Road Photos & Information: New South Wales
Route Number   Oxley Highway (National Route 34) - Tamworth to Bendemeer - Former Alignment - Tintinhull (Decommissioned)

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Route Numbering:

General Information:

National Route 34 is a rural highway that connects the coast with western New South Wales. It features several important towns along the route, and also crosses the Great Dividing Range.

The route is mostly single carriageway and undivided, except around Port Macquarie, Moonbi and Tamworth. At its eastern end, the route is quite windy because of the difficult terrain created by the Great Dividing Range, beyond Moonbi, the route generally passes through fairly flat terrain, except in the Coonabarabran area.

The Oxley Highway is named after explorer John Oxley, who was the first European to explore much of inland New South Wales in 1818. He crossed the southern end of the northern tableland and camped on the Apsley River in 1818 near the present Walcha.

History:

Background:

There's been at least 2 other alignments of the highway over First Moonbi Hill. The alignment previous to the current one was bypassed during the late 1970s.

Northbound   Southbound
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Old overbridges at Tintinhull:
A little hard to see, but this is at Tintinhull, about 10 minutes drive north of Tamworth. You can see in the photo on the right the current bridge over the railway line, to middle and left, older bridges, the one with the white fencing the second newest. 2004.

Image © Paul Rands

  Old Alignment at Tintinhull:
Just after the triple bridges is this old section of the highway, this photo is looking southbound. October 2004.

Image © Paul Rands

1 Department of Main Roads, Historical Roads of New South Wales, Oxley Highway, Extract from March 1953 issue of "Main Roads" journal.
2 Department of Main Roads, The Roadmakers, A History of Main Roads in New South Wales, ISBN 0 7240 0439 4

Last updated: 17-Dec-2019 0:55

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