The Kuranda Range road is an informally named section of the

Kennedy Highway 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 ...

in Queensland, Australia. The road traverses the Macalister Range near Cairns (). The section of road connects Smithfield, a suburb of Cairns in the

Cairns Region The Cairns Region is a local government area in Far North Queensland, Queensland, Australia, centred on the regional city of Cairns. It was established in 2008 by the amalgamation of the City of Cairns and the Shires of Douglas and Mulgrave ...

with Kuranda, a town in the

Shire of Mareeba The Shire of Mareeba is a local government area at the base of Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland, inland from Cairns. The shire, administered from the town of Mareeba, covered an area of , and existed as a local government entity fr ...

on the Atherton Tableland, at an altitude of about . Traffic is primarily limited to one lane each way, with overtaking lanes at various points. The

Kuranda Skyrail Skyrail Rainforest Cableway is a scenic tourist cableway running above the Barron Gorge National Park, in the Wet Tropics of Queensland’s World Heritage Area in Australia. It operates from the Smithfield terminal () in Cairns to the ...

cableway crosses the road twice. Henry Ross Lookout is located near the road's highest point, at an altitude of , and is named after the foreman in charge of building the road to cross the range in 1939.

History

Construction of the present Kuranda Range road as an alternative to the

Gillies Highway The Gillies Highway is a road that runs from Gordonvale in the Cairns Region through the Gillies Range (part of the Great Dividing Range) to Atherton in the Tablelands Region, both in Queensland, Australia. It is also known as the Gillies Ra ...

began in 1940. This was partly as a result of public demand for better access to the Atherton Tableland, but also due to strategic wartime use. Whereas the previous ''Smithfield Track'' went relatively straight up the spur from Avondale Creek, passing by the present location of Henry Ross Lookout, and emerged at Mountain Grove, the new road took a far more circuitous route. The Queensland Main Roads Commission surveyed, planned and constructed the Cairns-Kuranda road. The initial survey work was undertaken by the Commission Engineer A.J. Bond in 1939 in order to determine whether a grade was feasible. Henry Ross was appointed foreman. Single and married men’s quarters were also established where the Smithfield Shopping Centre now stands. About 100 men built the road, with the aid of

bulldozer A bulldozer or dozer (also called a crawler) is a large, motorized machine equipped with a metal blade to the front for pushing material: soil, sand, snow, rubble, or rock during construction work. It travels most commonly on continuous trac ...

jackhammer A jackhammer (pneumatic drill or demolition hammer in British English) is a pneumatic or electro-mechanical tool that combines a hammer directly with a chisel. It was invented by William Mcreavy, who then sold the patent to Charles Brady K ...

s and dynamite. Although most workers had to walk up and down the range each day to their work area, temporary blacksmith’s shops were set up on site to sharpen jackhammer bits. There were no fatal accidents during construction and the road was completed to the top of the range in approximately 12 months. Henry Ross chose "The Orange Grove" as the campsite for the second stage of the road into Kuranda. At the time of construction there was a low-level bridge over the Barron River to allow access to rainforest timbers on the eastern side of the river. On completion, the gravel road was predominantly a dual carriageway, however there were parts that were of one-way standard due to their roughness. In 1944 the road was reconditioned, and the Barron River bridge and approaches widened. In the years since, the range road has been improved, widened and re-surfaced many times.

References

External links

Kuranda Range Upgrade homepage
{{coord, 16, 51, 03, S, 145, 41, 13, E, type:landmark_region:AU-QLD, display=title Far North Queensland Roads in Queensland Shire of Mareeba Cairns Region

History

See also

References

External links