Today in Transportation History – 1976: A Major Australian Highway is Completed

Construction on the Eyre Highway in Australia was completed with the permanent sealing of the South Australian section of this route with bitumen. This final section was the stretch of highway between South Australia’s border with Western Australia and the South Australian town of Penong. A ceremony to commemorate the event took place near Wigunda Tank in South Australia.

The 1,030-mile-long Eyre Highway links Western Australia and South Australia via the flat and largely arid Nullarbor Plain. (Western Australia’s own portion of the highway had been completed in1969.) The highway was named after explorer Edward John Eyre, who in the 1840s became the first European to cross the Nullarbor Plain.

Photo Credit: Bahnfrend

For more information about the Eyre Highway, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyre_Highway.