The Great Eastern Highway
Great Eastern Highway, Western Australia is an important link between Perth, the eastern wheatbelt and the eastern goldfields. The great expanse that this road covers has to be seen to be believed. It is a part of the National Highway linking Perth to Adelaide and signed as National Highway 94. It runs from Perth to the gold mining town of Kalgoorlie. 94 however, branches off south after Coolgardie and it continues until Norseman.
The Great Eastern Highway runs parallel to the Mundaring to Kalgoorlie water pipeline, which supplies water drawn from Mundaring Weir to Kalgoorlie, hundreds of kilometres away and was completed in 1903. It was sealed by 1954.
It then moves from the Swan Coastal Plain and rises to the Darling Scarp at Greenmount, the rise always being a problem for older and mechanically challenged vehicles.
Due to the high number of trucks using the hill, the descending trucks are a serious traffic hazard, the heavier trucks being required to descend in lower gear. Alternative routes to Greenmount Hill were flagged in the 1980's but nothing has been done.
Only one serious accident has occurred in the last twenty years involving a truck losing the ability to brake down the hill causing multiple deaths at the Roe Highway intersection. The accident led to a 'truck arrester bed' being constructed on the lower section of the hill. Following the standard railway construction in 1966 at Bellevue, the railway crossing at the foot of Greenmount which had claimed many lives, was replaced by a bridge over the railway.
Speed limits on the Greenmount Hill to Mundaring section have been reduced due to the proximity to built up areas.
The most seriously under-maintained section of road between Perth and Sydney is currently (2005) being re-aligned and upgraded to a standard to cope with the tonnage and volume now experienced by the Great Eastern Highway. The rebuilt section between Sawyers Valley and The Lakes has deep cuttings and double carriageways.
Towns and settlements along the way to Kalgoorlie-Boulder include Northam, Meckering, Cunderdin, Tammin, Kellerberrin, Doodlakine, Merredin, Burracoppin, Bodallin, Moorine Rock, Southern Cross, Yellowdine, Boorabbin, Bullabulling and Coolgardie.
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