The Moonie Highway is a state

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-acces ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

, Australia.Queensland Government - Department of Transport and Main Roads - Maps
/ref> Part of State Route 49, it leaves the

Warrego Highway The Warrego Highway is located in southern Queensland, Australia. It connects coastal centres to the south western areas of the state, and is approximately 715 km in length. It takes its name from the Warrego River, which is the endpoint ...

at Dalby and runs for over 290 km until it reaches St George. From there, State Route 49 continues west as the

Balonne Highway The Balonne Highway, a state highway of Queensland, is the continuation westward of State Route 49 (Moonie Highway) from the town of St George to its termination at Cunnamulla. There are no large settlements between St George and Cunnamulla. U ...

. From Dalby, it continues north-east as the

Bunya Highway The Bunya Highway is a state highway of Queensland, Australia. It is a relatively short road, running approximately 173 kilometres in a south-westerly direction from Goomeri to Dalby. The highway connects the Warrego and Burnett Highways. Th ...

. The highway serves agricultural settlements as well as

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

and

gas Gas is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, liquid, and plasma). A pure gas may be made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon), elemental molecules made from one type of atom (e.g. oxygen), or ...

fields.

Route description

The Moonie Highway is part of two of the many practicable routes from the south-east of Queensland to the south-east of South Australia. It is also on the shortest route to St George and Cunnamulla from any locality on or near the Queensland coast from Bundaberg to

Coolangatta Coolangatta is a coastal suburb in the City of Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. It is the Gold Coast's southernmost suburb and it borders New South Wales. In the , Coolangatta had a population of 5,948 people. Geography Coolangatta and its ...

Dalby to Moonie

The highway leaves Dalby via Nicholson and Loudoun Streets. After about 7.8 km it crosses Myall Creek just south of its junction with the

Condamine River The Condamine River, part of the Balonne River, Balonne catchment that is part of the Murray-Darling Basin, drains the northern portion of the Darling Downs, an area of sub-coastal southern Queensland, Australia. The river is approximately 500 k ...

. After a further 1.7 km it crosses the Condamine. It runs through rich farming land until it reaches the locality of Kumbarilla near the intersection with the

Surat Developmental Road The Surat Developmental Road (State Route 87) is a sealed road in the Western Downs Region, Queensland, Australia. It is a state-controlled district road (numbers 86A and 86B), rated as a local road of regional significance (LRRS). Route descr ...

. Kumbarilla is located on a ridge (Kumbarilla Ridge) which divides the

Surat Basin The Surat Basin is a geological basin in eastern Australia. It is part of the Great Artesian Basin drainage basin of Australia. The Surat Basin extends across an area of 270,000 square kilometres and the southern third of the basin occupies a lar ...

from the Clarence-Moreton Basin to the east. The road then passes by and through the Kumbarilla State Forest, an area of about 86,000 hectares of native bushland. It then passes through the Waar Waar State Forest and more farmland before reaching the

Leichhardt Highway The Leichhardt Highway is a major transport route in Queensland, Australia. It is a continuation northward from Goondiwindi of the Newell Highway, via a section of the Cunningham Highway. It runs northward from Goondiwindi for more than 600 ki ...

at Moonie.

Moonie to St George

From Moonie the highway passes through more farmland, passing the timbered area of Southwood National Park. It then passes through Currajong State Forest and Kinkora State Forest before reaching Westmar. From Westmar it passes through more farmland, and also Ula Ula State Forest and Alton National Park. It ends at the Carnarvon Highway, about 9.1 km from the centre of St George.

History

The first recorded European settlement in the Moonie district was in about 1849 when land at the head of the

Moonie River The Moonie River (Mooni River) is a river in Shire of Balonne, Queensland and Walgett Shire, New South Wales, both in Australia. It is a perennial river of the Barwon catchment within the Murray–Darling basin. Name The river was named '' ...

was formed into a station and named "Weranga". The current locality of Weranga, the Weranga railway station, and the Weranga State Forest are all in the area once occupied by the station. As further stations were formed along the Moonie River a road to access them was developed, generally following the course of the main channel of the river. This road still exists as Old Moonie Road. It runs to the north of and approximately parallel to the Moonie Highway, from Weranga to the Meandarra Talwood Road just north of Westmar. The name Westmar was derived from the first part of the words WESTern and MARanoa.

Major intersections

References