Western Australian Road Photo Gallery: State Route 8 (Graham Farmer Freeway)

Western Australia

Photo Gallery

Western Australian Road Photo Gallery:
State Route 8 (Graham Farmer Freeway)

The Graham Farmer Freeway is in Perth, Western Australia. It links East Perth and West Perth. Its name is a tribute to the West Australian, Australian rules footballer, Graham "Polly" Farmer.

When it was built, between 1996 and 2000, the freeway incorporated Western Australia's first freeway tunnel, the Northbridge Tunnel. The six lanes of the tunnel are divided into twin tube three lane tunnels stretching for 1.6 km, with the leftmost lane reserved as an emergency stopping lane. Additionally the 406 metre, six lane Windan Bridge crossing the Swan River was constructed as were nine traffic and pedestrian bridge structures.

Stage 1 was a finalist for the 2001 Australian Construction Achievement Award. The freeway bridges construction stage also won an award from Austroads, the Association of Australian and New Zealand Road Transport and Traffic Authorities. Over 180,000 cubic metres of concrete were used in its construction. Art work was commissioned for both ends of the tunnel. At the western end there is a pictorial history of Northbridge, and at the eastern end the Aboriginal artist Ron Corbett created images based on indigenous artwork.

Western terminus: MItchell Freeway, Northbridge. Eastern Terminus: Great Eastern Highway / Orrong Road, Burswood.

Length:	7 km
Route Numbers:

Eastern On-Ramp
Eastern end of Graham Farmer Freeway, bridges over top of Great Eastern Hwy. On ramp for vehicles travelling south-west on Great Eastern Highway Hwy onto Graham Farmer Freeway.

Image © Phillip McCallum

West through Burswood
First 200 metres of eastern end through suburb of Burswood (behind casino).

Image © Phillip McCallum

Winden Bridge looking east
Graham Farmer Freeway crosses the Swan River on Winden bridge. Viewed from western end, with airport control tower visible at back.

Image © Phillip McCallum

Winden Bridge
Winden bridge side view as it crosses the Swan River.

Image © Phillip McCallum

Bike path under Winden Bridge
Underneath the road deck of Winden bridge is a bike track built into the bridge structure.

Image © Phillip McCallum

East Pde Exit (going west)
Continuing west, the East Pde exit comes up very shortly.

Image © Phillip McCallum

Near East Pde
The exit ramps to East Pde run parallel with Graham Farmer Freeway for around 500 metres and also service Lord Street (photo taken from pedestrian overpass to Claisebrook Station).

Image © Phillip McCallum

Bike track near East Pde
A bike track parallels Graham Farmer Freeway for the section east of the tunnels. This is the underpass below Lord Street.

Image © Phillip McCallum

East Pde Exit Signage (east)
Detail of the signposting on East Pde exit (this time for eastbound traffic).

Image © Phillip McCallum

Tunnel signage near East Pde
Indicator board of tunnel status.

Image © Phillip McCallum

Approaching tunnels
Graham Farmer Freeway approaches tunnels, with city buildings in the background. Overhead Signage is referring to exits at the other end of the tunnel. A very US looking scene.

Image © Phillip McCallum

East Portal Approach
Eastern portal to the tunnels. Lord Street passes over the top of the portals. Traffic from East Pde finally enters main freeway just before tunnel entrance.

Image © Phillip McCallum

Driving into Eastern Portal
Driving towards eastern portal of tunnel.

Entering the tunnel
Entering the tunnel from the east.

Entering western portal
The western portal, with peak hour traffic heading east.

Exit Choices after tunnel
Upon exiting from the tunnel, the Graham Farmer Freeway enters a complex interchange with the Mitchell Fwy. Heading south, the Mitchell Fwy hits another very complex interchange less than 2 kilometres later at the Narrows interchange, where it becomes the Kwinana Fwy. These two freeways provide rapid access to the north and south suburbs unparallelled in any other Australian city. Exiting the tunnel, you can choose to go north or south on Mitchell Fwy, or onto James St for Northbridge and the city, or Loftus Street for West Perth.

Graham Farmer - Mitchell Fwy interchange
Looking south across the interchange, which features a 3-level flyover

Entry from Mitchell Fwy (south)
Graham Farmer Freeway passes underneath a flyover delivering traffic from the south off Mitchell Fwy.

Graham Farmer Fwy overpass onto Mitchell Fwy (north)
The Graham Farmer Freeway ends as two fly-overs, doing a centre merge onto the Mitchell Fwy, which also has a railway line along its median strip.