New South Wales Road Photo Gallery:
National Highway 1 (Sydney - Newcastle Freeway) (Hawkesbury River to Ourimbah)

The Sydney-Newcastle Freeway is the major arterial highway between Sydney and Newcastle. Starting life as the Berowra-Calga Tollway, the F3 has been gradually extended and improved until the Palmdale / Ourimbah gap and Lengahans Drive bypass were completed in the late 90's. The F3 replaced several sections of very windy road between Berowra and the southern reaches of Newcastle.

The freeway starts with the junction of the Pacific Highway and Pennant Hills Road at Pearce's Corner, Wahroonga in Sydney's north. From here it goes north, skirting the western edge of the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park before meeting the Hawkesbury River at Brooklyn. After crossing the Hawkesbury the motorway passes through the Brisbane Water National Park, crossing Mooney Mooney Creek with an impressive 480m long and 75m high bridge before reaching the first main interchange on the Central Coast at Kariong.

After reaching Kariong, the motorway continues through rural and semi-rural areas of the Central Coast with interchanges provided at Ourimbah, Tuggerah, Warnervale and also Kiar, near Doyalson. From the Doyalson interchange the freeway continues to the west of Lake Macquarie with interchanges near Morisset, Cessnock, Toronto and Cardiff. The Doyalson interchange is with what is known as "Motorway Link" a connection feeder to the Pacific Highway (now SR111), when the freeway ended at this interchange in the mid 1980s.

After the Cardiff interchange a link road takes traffic into Newcastle via Wallsend while the motorway continues north to reach its finish with a roundabout at the junction of Weakleys Drive (Weakley's Drive photos can be seen here) and John Renshaw Drive, Beresfield. From here the National Highway route continues to Brisbane via the New England Highway (accessed via Weakleys Drive), with traffic on NH1/NH15 taking John Renshaw Drive and the New England Highway eastbound to meet the Pacific Highway at Hexham.

For a complete exit list of the freeway, see this site. Click here for an RTA map of the entire route.

History:

The F3 replaced the old Pacific Highway which was built in the 1920’s along a route that had existed since 1847, when settler George Peat cut a track to his property on the banks of the Hawkesbury River.

Planning began for the freeway in the 1950s, with the aim of providing a high-speed replacement to a section of the Pacific Highway which was built in the 1920s and was struggling to cope with the increased traffic volume. Furthermore it was planned that the freeway would connect to freeway systems being proposed for both Sydney and Newcastle, providing a city-to-city freeway link. However, due to several reasons the goal and route of the freeway changed significantly so that today it serves to bypass Newcastle rather than go into it.

Firstly, the route between Mount White and Kariong was originally planned to go further east than the current route with an easier crossing of Mooney Mooney Creek. By the time that construction was to begin on this section resistance from the National Parks and Wildlife Service to the proposed route forced the government to take a route through Calga which at the time would have formed part of a route to Singleton.

The route through Wyong Shire changed as well; instead of passing along the western edge of the Tuggerah Lakes development in that area resulted in the freeway moving further west with a link road being constructed to meet the Pacific Highway near Doyalson.

Perhaps the most significant effect on the freeway's route and its connections was the anti-freeway movement of the 1970s. Strong public resistance to freeways being constructed within cities along with less than favourable results from government inquiries resulted in unconstructed freeway projects being cancelled and those under construction being revised or cut short. For the Sydney-Newcastle Freeway, this meant that the connecting Lane Cove Valley and North-Western Freeways in Sydney would not be built - forcing traffic to travel along the Pacific Highway between Wahroonga and the city. In addition, the freeway would now go to the west of Lake Macquarie rather than the east and bypass Newcastle. Sections of State Route 123, one of the two expressway routes that the freeway would have connected to in Newcastle, have been constructed, while the freeway route between Belmont and Bennetts Green and the connecting expressway route to Merewether are still reserved with the possibility that they could be constructed in the future.

Milestones in the history of the Sydney-Newcastle Freeway include:

• April 1963 - Construction begins on a 7 km section of dual carriageways north from the Hawkesbury River. This section was opened as a toll road in 1965. The toll was removed around 1990 when the Federal Government decreed that all National Highways should be toll free.
• Late 1960s - Opening of Berowra to Hawkesbury River section as a toll road.
• Mid 1970s - Opening of the current 6 lane Hawkesbury River bridge. At this time the toll from each of the north and south sections open (20¢ for each section) was combined with the new bridge (which linked both sections) for a toll of 50¢. This was collected at the existing Berowra toll booths.
• December 1983 - The Somersby to Wallarah Creek section of the freeway opens.
• December 1986 - 15 km section of the Freeway opens between Calga and Somersby.
• December 1988 - 15.5 km of freeway completed between Berowra and the Sydney suburb of Wahroonga, with the official opening on the 19th March 1989.
• December 1990 - Freeway completed from Wallarah Creek to Palmer's Road.
• December 1993 - Palmer's Road to Minmi section opened.
• December 1997 - "Missing link" between Ourimbah and Kangy Angy opened (this stayed as a remnant of the old highway with traffic controlled by a roundabout until the upgrade was complete)
• December 1998 - Final stage of freeway opened between Minmi and John Renshaw Drive, Beresfield.
• December 2004 - Completion of widening between Calga and Jolls Bridge.
• April 2006 - Hi-tech wet weather speed limit system designed to monitor weather conditions and automatically reduce and enforce the speed limit in wet weather, worth $2.3 million, implemented between the Hawkesbury River and Mount White.

Length:	127 km
Route Numbers:	Formerly
Forthcoming Alphanumeric:
Thanks to Sam Laybutt (ozroads.com.au) for help on this page. Other information courtesy of the NSW Roads & Traffic Authority, Hornsby Shire Council, and Wikipedia.