Duncan Road is a generally northeast-southwest former highway in the northeast of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

and northwest of

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

that links the

Victoria Highway The Victoria Highway links the Great Northern Highway in Western Australia with the Stuart Highway in the Northern Territory. The highway is a part of the Perth - Darwin National Highway link. It is signed as National Highway 1, and is par ...

with

Halls Creek Halls is a plural of the word hall. Halls may also refer to: People * Walter Halls (1871–1953), British trade unionist and politician * Ethel May Halls (1882–1967), American actress * Julian Halls (born 1967), British field hockey player * ...

. The road, approximately in length, was designated as National Route 80 from its terminus at

through to

Nicholson Nicholson may refer to: People *Nicholson (name), a surname, and a list of people with the name Places Australia * Nicholson, Victoria * Nicholson, Queensland * Nicholson County, New South Wales * Nicholson River (disambiguation) * Nicholson ...

. National Route 80 continued east into the Northern Territory along

Buntine Highway The Buntine Highway is a 581-kilometre highway in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. It runs from the Victoria Highway via Top Springs and Kalkarindji and then to Nicholson, Western Australia. The section from the Victoria Highway ...

(now National Route 96), while Duncan Road snakes its way north, crossing the state border numerous times between Buntine Highway and

.Duncan Highway - One of the most remote highways in Australia!
''Ozroads: the Australian Roads Website''. Retrieved 11 May 2008. There are no facilities or fuel centres for the length of the 443 kilometre road.

History

The road began as a 1949 proposal to help the beef industry that was developing in the Kimberley region of Western Australian. The state government requested assistance from the federal government, which was provided as part of the ''States Grants (Encouragement of Meat Production) Act 1949'' in October of that year. Construction of a road linking to Nicholson started in 1950, and was completed in 1956. Further work occurred after the federal government passed the ''Western Australian Grants (Beef Cattle Roads) Act 1961''. It was part of a scheme to improve export revenue by allocating funds for the construction and upgrading of roads in the north of Australia. The scheme, which ran throughout the 1960s, enabled the upgrading of the route between Wyndham and Nicholson, and its extension to Halls Creek. In 1961, the road was named ''Duncan Highway'' after Ron Duncan, the Main Roads District Engineer for the North West from 1940 to 1953. The highway was decommissioned in July 1976, and renamed ''Duncan Road''. In 1995 the road was reclassified as a local road, transferring control and maintenance from

Main Roads Western Australia Main Roads Western Australia (formerly the Main Roads Department) is a statutory authority of the Government of Western Australia that is responsible for implementing the state's policies on road access and main roads. It operates under the ''M ...

to the

Shire of Halls Creek The Shire of Halls Creek is one of the four local government areas in the Kimberley region of northern Western Australia, covering an area of , most of which is sparsely populated. The Shire's seat of government is the town of Halls Creek. Man ...

References

{{Road infrastructure in Western Australia Kimberley (Western Australia) Australian outback tracks

History

See also

References