Forrest Highway
Forrest Highway is a highway in Western Australia's Peel and South West regions, extending Perth's Kwinana Freeway from east of Mandurah down to Bunbury. Old Coast Road was the original Mandurah–Bunbury route, dating back to the 1840s. Part of that road, and the Australind Bypass around Australind and Eaton, were subsumed by Forrest Highway. The highway begins at Kwinana Freeway's southern terminus in Ravenswood, continues around the Peel Inlet to Lake Clifton, and heads south to finish at Bunbury's Eelup Roundabout. There are a number of at-grade intersections with minor roads in the shires of Murray, Waroona, and Harvey including Greenlands Road and Old Bunbury Road, both of which connect to South Western Highway near Pinjarra.
The settlement of Australind by the Western Australian Land Company in 1840–41 prompted the first real need for a good quality road to Perth. A coastal Australind–Mandurah route was completed by 2 November 1842. Though the road was rebuilt by convicts in the 1850s, its importance was already declining. With a new road via Pinjarra at the foothills of the Darling Scarp completed in 1876, and the opening of the Perth−Bunbury railway in 1893, few people travelled up the old coastal road. In the late 1930s there was a proposal to re-establish the road as a tourist route, which could also reduce traffic on the main road along the foothills, but it was put on hold due to World War II. Improvements to Old Coast Road started in the early 1950s, but with little progress made until 1954 when the Main Roads Department approved £1000 worth of works. The name "Old Coast Road" was formally adopted on 27 January 1959, and a sealed road was completed in September 1969.
Since the 1980s, the state government has been upgrading the main Perth to Bunbury route, by extending Kwinana Freeway south from Perth, and constructing a dual carriageway on Old Coast Road north of Bunbury, including bypasses around Australind and Dawesville. A bypass was also planned around Mandurah, which underwent detailed environmental reviews and assessments in the 1990s and early 2000s. Construction of the New Perth Bunbury Highway project, which became Forrest Highway and the final Kwinana Freeway extension, began in December 2006, and the new highway was opened on 20 September 2009. In June 2014, Forrest Highway was extended south to Bunbury by renaming much of Old Coast Road as well as Australind Bypass as part of the highway.
Within one year of opening, the number of road accidents in the area had decreased significantly, but tourism and businesses in the towns on bypassed routes were also affected. There are few services alongside the highway, though a pair of roadhouses opened in 2017 south of Greenlands Road. The southern portion of the road going past Australind into Bunbury was later bypassed by the Wilman Wadandi Highway when that was opened in December 2024.
Route description
Forrest Highway is the southern section of State Route 2, continuing south from Kwinana Freeway at a folded diamond interchange with Pinjarra Road. All other intersections with the highway are at-grade, with cross roads intersected via two closely spaced T junctions. The highway, which is controlled and maintained by Main Roads Western Australia, has two lanes in each direction separated by a wide median strip, and a speed limit of. The road travels south for, over the Murray River and through rural farmland in and beyond South Yunderup. The highway then veers south-west, meeting Greenlands Road at a pair of staggered T junctions, and continues towards the Harvey Estuary over a distance of before intersecting Mills Road, at another pair of closely spaced T junctions. The road curves back to the south, reaching Old Bunbury Road after. Forrest Highway meanders across the Spearwood dune system for, through a series of large curves, before it reaches Old Coast Road at, an alternative coastal route to.Forrest Highway continues south for, to the west of Myalup State Forest and east of Lake Preston. A further takes the highway to the northern edge of Leschenault. In these sections, the highway passes turnoffs to Preston Beach, Myalup and Binningup. The countryside for this part is mostly tuart, jarrah and marri forest, with some wetland vegetation and some cleared farming land. The highway then heads south-east, going inland to bypass the developed areas east of the Leschenault Inlet. After Forrest Highway crosses the Brunswick River, continues southwards towards the Collie River for another. It crosses the river, then curves around Eaton to head westward to the Eelup Roundabout, which it reaches after travelling for and crossing the adjacent Preston River. The signalised roundabout provides access into Bunbury, as well as to Robertson Road, a ring road that connects to South Western Highway and Bussell Highway.
When the highway was first opened in 2009, the average daily weekday traffic volume north of Old Bunbury Road was 9,680. By April 2011, it had increased to 10,660 vehicles. In 2012 up to 14,000 vehicles per day used the highway, and 17,000 by 2014.
History
Background
Following the establishment of the Swan River Colony, the earliest report of exploration of the district around what is now Bunbury is from Lieutenant Bunbury in December 1836. The route he – and later others – took was slow and hazardous, taking four days to cover around, and crossing four rivers. The route began with passage from Perth to Pinjarra, before turning south-west and passing through low, open scrubland, and a medium-timbered area with low marshes. The first river to cross was the Harvey River, which could only be forded by horses at a single point, near the river mouth. Continuing south-westward, the northern tip of Leschenault Estuary was reached, and its shores followed before curving around into Bunbury. The last stretch of approximately was the most dangerous for many years, as it required precarious crossings at the Collie and Preston Rivers.In an initial attempt to settle the area, the government declared the land open for pastoral settlement by ordinary settlers, but little progress was made. By 1840, the population was just fifty-three, and most of those were in or near Bunbury. The settlement of Australind by the Western Australian Land Company in 1840–41 prompted the first real need for a good quality road to Perth. Throughout much of 1842, there was much debate and discussion over providing a new route to Bunbury. A coastal route from Fremantle had been proposed, while an alternative proposal published on 11 May was a new route from Pinjarra to Bunbury, via an upstream crossing of the Harvey River, where a bridge could easily be built. The coastal route would have required a ferry to cross the Murray River's estuary, and would not go through Pinjarra, a significant settlement in the area; however, it would be shorter, had more water along the route, and would go through the village of Mandurah, which had a population of twenty-nine people from six families.
In a letter dated 12 June 1842 in the Colonial Secretary's Records, Marshall Waller Clifton, Chief Commissioner of the Western Australian Land Company, wrote of the need for an improved Perth–Fremantle–Bunbury road. On a special trip he took in the previous October to look for a new route, two surveyors gave their approval to the proposed coastal route, with a ferry across the estuary. Governor John Hutt approved of the idea of a road, but thought a ferry would be impractical, at least during winter, and that the lack of public funds made it impossible. Clifton continued to write letters to the Colonial Secretary advocating the construction of a road.
19th century road
During the winter of 1842, the existing route became impassable, and Clifton undertook the creation of the proposed coastal route. He sent his company's men to clear the path and make a road. The first report of the new road was on 19 October, praising the new route but deriding the almost impassable obstacles presented by the large rivers en route. The Australind–Mandurah route was completed by 2 November, and the speed of the new route allowed almost daily communication. It could be travelled in 32 hours, with a ferry to cross the estuary at Mandurah. The ferry was operated, and later owned, by nearby resident Mrs Lyttleton, as the government was not interested at that time in owning or leasing out the ferry. The government later appropriated the ferry on 2 February 1843, and imposed standardised tolls for passengers and livestock. Ten years later, the ferry service was made available to the public free of charge.The road was rebuilt by convicts in the 1850s, but by that decade, the importance of the coast road was diminishing. For most of its length, the road went through well-timbered, sandy limestone country of little value to agriculture, and settlers in the vicinity of the road were scarce. In contrast, settlements had spread and prospered in the foothills of the Darling Scarp, and on 1 July 1853, Colonial Secretary Frederick Barlee announced a new proposal for a Perth–Pinjarra–Bunbury route along the foothills, with a width, mostly following the alignment of previous tracks. Between 1864 and 1876, two parties of convicts were involved in the making of the road.
From 30 June 1868, the government discontinued the ferry's operation and the position of caretaker, leaving travellers to work the ferry themselves. The news was not well received, with newspaper letters complaining of the great inconvenience to the users of the shorter coastal route. As a result, the government reappointed a caretaker on 30 March 1869. In 1894 the ferry was finally abandoned in favour of a wooden bridge adjacent to old ferry jetties, which was built by contract at a cost of £1700. However, following the completion of the Perth–Bunbury railway in 1893, few people travelled up the coast road. While the adjacent land was still privately owned, it was uninhabited.