Australian toll roads are found in the eastern states of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. The majority of toll roads in Australia are in Sydney, but there are also toll roads in Melbourne, Brisbane, Ipswich and Toowoomba.
Most of the toll roads are partially owned or operated by Transurban. All toll roads in Australia are tolled electronically (cashless) using free-flow tolling. All toll collection points are toll gantries, with the last cash toll booths in the country closed in July 2013 on the M5 South West Motorway.
Tolls are collected from an e-TAG transponder attached to the vehicle's windscreen. The first e-TAG was developed in the 1990s by Transurban who owns and operates the CityLink in Melbourne in preparation for what would be one of the world's first 'fully electronic' tollways. There are different e-TAG retailers across the country, such as Transurban's Linkt or Transport for NSW's e-Toll.
According to Professor Mark Hickman, the chair of Transport at the University of Queensland's School of Civil Engineering, toll roads in Australia have not reached expected traffic volumes and do not always relieve congestion in the short-term.[1] Melbourne's CityLink tollway (M1 and M2 sections) carry the highest volume of traffic and also generate the highest revenue of all the tollways (by a substantial amount). This is mainly due to the necessary cross-city and North (Melbourne Airport-bound) corridors.
- ^ Tony Moore (19 March 2015). "Brisbane's toll tunnels fail to cut rising travel times: RACQ". Brisbane Times. Retrieved 19 March 2015.