Australia Highways

Last modified: May 31, 2007

The photos below are from a trip to Sydney, Cairns, and Melbourne in 2007.

Part 1: Signing and shields
Part 2: Australian road photos & links

M1 southeast of Melbourne, Victoria
Australian freeway exit signage is very similar to that in the US, but adds chevrons under the exit sign, and has no exit numbers.

Freeway to the Melbourne airport

M1 southeast of Melbourne
The name of the highway is highlighted with a white background (Sth for SOUTH). The route number, if it is a M/A/B/C route, is in gold.

Roundabout signs in Victoria and Queensland.

M420 southeast of Melbourne
Arrow sign for a cross intersection with a "C" route. Red reflectors are common on the left shoulder, and although the center dividing lines are painted white, orange reflectors are used with them. The right shoulder was marked with white reflectors.

M420 southeast of Melbourne
The distance sign shows the route number, route name, and similar to Britain, has destinations accessed by different highways in parentheses. Most of the highway signs in Victoria have a small VicRoads logo in the lower right corner.

B100, "The Great Ocean Road", 15km from Lorne, Victoria
The distance to the next town is marked every 5km with a small green trapezoid sign with the initials of the town and the distance in km.

Harbour St, Sydney
Sydney has E Tag and E Pass automated tolling options, see their site for details.

An M420 reassurance marker. As the route changes, the prefix changes. The road south to Phillip Island started as a freeway and was M420. This turned into an expressway, still M420, and when it went to an undivided road, it became A420. Further on, when it became a less major road, it became B420. There are also C prefixed routes, which are less significant.

A curious name for a short, tolled street in Melbourne.

Toll road signing in Melbourne is gold on blue.

Different route shields around Melbourne. The brown ones that look like US county route signs are Tourist Drives, which have "significant tourism appeal". The blue ones that look like US Interstate signs are State Routes.

Shield routes in Cairns (left), Melbourne (center), and Sydney (right).
The 1 and 31 shields in the left and center shots are for the National Route system (white shield) and the newer National Highway system (green shield). Apparently these are being phased out by the M/A/B/C system. The hexagon shield on the right is for a "Metroad", a network of arterial roads in the Sydney area.

The sign on the right tended to be posted in areas frequented by tourists.

Next page: Australian road scenes