Albany Highway | |
|---|---|
 | |
Map of the south-west of Western Australia, with Albany Highway highlighted in red | |
| General information | |
| Type | Highway |
| Length | 405.47 km (252 mi)[1] |
| Opened | 1863 |
| Route number(s) |
|
| Major junctions | |
| Northwest end |  The Causeway (State Route 5), Victoria Park (Perth) |
| |
| Southeast end | York Street, Albany |
| Location(s) | |
| Major settlements | Armadale, North Bannister, Williams, Arthur River, Kojonup, Cranbrook, Mount Barker, Albany |
| Highway system | |
| ---- | |
Albany Highway links Western Australia's capital city Perth with its oldest settlement, Albany, on the state's south coast. The 405-kilometre-long (252 mi) highway travels through the southern Wheatbelt and Great Southern regions, and is designated State Route 30 for most of its length. Outside of Perth the highway is predominately a sealed, single carriageway with regular overtaking lanes in some undulating areas. Albany Highway commences at The Causeway, a river crossing that connects to Perth's central business district. The highway heads south-east through Perth's metropolitan region, bypassed in part by Shepperton Road and Kenwick Link, and continues south-eastwards through to Albany. It intersects several major roads in Perth, including the Leach, Tonkin, Brookton, and South Western highways. The rural section of Albany Highway connects to important regional roads at the few towns and roadhouses along the route, including Coalfields Highway at Arthur River, Great Southern Highway at Cranbrook, and Muirs Highway at Mount Barker.
Prior to European settlement, the indigenous Noongar people had a considerable network of tracks, including a trade route between the areas now known as Perth and Albany. Construction of a road between Perth and Albany began soon after the naming of Albany in 1832, but progress was slow, with only 16 miles (26 km) completed by 1833. A monthly mail route which operated in the 1840s had such trouble with the journey that a new contractor was required each year, and from 1847 the mail route detoured via Bunbury. The introduction of convicts in 1850, and thus convict labour, allowed a road along the direct route to be fully constructed by 1863.
The rise of the motor vehicle era in the early 20th century saw the road gain prominence once more, and by 1939 the whole road had been sealed. Congestion at the Perth end of the road in the 1930s led to parallel roads Berwick Street and Shepperton Road being upgraded to provide bypasses. The entire Perth−Albany road was renamed Albany Highway on 2 October 1940, in recognition of its importance as an arterial traffic route. From the late 1970s, $49 million over ten years was spent on repairing Albany Highway, and the experience saw Main Roads develop a program of interventions to prevent costly road reconstruction. Since the 1990s Main Roads has been upgrading various portions along the length of Albany Highway, including widening sections to dual carriageways in Perth, and the construction of the Kenwick Link bypass.