Road Photos & Information: New South Wales

Sturt Highway (National Highway 20)

Statistics:

• Length: 598 km
• Eastern Terminus: Hume Highway (NH31) at Tarcutta
• Western Terminus: NSW-Vic border at Buronga
• Miscellaneous: Continues as Sturt Highway (NH-A20) into Victoria
• Suburbs, Towns & Localities along route: Tarcutta, Wagga Wagga, Narranderra, Hay, Balranald, Euston and Buronga

Route Numbering:

• Current:
• Multiplexed With:
• Former:
• RTA Internal Classification: State Highway No. 14

General Information:

The Sturt Highway is 2 lane rural highway standard for most of its length and is named after Charles Sturt, who explored south western New South Wales, the Murrumbidgee and Murray rivers and also parts of the deserts of central Australia in the 1820s and 1830s.

The present Sturt Highway developed as a track along the bank of the Murrumbidgee River linking cattle runs in the 1840s.

Originally the area of the route was the territory of the Wiradjuri Aboriginal people, in whose language Wagga Wagga means 'place of crows'.

The Sturt Hwy is multiplexed with the following routes:

• Newell Highway (NH39) at Narranderra for 1 kilometre
• Olympic Highway (NR41) at Wagga Wagga for 3 kilometres
• Kidman Way (SR87) at Darlington point for 200 metres

History:

• 1929: The road from Wagga Wagga to Hay was proclaimed as a Trunk Road
• 1930: The road from Wagga Wagga to Hay was named the Sturt Trunk Road in commemoration of Sturt's expedition down the Murrumbidgee River
• 1933: The road from Sydney to Adelaide through Wagga Wagga was proclaimed the Sturt Highway. The new highway comprised what had previously been a section of the Monaro Highway (now the Snowy Mountains Highway) from Lower Tarcutta to Wagga Wagga. The road along the south bank of the Murrumbidgee River from Wagga Wagga to Hay and a portion of the Mid Western Highway from Hay to the South Australian border.
• 1940: Yanko Creek Bridge at Narranderra was constructed
• 1941: The current Poisoned Waterholes Creek Bridge (8 km east of Narranderra) constructed, replacing a timber bridge built in 1908.
• 1942: The Bullenbong Creek Bridge constructed (43 km west of Wagga Wagga)
• 1954: The Yanko Creek bridge was lengthened
• 1962: The Sturt Highway was completely sealed providing a route through to Adelaide.
• 1973: The widening of Bullenbong Ck Bridge completed, which included changes to kerbs and railings. Also widening of Poisoned Waterholes Creek Bridge.
• 1993: The Yanko Creek bridge was widened

All information provided in the route summary for this section is courtesy of the Roads and Traffic Authority

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