The Mitchell Highway is a state highway located in the central and south westernregions of Queensland and the northern and central western regions of New South Wales in Australia. The southern part of the Mitchell Highway forms part of the National Highway A32 corridor, which stretches from Sydney to Adelaide via Dubbo and Broken Hill. The Mitchell Highway also forms part of the shortest route between Sydney and, via and Mount Isa; making it an important road link for the transport of passengers and freight for regional New South Wales and Queensland. In New South Wales, the Mitchell Highway's south-eastern terminus is at its junction with the Great Western and Mid-Western highways, and it links with the Golden, Newell, Oxley, Barrier and Kamilaroi highways. In Queensland, the Mitchell links with the Balonne and Warrego highways and its northern terminus is at its junction with the Landsborough Highway. The Mitchell Highway carries the A32 shield from its eastern terminus in to Nyngan; thereafter carrying the B71 shield north to the New South Wales and Queensland border; the A71 shield to ; and then to its northern terminus with the Landsborough Highway at Augathella, the Mitchell concurrently carries the A71 and Alt A2 shields.
History
Initially an amalgam of trunk routes, the Mitchell Highway was proclaimed a state highway in New South Wales in 1928 and named as the North Western Highway. On 9 October 1936 the name was changed to the Mitchell Highway, in honour of Lieutenant ColonelSir Thomas Mitchell, who was Surveyor-General of New South Wales in the 1820s and explored much of inland New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland.
Route
The Mitchell Highway lies west of the Great Dividing Range and in New South Wales runs generally northwest–southeast and in Queensland, runs generally north–south in the central western and southwest parts of that state. From its northern terminus at a junction with the Landsborough Highway near Augathella, the Mitchell Highway heads south, concurrently carrying both the A71 and Alt A2 shields and continues south through Charleville where the Warrego Highway heads east, carrying the Alt 2 shield. As the A71, the Mitchell continues south through, forming a junction with the Balonne Highway, and then south to the state border between Queensland and New South Wales where its highway shield changes to B71. Approximately north of it crosses the Darling River before heading into Bourke where it forms junctions with the Kamilaroi Highway heading east and the Kidman Wayheading south. From this point the highway generally heads southeast through Nyngan where it forms a junction with the Barrier Highway. From this point until its southern terminus, the Mitchell carries the National Highway A32 shield. At the Mitchell forms a junction with the Oxley Highway, before passing through and then heads generally east to the major rural centre of Dubbo where it meets with the Newell Highway and connects to the Golden Highway before crossing the Macquarie River and heading south towards, again crossing the Macquarie River. At the Mitchell generally starts to head east towards, where an alternative route diverts many heavy vehicles away from the city centre. The portion of the Mitchell Highway that passes through Orange city centre is known as Summer Street. The Mitchell Highway's southeastern terminus is at a roundabout in Bathurst, at the junction of the Mid-Western Highway to and the Great Western Highway to Sydney via the Blue Mountains.
Major intersections
Truck explosion
On 5 September 2014, a truck travelling on the Mitchell Highway rolled off a road bridge at Angellala Creek approximately 30km south of Charleville. The truck was carrying 52 tonnes of ammonium nitrate which exploded. The blast destroyed the two road bridges and severely damaged the adjacent rail bridge. The blast was so powerful that the truck was disintegrated and the dangers posed by the remaining ammonium nitrate necessitated a 2km exclusion zone around the site for a number of days. The large crater formed by the blast closed the highway necessitating detours of up to 600km. The Department of Transport and Mains Road was allowed to commence work at the site on 13 September and by 23 September had constructed a temporary side track around the blast site suitable for cars, buses and light trucks. By 7 October, the side track had been upgraded to support road trains, ending the need to detour. In April 2015, the $10 million tender to reconstruct the highway and bridges were awarded and the construction work took place between June and November 2015. In early 2016, a competition was held to decide a new name for the bridge.
