Princes Highway

Princes Highway New South Wales–South Australia

Type	Highway
Length	1,898 km (1,179 mi)
Opened	1920
Route number(s)	See Route allocation
East end	Great Western Highway Chippendale, Sydney
	M5 South Western Motorway President Avenue King Georges Road Heathcote Road Princes Motorway Illawarra Highway South Gippsland Highway Princes Freeway South Gippsland Freeway Henty Highway Riddoch Highway Dukes Highway
West end	Eyre Highway Stuart Highway Port Augusta, South Australia
Major settlements	Wollongong, Batemans Bay, Orbost, Sale, Melbourne, Geelong, Warrnambool, Mount Gambier, Robe, Tailem Bend, Murray Bridge, Crafers, Adelaide, Port Wakefield
Highways in Australia National Highway • Freeways in Australia Highways in New South Wales Highways in Victoria Highways in South Australia

The Princes Highway is a major road in Australia, extending from Sydney to Port Augusta via the coast through the states of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. It has a length of 1,941 kilometres (1,206 mi) (along Highway 1) or 1,898 kilometres (1,179 mi) via the former alignments of the highway, although these routes are slower and connections to the bypassed sections of the original route are poor in many cases.

The highway follows the coastline for most of its length, and thus takes quite an indirect and lengthy route. For example, it is 1,040 kilometres (650 mi) from Sydney to Melbourne on Highway 1 as opposed to 870 kilometres (540 mi) on the more direct Hume Highway (National Highway 31), and 915 kilometres (569 mi) from Melbourne to Adelaide compared to 730 kilometres (450 mi) on the Western and Dukes Highways (National Highway 8). Because of the rural nature and lower traffic volumes over much of its length, the Princes Highway is a more scenic and leisurely route than the main highways between these major cities.

Sections of the Princes Highway have different route allocations. These allocations, from its northern terminus in Sydney to its western terminus in Port Augusta, are:

In 2013, New South Wales introduced a new alphanumeric route numbering system, replacing the former system of national and state routes. The Princes Highway formerly entered Wollongong as State Route 60 down the Bulli Pass and ran a largely separate route from Bulli and Thirroul through to the southern suburbs from the parallel Princes Motorway, the later of which bears the 'M1' route designation. The gazetted route of the Princes Highway differs from the route of State Route 60 (and from that shown on road signs). The gazetted route was designated State Route 60 for its length, but deviated from the road that is signposted as the Princes Highway between Bellambi and North Wollongong (part of Memorial Drive).

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