South Western Highway

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The Bunbury-Walpole stretch of South Western Highway is a part of the National Route 1 network

The entire South Western Highway is signed as State Route 20.

South Western Highway is a highway in the South West region of Western Australia connecting Perth's southeast with Walpole. It is a part of the National Highway 1 network for most of its length. It is about 420 kilometres long.

1 Description
2 Major towns
3 Major intersections
- 3.1 Armadale to Picton
- 3.2 Picton to Walpole
4 See also

[edit] Description

[edit] Perth to Bunbury

From Perth, the highway, signed as State Route 20, starts from the Albany Highway junction in Armadale, 28 km from Perth, and follows a north-south route 20-30 km inland from the coast, passing through several agricultural and timber towns that sprang up in the 1890s when the nearby railway came through, such as Pinjarra, Waroona, Yarloop and Harvey.

Just past Brunswick Junction, the highway heads southwest towards Western Australia's second-largest city, Bunbury. The typical scenery on this part of the highway includes small dairy farms and orchards, jarrah and marri remnant forests and pine plantations.

Until the 1980s, the Armadale-Bunbury section was part of National Highway 1, but following the upgrading of Old Coast Road and construction of the Mandurah bypass, Highway 1 now follows the coastal route via Kwinana Freeway and Old Coast Road to Bunbury passing through the resort town of Mandurah.

[edit] In Bunbury

The highway does not actually enter Bunbury - it stops at the industrial suburb of Picton, following Robertson Drive (Bunbury's ring road) for 1km south before turning southeast past Bunbury Airport towards Boyanup. The highway actually used to follow what is now Boyanup-Picton Road from Picton via Dardanup, but changed to the present shorter route in the 1980s.

[edit] Bunbury to Walpole

From Bunbury, the highway goes through Boyanup and on to Donnybrook, the heart of WA's apple country. From then on the highway passes through thick forests featuring many native trees like jarrah, marri and karri. The region was settled much later than other parts of south western WA, under a soldier resettlement scheme in the 1920s. Typical scenery is farmland interspersed with forests and small timber towns.

The highway then goes through the picturesque riverside town of Bridgetown, Manjimup and finally to Walpole. This part of the highway, especially from Manjimup, is sparsely populated and very thickly forested, with abundant wildlife and wildflowers as well as many old growth trees, especially the giant karri.

From Walpole, the Highway 1 continues as South Coast Highway to Albany.

(where it meets the Brockman Highway from Augusta and Nannup)