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Photo Gallery
New South Wales Road Photo Gallery:
National Highway 23 (Federal Highway) (Former Alignment)
The Federal Highway is a short highway located in southern New South Wales and also a small distance in the Australian Capital Territory in Australia. This section concentrates on the old alignment from the Hume Highway at Wollogorang near Goulburn to Ginn's Gap at the NSW-ACT border. It once formed part of the Sydney-Canberra National Highway link. Towns & settlements along the route include Wollogorang, Collector, Gunning, Bywong, Sutton and Ginns Gap.
Completed in 1931, the highway was designed to replace the previous route from Goulburn (via Tarago and Queanbeyan). From 1985 onwards, the Federal Highway was reconstructed to a full four-lane divided highway standard, a project finally completed in 2002.
The route was proclaimed a state highway in 1928, and it's internal RTA classification is State Highway 3. The route was signposted as National Route 23 in 1954, and in 1974, it was proclaimed a National Highway.
Collector:
Collector was, until a few years ago, a stopover for travellers from Sydney. It was a tiny township which seemed to be little more than a pub and service station. Then the town was by-passed in 1988 by the Federal Highway.
The area was first settled by Europeans when T.A. Murray was granted land in 1829. By 1837 Murray had built himself a substantial home and that same year a postal service began from Goulburn across the flat plains to Lake George and down to Yass. This inevitably meant the development of staging posts and the towns of Gundaroo and Collector sprang up. It is said that, in spite of its obviously 'English' name, the town takes its name from an Aboriginal word 'colegdar'.
Collector's history is the history of the roads which passed through it. When horse and bullock were the main means of transportation the town prospered as it was a day's journey from Goulburn. It was during this time that it had five inns and a number of stores. When Canberra was chosen as the national capital the town benefited as the Barton Highway, later to become the Federal Highway, passed through the town and consequently was kept in good condition.
| Length: |
78 km |
| Route Numbers: |
Formerly   |
| Sources: DMR's The Road Makers, Canberra & District Historical Society, National Capital Authority, Sydney Morning Herald, Wikipedia, NSW Roads and Traffic Authority, Sam Laybut (Ozroads) and the Australian Government |
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