The Outback Highway or Outback Way is a series of roads and dirt tracks linking
Laverton, Western Australia
Laverton, originally known as British Flag, is a town in the Goldfields region of Western Australia, and the centre of administration for the Shire of Laverton. The town of Laverton is located at the western edge of the Great Victoria Desert, ...
and
Winton, Queensland
Winton is an outback town and locality in the Shire of Winton in Central West Queensland, Australia. It is northwest of Longreach. The main industries of the area are sheep and cattle raising. The town was named in 1876 by postmaster Rober ...
. At , it crosses
Central Australia
Central Australia, also sometimes referred to as the Red Centre, is an inexactly defined region associated with the geographic centre of Australia. In its narrowest sense it describes a region that is limited to the town of Alice Springs and ...
(colloquially known as the
Outback
The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than Australian bush, the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastli ...
), passing through
Western Australia
Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...
, the
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...
and
Queensland
Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...
.
Proposed upgrade
It has been proposed as a development to provide an inland route between southern Western Australia and northern Queensland as an alternative to the
National Highway 1 along either coast.
[BSD Consultants.(1998) Outback Highway feasibility study : final report / prepared for Main Roads Western Australia, Northern Territory Department of Transport and Works, and Main Roads Queensland ; prepared by BSD Consultants Pty. Ltd. Subiaco, WA "March 1998"]
Roads that make up the highway are:
*
Great Central Road
The Great Central Road is a mostly unsealed Australian highway that runs from Laverton, Western Australia to Yulara, Northern Territory . It passes through a number of small communities on the way. It forms part of the Outback Way which goes ...
*
Gunbarrel Highway
The Gunbarrel Highway is an isolated desert track in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia. It consists of about of washaways, heavy Corrugated road, corrugations, stone, sand and flood plains. The Gunbarrel Highway c ...
*
Lasseter Highway
*
Stuart Highway
Stuart Highway is a major Australian highway. It runs from Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin, in the Northern Territory, via Tennant Creek and Alice Springs, to Port Augusta in South Australia; it has a distance of . Its northern and souther ...
*
Plenty Highway
The Plenty Highway is a outback mostly unsealed road in the Northern Territory of Australia between the Stuart Highway and north-western Queensland.
Route description
The road begins at a turnoff from the Stuart Highway north of Alice Spring ...
*
Donohue Highway
*
Kennedy Development Road
Support for the project is strong amongst local government areas along the route and elsewhere.
The project has secured over $400 million in funding; 80% Federal funding and 20% from the Western Australia, Northern Territory, and Queensland governments. As at June 2021 there is 1200 km to seal.
Major intersections
See also
*
Highways in Australia
Highways in Australia are generally high capacity roads managed by states and territories of Australia, state and territory government agencies, though Australia's federal government contributes funding for important links between capital cit ...
*
List of highways in the Northern Territory
*
List of highways in Queensland
*
List of highways in Western Australia
Highways in Western Australia include both roads that are named as a highway, and roads that have been declared as a highway under the Main Roads Act 1930. The standard of highways range from two-lane roads, common in rural areas, to control ...
References
Further reading
*
External links
Outback Highway official website
{{Road infrastructure in Queensland
Highways in Australia
Australian outback