Bruce Highway
The Bruce Highway is the major coastal highway of Queensland, Australia. Running from the state capital, Brisbane, to Cairns in Far North Queensland, the route is a part of the Australian National Highway. The Bruce Highway is also part of Highway 1. Road length is approximately 1700 kilometres and is entirely sealed with bitumen.
The highway is named after the former Queensland and federal politician, Henry Adam Bruce. He was the state Minister for Works when the highway was named after him in the mid 1930s.
The Bruce Highway is the biggest traffic carrier in Queensland. The highway initially joined all the major coastal centres, however a number of bypasses, particularly in the south, have diverted traffic around these cities in order to expedite traffic flow and ease urban congestion. As a result, the highway is constantly being shortened. The road has duel carriageway from Brisbane to Cooroy with some duel carriageway at Gympie.
In the south the Bruce Highway commences at the bridge over the Pine River at the Gateway Motorway interchange, 21 kilometres north of Brisbane Central Business District. Recently, the Bruce Highway has changed its route numbering from National HIghway 1 to the M1 (motorway road) or A1 (single carriageway generally with overtaking lanes).
Major cities along the route include Maryborough, Rockhampton, Mackay and Townsville. The highway passes the Glasshouse Mountains, rainforests and pastures in the Sunshine Coast; the Gunalda Range (north of Gympie); Mount Larcom (north of Gladstone; the arid countryside north of Rockhampton and after that, passing through land predominately used to sugar cane, crop growing and dairy farms and the sub-tropics and tropics.
Highway towns
Travelling north, the following towns and small cities are found on (or very close to) the Bruce Highway.
- Maryborough to Rockhampton
- Rockhampton to Mackay