Albany Highway
Albany Highway links Western Australia's capital city Perth with its oldest settlement, Albany, on the state's south coast. The highway travels through the southern Wheatbelt and Great Southern regions, and is designated State Route 30 for most of its length. Outside of Perth the highway is predominately a sealed, single carriageway with regular overtaking lanes in some undulating areas. Albany Highway commences at The Causeway, a river crossing that connects to Perth's central business district. The highway heads south-east through Perth's metropolitan region, bypassed in part by Shepperton Road and Kenwick Link, and continues south-eastwards through to Albany. It intersects several major roads in Perth, including the Leach, Tonkin, Brookton, and South Western highways. The rural section of Albany Highway connects to important regional roads at the few towns and roadhouses along the route, including Coalfields Highway at Arthur River, Great Southern Highway at Cranbrook, and Muir Highway at Mount Barker.
Prior to European settlement, the indigenous Noongar people had a considerable network of tracks, including a trade route between the areas now known as Perth and Albany. Construction of a road between Perth and Albany began soon after the naming of Albany in 1832, but progress was slow, with only completed by 1833. A monthly mail route which operated in the 1840s had such trouble with the journey that a new contractor was required each year, and from 1847 the mail route detoured via Bunbury. The introduction of convicts in 1850, and thus convict labour, allowed a road along the direct route to be fully constructed by 1863.
The rise of the motor vehicle era in the early 20th century saw the road gain prominence once more, and by 1939 the whole road had been sealed. Congestion at the Perth end of the road in the 1930s led to parallel roads Berwick Street and Shepperton Road being upgraded to provide bypasses. The entire Perth−Albany road was renamed Albany Highway on 2 October 1940, in recognition of its importance as an arterial traffic route. From the late 1970s, $49 million over ten years was spent on repairing Albany Highway, and the experience saw Main Roads develop a program of interventions to prevent costly road reconstruction. Since the 1990s Main Roads has been upgrading various portions along the length of Albany Highway, including widening sections to dual carriageways in Perth, and the construction of the Kenwick Link bypass.
Route description
Albany Highway commences at The Causeway, a river crossing that connects to Perth's central business district. The highway heads south-east through Perth's metropolitan region, and continues through the southern Wheatbelt and Great Southern regions to Albany on the south coast of Western Australia. Albany Highway is generally a two-lane single carriageway road, but with additional lanes and dual-carriageway sections in Perth and Albany. The highway is allocated State Route 30, except for bypassed sections in Perth, and the southernmost portion in Albany. The part bypassed by Kenwick Link is allocated Alternate State Route 30, and a short length in Arthur River is concurrently allocated State Route 107. Albany Highway also carries sections of Heritage Country Tourist Drive and Great Southern Tourist Way.Main Roads Western Australia monitors traffic volume across the state's road network, including various locations along Albany Highway. In the 2013/14 financial year, the recorded traffic volumes ranged between 3880 and 70,690 vehicles per weekday in Perth, 1980 to 3880 in the Wheatbelt, and 1720 to 5120 in the Great Southern. The highest percentage of heavy traffic was 29.2%, south of Jarrahdale Road in the Wheatbelt. Reports commissioned by the Royal Automobile Club of Western Australia in 2006 and 2008 gave the majority of the highway a three-star safety rating out of five, with an approximately section south-east of Armadale rated at a two star level. The overall highway network was generally rated as three-star or four-star, but around 10% in 2006 and 5% in 2008 received a two-star rating.
Perth to Armadale
In Perth, Albany Highway's north-western terminus is at a parclo interchange with The Causeway, Shepperton Road, and Great Eastern and Canning Highways in Victoria Park. The first of the road is one-way into the interchange, but only connecting to The Causeway and Canning Highway – there is no direct access to the other roads. For the next, the highway is a two-lane, two-way high street serving Victoria Park's town centre, and continuing south-east through East Victoria Park. The nearby four-lane Shepperton Road serves as a bypass, carrying through-traffic as well as State Route 30.The two roads converge at an intersection with Welshpool Road, and for Albany Highway serves as an arterial route in Perth's south-eastern suburbs, varying between a single carriageway and dual carriageway, and between a four- and six-lane capacity. This part of the highway is dominated by commercial shopping precincts in Bentley, Cannington, Maddington, Gosnells and Kelmscott, with numerous sets of traffic lights. The section of Albany Highway through Beckenham and Kenwick is allocated Alternate State Route 30, while State Route 30 follows a bypass, Kenwick Link.
Albany Highway has a folded diamond interchange with Tonkin Highway in Gosnells, and continues south for past commercial and residential properties in Kelmscott and Mount Nasura. The highway has a T junction that is the western terminus of Brookton Highway, at the boundary between Kelmscott, and Mount Nasura. Further south in Armadale, the highway intersects the eastern end of Armadale Road and northern end of South Western Highway.
Regional highway
Albany Highway proceeds east and then south from Armadale, around the suburb of Mount Richon. The road continues south-east, with signs of human activity becoming more sparse as the highway crosses the Darling Scarp, and the scenery transitions to native forest. Further south, after, it transitions again to pastures, with farming activities such as livestock rearing and orchards. Over the next, the highway encounters few towns: Williams, Kojonup and Mount Barker are on the highway, but are apart. Roadhouses exist at North Bannister, Crossman and Arthur River, while many of the service towns in the region are approximately to the east on Great Southern Highway, including Narrogin, Wagin and Katanning.Closer to Albany, there are large tracts of blue gum eucalypt plantations. from the road's south-eastern terminus, it passes Albany Airport. The highway passes by suburban areas before intersecting South Coast Highway at a Y intersection, and only beyond it, a large five-way roundabout. This roundabout is the southern terminus of State Route 30, and connects the highway with Chester Pass Road, North Road, and Hanrahan Road. The final stretch takes the highway south-east into the centre of Albany.
History
Background
Prior to European settlement, the indigenous Noongar people had a considerable network of tracks around their territory in the south-west of Western Australia. One such track, used as a trade route, linked the Swan River with the area now known as Albany. The track followed a similar alignment to modern-day Albany Highway.On 25 December 1826, the New South Wales colonial government brig Amity, under the command of Major Edmund Lockyer, arrived at King George Sound to establish a military garrison. On 21 January 1827, as instructed by the Colonial Secretary, the Union Jack was raised and a feu de joie fired by the troops, formally annexing the territory, in assertion of the first official claim by the Imperial Government to British possession over the whole continent of Australia. On 7 March 1831 the King George Sound and colony was made part of the Swan River Colony and a free settlement. Albany was officially named by Governor Stirling at the beginning of 1832, at the time that political authority passed to the Swan River colony. The construction of a road from Albany to Perth began soon thereafter, but only had been completed by 1833. Due to this slow progress, the settlers of Albany petitioned England to supply convicts to work on the road. At the time the government in Perth derided the proposal, and Western Australia would not become a penal colony until 1849.
Surveying and initial routes
In October and November 1835, Governor Stirling and Surveyor-General John Septimus Roe travelled overland from Perth to Albany, with the focus of the journey being the route south of the Hotham River. A more comprehensive survey was undertaken in July–September 1836 by Assistant Surveyors Alfred Hillman and D. Smith. Hillman started from the Albany end, while Smith concurrently commenced from Perth. A few months later, in February 1837, Hillman accompanied a group that made the trip to Perth in 12 days travelling time, journeying via Chorkurup, Thokokup, Mount Barker, Lake Matilda, Kojonup, Williams and Arthur River. This group was led by Mr J. Harris, and included Lieutenant Armstrong with eight soldiers of the 21st Fusiliers, Albany settlers Patrick Taylor and Dr. Thomas Harrison, as well as Kartrull, who was referred to as "the native 'Handsome. The place where they arrived in Williams was right opposite the road from Kelmscott to Williams, Mr Harris describe Hillnman as please having previously survey the route from Perth to Kelmscott. In April 1838 four bridges were built near Albany by John Young, and in 1839 Governor John Hutt ventured out to Albany on an official visit, travelling through Williams and Kojonup. Assistant Surveyor Hillman led a large group of Albany settlers to Perth in 1840, via Kinunup, Yarenup, Joseph's Wells, Balgarrup and Mandalup; whilst in the same year Edward John Eyre shepherded 550 sheep and 70 cattle from Albany to York, and then over to Perth.A monthly mail route was set up in June 1841, travelling from Albany to Perth via Kojonup and Williams. The following year, a service through Guildford commenced. The tough conditions of the mail route saw a different contractor providing the service each year. The 1845 contractor James Martin had particular trouble with debts, which led to his mail horse being seized; while he managed to acquire a replacement animal, he also had trouble servicing the resultant debt of £2. In 1847, the Perth–Albany route was adjusted, so that the mail would travel from Albany to Kojonup, then head to Bunbury on the coast, and subsequently up to Perth via Rockingham and Fremantle. The new route still had difficulties, such as flooding in the winter of 1847 that resulted in a "terrible trip" which took a month to complete. The people of Albany, who could travel as passengers on the mail cart, found the trip to Perth long and deplorable.
With the arrival of the convict ship Scindian on 1 June 1850 and the advent of convict labour, early completion of the Perth–Albany road seemed assured. Investigations of a direct route via Kelmscott, Hotham, Williams and Kojonup began in late 1851. Assistant Surveyor A. C. Gregory reported in 1852 that the direct route would be shorter than the route via Bunbury, and shorter than the York route. Construction was recommended in late 1852, after the mail contractor George Maxwell completed a journey along the proposed route in September, and soon commenced. had been completed by October 1853, and the whole road was finished in 1863. The road served as the main link between Perth and Albany until the 1880s, when the Great Southern Railway opened.