting to the tourist. There are a number of potential alternatives for the sightseer, the simplest being the Princes Highway which goes via the coast rather than inland.
At the Sydney end of the Hume Highway, the last 10 km of road is also known as Liverpool Road, before it terminates at an intersection with Parramatta Road, in Summer Hill. At the Melbourne end, about 27 km north of Melbourne at the suburb of Craigieburn, a new bypass project is under construction, diverting the Hume Freeway (and the M31 designation) off to the east of the original highway to terminate with the Western and Metropolitan Ring Roads (M80) roughly 15kms north of Melbourne; once completed, this allows traffic to travel from Geelong, Pakenham or suburban Melbourne non-stop to Albury. The original alignment of the Hume Highway, also known as Sydney Road, runs straight south into the heart of Melbourne's CBD, bearing metropolitan route ("blue-shielded") 55.
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History
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The Hume Highway travels through the states of New South Wales and Victoria and got its name in the 1920s during a nationwide highway naming scheme. Before this, the road was known as the "Great Southern Road" in New South Wales and "Sydney Road" in Victoria. The road is named after Hamilton Hume, a famous explorer in the early 19th century who in conjunction with William Hovell first found an overland route between Sydney and the infant colonial outpost of Port Phillip, the original name of Melbourne.
Track
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The Hume Highway is approximately 900 km (550 miles) long, of which over 80 % is now dual carriageway or motorway standard. The principal towns through which it passes are Liverpool, Campbelltown, Camden, Picton, Mittagong, Goulburn, Yass, Gundagai, Holbrook and Albury in New South Wales; and Wodonga, Wangaratta, Glenrowan, Benalla, Euroa, Seymour and Wallan in Victoria.
Road standards
On the Victorian side, freeway conditions from the outskirts of Melbourne to Wodonga(99%). Normal dual carriageway for the remaining sections.The freeway has high grade bitumen surface. On NSW side, approximately 400 km of concrete freeway with remainding road consisting of a two way road with frequent overtaking lanes.
Speed limit
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On the NSW side, Sydney Airport-King Georges' Road (East Tunnel) 90 km/h, King Georges' Road-Moorebank Tollgates 110 km/h, Through Moorebank Tollgates 70 km/h, Moorebank Tollgates-Casula 100 km/h, Casula-Coolac 110 km/h, Through Coolac 100 km/h and 80 km/h, Coolac-Sturt Hwy Junction 110 km/h, Sturt Hwy Junction-Albury 100 km/h. On the Victorian side, constant 110 km/h until outskirts of Melbourne.
Foreign tourists should also keep in mind that despite the comparatively light traffic, good-quality road, and usually good driving conditions, in Australia speed limits (110 kilometres per hour on dual carriageway, usually 100 km/h for the remaining single carriageway sections) are vigorously policed and unbendingly enforced, including the frequent use of fixed and mobile speed cameras.
Views
Heading north from Melbourne, the road passes through the hills of the lower Great Dividing Range, some of which is covered with box eucalypt forest but of which much is cleared for farmland, before levelling out through flat, mostly cleared farming country through to Wodonga and the Victoria-New South Wales border.
Whilst hardly the true Australian Outback, a dry summer can leave the almost featureless ground parched and give travellers from greener foreign lands some idea of the actual outback that lies to the north and west. All of the Victorian section of the road is dual carriageway, and all the towns have been bypassed. There is not much of note to see on the highway itself. Mount Buffalo can be seen in the distance at one point, and a museum commemorating Ned Kelly is located just off the highway near Glenrowan.
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After crossing the Murray River, which doubles as the Victoria-New South Wales border, the highway passes through the only place not bypassed on the route - Albury. From there, the road continues to the north-east through similar country, gradually becoming more hilly as it passes through the remaining cities and then the mountains that presented an impassable barrier to early explorers from Sydney.
Towns
Almost all towns enroute in both Victoria and New South Wales are bypassed by the Hume Highway. On the Victorian side, from Melbourne, practically all towns are bypassed; they are in southwards order from the NSW border, Wodonga, Chiltern, Wangaratta, Benalla, Euroa, Seymour and Broadford.
On the New South Wales side, from Sydney, southwards to Victorian border, the bypassed towns are Camden, Picton, Mittagong, Bowral, Moss Vale, Goulburn, Yass, and Gundagai. The highway passes through Holbrook through to Albury until the Victorian border.
Camden
Camden lies 60 km south west of Sydney on the Nepean River, and the town (now city) dates back to 1840. It retains a lot of character where many historic building of interest remain and there is an aviation museum at nearby Narellan. Sydney urban sprawl has made it part of the Sydney metropolitan area.
The old section of the Hume Highway follows a winding southwards track through the Razorback Ridge passing through pretty towns such as Picton and Bargo before heading towards Mittagong. This section today is State Route 89 and renamed as Camden Valley Way. The current alignment of Hume Highway takes a completely different and more straight path. The old Hume Highway meets with the current Hume Highway at Yerrinbool, just before Mittagong.
Mittagong
Mittagong lies 110 km south-west of Sydney, just off the Hume Highway at the start of the Southern Tablelands. It is lined with various species of deciduous trees from the Sydney entrance (the previous Hume Highway) and has busy town centre. Once trucks would be rolling along it until the bypass was built as the continuous stretch of Hume is broken by the town centre. In winter it is also busy with skiers' traffic on the way to the Australian Alps. Today the Hume Highway baypasses Mittagong and all the towns of Southern Tablelands.
Goulburn
Goulburn is the first regional city along the Hume Freeway upon leaving Sydney and the primary city of the Southern Tablelands. It is also now a farming and municipal centre and also the gateway to Canberra.
Gundagai
Near Gundagai, another tourist attraction is located, named the "Dog on the Tuckerbox". This place is named after a story where some travellers' bullock carts got stuck in the mud near Gundagai. Nothing they did managed to get their carriages free. Everything ended up muddy. To add insult to injury, one person found his guard dog sitting (and defecating) on his tuckerbox which was the only thing that lay above the mud.[1] The story was retold in a popular Australian poem by Jack Moses. The town is also well-known by a folk song of the early twentieth century "The Road to Gundagai". Consequently, a statue (with souvenir shop next door) was erected five miles (eight kilometres) from Gundagai depicting the scene. The spot serves as a waystation for many travellers on the route.
Tarcutta
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Tarcutta, located almost exactly halfway between Sydney and Melbourne, has been a popular stopover and change-over point for truck drivers making their way between the two cities. There is a poignant memorial to the truck drivers who have died on the infamously-dangerous local stretch of the Hume Highway.
With the improvements to the Hume Highway, which cuts travelling time from Sydney to Melbourne to less than a day, the town's importance to the average motorist has diminished.
Holbrook
Holbrook lies on the Hume Highway between Gundagai and Albury and like Albury, is one of the few remaining towns yet to be bypassed. Notorious for its speed traps. There is also the large HMAS Otway Submarine that cannot be missed as the town is approached from the north.
Albury/Wodonga
Albury's history is linked with the two famous Australian explorers, Hume and Hovell, as the town/city's location sprung from their discovery of the Murray River. Albury, commonly associated with its Victorian twin, Wodonga, are one of the few rural Australian cities to experience a boom, mainly from industrialisation in recent times. Albury is by far the most noticeable city that is yet to be bypassed by the Hume Highway.
After decades of debate about the route and the funding obligations of the state and federal governments, a freeway "internal bypass" running close to the city itself, and thus serving local residents as well as through travellers, will begun construction in 2005.
Wangaratta
Wangaratta is one of the larger towns in northeast Victoria. It is located on the Old Hume Highway and the Ovens Highway. The area around it was first discovered by Hume and Hovell in the 1820s and the township was founded in 1837 when the surrounding area was open for farming.
The attractions around town include Merriwa Park, a sunken garden adjacent to King River, Airworld at Wangaratta Airport, old goldfield areas of nearby Beechworth and gateway to Victorian Alps for skiers.
Benalla
Benalla is a large town located just off the Hume Fwy between Melbourne and Wangaratta. Founded in 1848 but growth was slow until the goldfields rush. It had many associations with the Kelly gang and the courthouse was the venue for a number of their trials.
Euroa
Euroa is the last town in Victoria to be bypassed by the Hume. The area around Euroa was first discovered by Hume and Hovell in the late 1830s. Euroa is famous for a Ned Kelly robbery. The town itself is pretty with gardens.
Seymour
Seymour used to be in Hume Highway, now remains on the Goulburn Valley Highway. The town is in a rich valley which supports the local vineyards and large military base at Puckapunyal to the west. Once the centre of the bushranging area of Victoria. It has a museum and displays many period relics of that era.