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Photo Gallery
Queensland Road Photo Gallery:
National Route 1 (Kennedy Highway & Gulf Developmental Road)
The route forms part of the Savannah Highway, one of Australia's ultimate adventure drives, linking Cairns in Tropical North Queensland with the historic pearling town of Broome in Western Australia, via the natural wonders of Katherine in the Northern Territory. For information on the Savannah Way, click here.
Kennedy Highway:
The Kennedy Highway (Highway 1) is a highway in northern Queensland, Australia. It runs for approximately 250km from Smithfield, on the northern outskirts of Cairns, to an unnamed junction in the vicinity of Forty Mile Scrub and Undara Volcanic national parks, about 40 kilometres south of Mount Garnet. South of this junction, the road continues as the Kennedy Developmental Road (State Highway 62) via Hughenden eventually to Boulia nearly 1000 kilometres away; National Route 1 and the Gulf Developmental Road head west to Normanton via Georgetown.
From Smithfield, the highway climbs up into the Atherton Tableland before heading in a general south-westerly direction to the aforementioned junction. The highway is mostly two-lanes. Major towns on, or just off, the Kennedy Highway include Smithfield, Kuranda, Mareeba, Atherton, Ravenshoe and Mount Garnet.
Some history behind the name Kennedy:
Edmund Kennedy (1818-1848) was an educated Englishman and a qualified surveyor when he migrated to NSW in 1840. He joined the Surveyor Generals Dept and became second in charge to Thomas Mitchell the surveyor General. During the next few years he made several exploratory trips into N W Qld. Then in 1848 during Mitchell's absence in England he was commissioned by the NSW Gov to explore the Cape York Peninsula. Starting from Cardwell the most northern settlement at the time his instructions were to explore the eastern coast as far as Albany Bay to reprovision from a ship that was to be sent and then to explore the west coast as far as Gulf of Cape Carpentaria and then travel overland back to Sydney.
The name of Kennedy is perpetuated in many places in North Queensland, ie. Kennedy Bay, Kennedy National Park, Kennedy township, Kennedy Creek, Kennedy Hill Kennedy Highway, and Kennedy Electorate.
Gulf Developmental Road:
The Gulf Developmental Road links the Cairns and Normanton regions in northern Queensland, Australia. It is the only sealed road linking these two regions.
In the east, the road begins at an unnamed junction on the southern edge of Forty Mile Scrub National Park, 241 km south-west of Cairns. The Gulf Developmental Road runs west before terminating at its junction with the Burke Developmental Road 7 km south of Normanton, having travelled a total of 442 km. Towns along the route include Mt Surprise, Georgetown and Croydon. There are no other communities along the route.
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