New England Online > Geography > Transport > Roads & Motorways > Motorways > M1
M1 Motorway
| M1 Motorway | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Length: | 436 km |
| Direction: | South - North |
| Carriageway: | Dual |
| Start: | Port Macquarie |
| Destinations: | Wauchope Walcha Uralla Armidale Guyra Glen Innes |
| End: | Tenterfield |
| Construction: | 2015 - 2039 |
The M1 is a major north-south motorway running through the centre of New England and connecting Port Macquarie to the major centres of the New England midlands. The motorway is one of the most important in New England, and links many of the largest urban centres of the country together. At 410km, the road is also the longest motorway in New England.
The M1 was the last road to be built to motorway standard in the country, and came some 17 years after the completion of the first motorway, the M4, in 2022. Today, the motorway is the busiest of New England's motorways and is the third busiest road in New England, after the A1 and A2.
Description
The M1 begins on the western edge of the Port Macquarie city centre and runs through the western suburbs to join the M2 near Wauchope. After running to the north of Wauchope, the motorway follows the Hastings River valley to the Mount Seaview pass, where it climbs into the midlands near Yarrowitch. The motorway then skirts Walcha and climbs up the Greater Armidale conurbation where it passes by Uralla before joining the old New England Highway alignment at Chsiwick.
The M1 then moves past Armidale and Puddledock and Guyra. Between Llangothlin and Glencoe, the road traverses the Ben Lomond Range and reaches it's highest point above sea level. After Glencoe, the road passes to the east of Glen Innes and Severnmead. After passing Dundee, Deepwater and Bolivia, the motorway bypasses Tenterfield and ends on it's northern outskirts at the A4 interchange. Beyond the interchange, the road becomes the BXX and goes on to Legume, Urbenville and Tabulam.
History
Due to the difficult terrain, number of ferry crossings and flood liability of the coast route, the inland route running along the top of the Great Dividing Range became a preferred route for motor traffic in the 1920s. The original road was known as the Great Northern Highway, and ran from Sydney to Brisbane via Armidale and Tenterfield. This road was gazetted state highway 9 in 1928 and terminated at Mt Lindesey near Urbenville.
With some slight changes and deviations, the highway eventually became known as the New England Highway in 1933. When the Commonwealth government created a national highway system in the 1970s, the New England Highway was designated National Highway 15 from Hexham to Tenterfield and was steadily upgraded to a standard now used for trunk roads in New England. The Commonwealth paid for bypasses to Bendemeer and Armidale, as well as substantial upgrades to other sections of the road, particually more trechous section ssuch as the Devil's Pinch and Ben Lomond Range. The road from Port Macquarie to Walcha was known as the Oxley Highway, and carried a designation of National Route 34 from the 1950s.
When New England became independent in 2012, the highway initially kept it's route 15 designation until the reforms of the Meyer government in 2016, when the New England highway was joined with the Oxley highway between Port Macquarie and Walcha to become state highway 1. As the road was steadily upgraded to motorway standard from 2015, the designation has changed to the M1. The upgrade to the road was completed in 2039, with the duplication and realignment of the road between Yarrowitch and Ellenborough.
Junctions
| M1 Motorway | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southbound | Junction | Northbound | ||
| Road Continues as A2 | J1 | Start of Motorway | ||
 |
Hindman | No Exit | ||
|
Sherwood, Fernhill | J2 | |
Sherwood, Fernhill |
|
Kingfisher | J3 | |
Kingfisher |
|
Thrumster, Sovereign Hills | J4 | |
Thrumster, Sovereign Hills |
 |
M2: Kempsey, Laurieton | J5 | |
M2: Kempsey, Laurieton |
|
Sancrox, Wauchope | J6 | |
Sancrox, Wauchope |
|
Redbank, Wauchope | J7 | |
Redbank, Wauchope |
| Wauchope | J8 | Wauchope | ||
| Huntington Service Centre | ||||
Tourist Sights
The following is a list of sights accessable from the M1:
- Wauchope Timber Museum
- Ellenborough Falls
- Tia Falls
- Apsley Falls
- University
- City of Armidale
- National Transport Museum, Armidale
