The Pacific Highway is a national highway and major transport route of along the east coast of Australia from Sydney to Brisbane. It is an integral part of Highway 1 which circumnavigates the Australian continent. At its inception, the highway was a single carriageway between Sydney and Brisbane. In Australian culture and as a tourist drive, it remains so. Over time, segments of the highway have been upgraded, realigned, or renamed. Between 1996 and 2020, sections of the highway were upgraded to controlled-access highway (motorway) standards.
Location
The Pacific Highway is divided into the following sections: Brisbane to the New South Wales–Queensland border: This section has been completely replaced by the Pacific Motorway. Queensland border to Brunswick Heads: Upgraded to motorway standard under the 1996 Upgrade Masterplan and renamed the Pacific Motorway in 2013. Brunswick Heads to Raymond Terrace: Converted to dual carriageway or freeway standard, with works completed in 2026. Raymond Terrace to Wahroonga: Replaced as the main national route by the Pacific Motorway (also known as the Sydney–Newcastle Freeway and formerly the F3 Freeway). This occurred progressively between 1965 and 2026. Wahroonga to Sydney CBD: Remains a divided metropolitan road, formerly part of the Metroad system. A motorway alternative is provided via the M2 route, incorporating the Lane Cove Tunnel, M2 Hills Motorway, and NorthConnex.
Gazette definition Since the most recent declaration of the highway in the April 2010 gazette, the New South Wales section of the highway is officially made up of four separate sections: Warringah Freeway, North Sydney to Gosford Interchange near Kariong; Henry Parry Drive, Wyoming to Pacific Motorway at Ourimbah Interchange; Wyong Road, Tuggerah to Hunter Street, Newcastle; and Maitland Road, Warabrook to the state border with Queensland. Since February 2013, the freeway section of the highway north of Brunswick Heads is also concurrently gazetted and is named and signposted Pacific Motorway. South of here, the section between Brunswick Heads and Bruxner Highway near Ballina is also signposted Pacific Motorway, however, it was not declared as such in the gazette as of February 2019, therefore it remains as only Pacific Highway in the gazette. Former sections of the highway removed from the gazette, such as between Gosford and Tuggerah, are still signposted as Pacific Highway.
Major cities and towns along Pacific Highway include: Gosford, Wyong, Newcastle, Taree, Port Macquarie, Kempsey, Coffs Harbour, Grafton, Ballina and Byron Bay, all in New South Wales; and Gold Coast in Queensland.
Major river crossings include the Hawkesbury, Hunter, Myall (east of Bulahdelah), Manning (south of Coopernook), Hastings (west of Port Macquarie), Macleay (east of Frederickton), Nambucca (near Macksville), Bellinger (near Raleigh), Clarence (via the Harwood Bridge near Maclean), Richmond (at Ballina), Brunswick, and Tweed rivers.
Sydney to Kariong From Sydney, Pacific Highway starts as the continuation of Bradfield Highway at the northern end of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, immediately north of the Sydney central business district, and is the main route as far as the suburb of Wahroonga. Between the Harbour Bridge and the Gore Hill Freeway at Artarmon, the highway has no route number. From Gore Hill Freeway to Wahroonga, it is designated as route A1. When the Warringah Freeway was constructed in the late 1960s, southbound traffic was diverted through North Sydney via Mount Street, and in October 1985 it was redirected via Berry Street.North Sydney Traffic Management Scheme Daily Telegraph 24 September 1985 page 14
From Wahroonga Kariong, the Pacific Highway runs mostly parallel to the freeway, before diverting through the Central Coast via Gosford and Wyong. The section from Cowan to Kariong follows a winding scenic route with speed limits of 60 or 70 km/h (37 or 43 mph).
Kariong to Raymond Terrace The section of the former Pacific Highway from the Wiseman’s Ferry Road junction at Kariong to the Gosford exit near Brian McGowan Bridge was redesignated as the Central Coast Highway, A49. North of Gosford, the highway continues without a route number through the Central Coast suburbs of Ourimbah and Wyong, before connecting with a spur of the Pacific Motorway near Doyalson, signed as route A43. At this point, the Pacific Highway is signed as route A43 for most of its length, forming a four- to six-lane regional highway that passes Lake Macquarie and continues through the suburbs of Lake Macquarie and Newcastle before rejoining route A1 at Raymond Terrace.
From Bennetts Green to Sandgate, the highway is paralleled by the Newcastle Inner City Bypass, which runs through New Lambton and Jesmond.
North of Raymond Terrace
From Raymond Terrace, the Pacific Highway passes through the Mid North Coast and Northern Rivers region to Brunswick Heads where it becomes the Pacific Motorway continuing to Brisbane.
Former sections Former sections of the Pacific Highway were created when parts of the route were removed from the gazette definition or bypassed by new alignments. Some former sections of the Pacific Highway that were removed from the gazette definition continue to be referred to and signposted as Pacific Highway.
Removed from gazette definition Between Sydney and Raymond Terrace, some sections of the highway were re-gazetted as other roads or are no longer included in the gazette definition of the Pacific Highway. However, as of January 2019, many of these roads are still referred to and signposted as the Pacific Highway.
The first two sections of the highway to be removed from the gazette was the Calga to Kariong section and a section in Gosford between Racecourse Road/Etna Street and Brian McGowan Bridge in November 1996. The remaining section within Gosford, between Kariong and Brian McGowan Bridge, was re-gazetted and renamed Central Coast Highway in August 2006. These changes resulted in the previously undivided section between Ourimbah and Sydney to be split into two: Kariong to Sydney, and Ourimbah to Wyoming.
The April 2010 gazette removed the sections between Racecourse Road/Etta Street and Henry Parry Drive/Pemmel Street in Gosford, between Ourimbah and Tuggerah, and between Hunter Street and Industrial Drive in Newcastle from the existing declaration of the highway, but redeclared the section between Calga and Kariong. , this is the most recent gazette to redefine the declaration of Pacific Highway. Even though these three removed sections are not gazetted as part of Pacific Highway anymore, street signage continues to show "Pacific Highway" and maps often show both the current road name and "Pacific Highway" together.
In Queensland, Pacific Highway used to go into Brisbane, however, most sections have been renamed to other roads or highways. For example, the section of Pacific Highway between Coolangatta and Currumbin is now part of Gold Coast Highway.
Bypassed Sections of the highway between Raymond Terrace and the Queensland/NSW border that were bypassed and replaced by new sections of Pacific Highway, were renamed and downgraded to local roads, and are no longer part of Pacific Highway. As the new sections are just bypasses, this meant that the section between Raymond Terrace and Queensland border is still a continuous route. Prominent bypassed sections of the highway between Raymond Terrace and the border include: The former section Twelve Mile Creek and Taree through Stroud and Gloucester, with the new route over mostly dirt roads gazetted in 1952. The affected roads were upgraded over a number of years, including the construction of major bridges to replace the low-level crossing at Nabiac and the ferry at Karuah. The upgrading of the northern section was completed first and through traffic ran temporarily over the road between Bulahdelah and Booral. The southern part from Bulahdelah to Twelve Mile Creek via Karuah was completed about 1960. The old section was later renamed Bucketts Way. The former section through Kempsey and Frederickton which included the site of the Kempsey bus crash. This section was replaced by a new freeway bypass and bridge over the Macleay River in 2013 and 2016, and was renamed the Macleay Valley Way. The former between Eungai Creek and Raleigh via Macksville and Nambucca Way. This section was bypassed in 2016 and 2018 and was renamed Giinagay Way The former section between Glenugie and Maclean via Grafton which included the site of the Grafton bus crash. This section was replaced by a new alignment of the highway in 2020 and was renamed Big River Way.
In May 2009, the portion of the Tugun Bypass (newly opened in June 2008) within New South Wales boundaries was declared as the new alignment of Pacific Highway between Tweed Heads interchange and the Queensland border. The older bypassed alignment along Tweed Heads Bypass (opened 1992) towards the border at Coolangatta was gazetted as Gold Coast Highway instead, extending the already existing Gold Coast Highway in Queensland, into New South Wales. The Tugun Bypass was handed over to the NSW government in June 2018. The section of the bypassed highway within Queensland borders between Stewart Road and Gold Coast Highway was officially renamed Tugun-Currumbin Road, but is signposted as Stewart Road.
History
Initially, the primary mode of transport connecting the coastal areas between Sydney and Brisbane was by boat. However, a continuous inland route from Newcastle to Brisbane via the Northern Tablelands had been in existence since the 1840s. A direct coastal route between Sydney and Newcastle was not completed until 1930, and completion of the sealing of the Pacific Highway did not occur until 1958 (at Koorainghat, south of Taree). The last of the many ferries across the coastal rivers was not superseded by a bridge until 1966 (the Harwood Bridge across the south channel of the Clarence River, the north channel having been bridged in 1931).
Between 1925 and 1930 the Main Roads Board of New South Wales reconstructed and sealed a route between Hornsby and Calga that had been abandoned some forty years earlier, to provide a direct road link between Sydney and Newcastle. In addition, a replacement route from Calga into the gorge of Mooney Mooney Creek and up to the ridge at Kariong above Gosford was also required. This new Sydney–Newcastle route via Calga and Gosford was some shorter than the previous route via Parramatta, McGraths Hill, Maroota, Wisemans Ferry, Wollombi and Cessnock. At first, the old Peats Ferry was reinstated to cross the Hawkesbury River, with construction of the bridge not beginning until 1938, due to the Great Depression. Due to the onset of the Second World War, the Peats Ferry Bridge was not completed until May 1945.