Landsborough Highway

Landsborough Highway
Formerly
Length	1028 km (639 mi)
Direction	Northwest - Southeast
From	Barkly Highway, Cloncurry, Queensland
via	Winton, Longreach, Barcaldine, Blackall, Augathella
To	Warrego Highway, Morven, Queensland
Allocation	National Highway A2
Major junctions	Flinders Highway Kennedy Developmental Road Capricorn Highway Mitchell Highway

Landsborough Highway is a western Queensland highway running in the northwest-southeast direction from Morven to Cloncurry. The Landsborough Highway runs through vast tracts of land that was once occupied by William Landsborough, an Australian explorer of the 19th century. It is also the central part of the tourist route known as the Matilda Highway after the popular Australian song Waltzing Matilda, which extends from Bourke in central northern New South Wales to Karumba on the Gulf of Carpentaria.^[1]

The entire highway is an important part of the National Highway system linking Darwin and Brisbane: formerly National Route 66 (Cloncurry to Barcaldine) and National Route 71 (Barcaldine to Augathella), Queensland began to convert to the alphanumeric system much of Australia had adopted in the early-2000s and is now designated as National Route A2. Its importance also stems from the fact that it is the only sealed link between Flinders Highway and Capricorn Highway apart from Gregory Development Road between Emerald and Charters Towers.

The highway services an important sheep and cattle grazing region, tourist traffic and local properties. The highway is fully sealed but with many sections of substandard width and quality. It is also flood-prone with lengthy closures during floods.

Towns

Towns along the highway are listed below:

• Augathella
• Tambo
• Blackall
• Barcaldine
• Longreach
• Winton
• Kynuna
• McKinlay
• Cloncurry

See also

Queensland portal

• Highways in Australia
• List of highways in Queensland

References

1. ^ "Queensland's Outback - Matilda Highway". outbackholidays.info. http://www.outbackholidays.info/getting_around/highways-&-byways/matilda-highway.cfm. Retrieved 2009-09-30.