Buchanan Highway

Buchanan Highway

Map of north-western Australia with Buchanan Highway highlighted in red
General information
TypeTrack
Length393 km (244 mi)
Route number(s)
  • C80
Major junctions
West end Victoria Highway (National Highway 1), Timber Creek
  Buntine Highway (National Route 96)
East end Stuart Highway (National Highway 87), Birdum
Location(s)
viaGregory National Park, Victoria River Downs, Top Springs
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The Buchanan Highway, Northern Territory, Australia, runs west from Birdum on the Stuart Highway crossing the Buntine Highway at Top Springs and eventually connecting with the Victoria Highway near Timber Creek.[1] As of 2007 it was unsealed for its entire length, at 393 kilometres (244 mi).[2] Funding for maintenance is provided by the Northern Territory Government.[3]

The highway was named in 1966 after Nathaniel Buchanan, a pioneering drover who first brought cattle overland from Queensland to the Northern Territory in 1877 via the Murranji Track; which the highway largely replaced.[4][5]

The highway originally ran from the Stuart Highway west to Top Springs, then Wave Hill and then to the southern end of the Duncan Road which is in Western Australia. In 1996 the portion from Top Springs to Duncan Road was renamed the Buntine Highway, while the road from Top Springs which joins the Victoria Highway near Timber Creek was renamed as the Buchanan Highway.[4]

  1. ^ Department of Transport (April 1998). "Map of all NT Roads" (PDF). Northern Territory Government. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 May 2013. Retrieved 13 January 2014.
  2. ^ Hema, Maps (2007). Australia Road and 4WD Atlas (Map). Eight Mile Plains Queensland: Hema Maps. pp. 96–98. ISBN 978-1-86500-456-3.
  3. ^ "Funding for NT roads". 24 April 2010. Archived from the original on 6 March 2014. Retrieved 6 March 2014.
  4. ^ a b "Place Names Register Extract for "Buchanan Highway"". NT Place Names Register. Northern Territory Government. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  5. ^ "Murranji land claim / report by the Aboriginal Land Commissioner, Mr Justice Kearney to the Minister... - Catalogue | National Library of Australia". catalogue.nla.gov.au. Retrieved 23 February 2024.