Flinders Highway, Queensland facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Flinders Highway Queensland
Flinders Highway (green on black)
General information
Type	Highway
Length	775 km (482 mi)
Route number(s)	State Highway A6
Former route number	National Route 78
Major junctions
West end	Barkly Highway (National Highway A2), Cloncurry
	Landsborough Highway (National Highway A2), east of Cloncurry Kennedy Developmental Road (State Route 62) Gregory Developmental Road (State Highway A7) Gregory Developmental Road (State Route 63)
East end	Bruce Highway (Queensland Highway A1), Townsville
Location(s)
Major settlements	Julia Creek, Richmond, Hughenden, Charters Towers
Highway system
Highways in Australia National Highway • Freeways in Australia Highways in Queensland

Southbound on the Flinders Highway between Reid River and Mingela

Southbound on the Flinders Highway between Calcium and Reid River

The Flinders Highway is a highway that crosses Queensland east to west, from Townsville on the Pacific coast to Cloncurry. The road continues as the Barkly Highway from Cloncurry to the Northern Territory border at Camooweal and beyond. The Flinders Highway passes a number of small outback towns and typical outback landscape predominates towards the inland. It was known as National Route 78 before Queensland began to convert to the alphanumeric system being adopted in Australia and is now designated as A6. The highway is also known as Overlanders Way. Its entire length is part of the National Land Transport Network (formerly Auslink).

Approximate road distances (in kilometres) of towns from Townsville along the highway

As at 1957, only the Townsville to Charters Towers section was sealed. The rest of the highway was progressively sealed with the last section completed in November 1976.

Towns

Charters Towers

Charters Towers, 133 km to the south west from Townsville. A former gold rush town with a population of 30 000 in 1890. At that time it was known as "The World" because it seemed to be the centre of everything. Presently it is a centre for cattle grazing, with gold mining continuing to be an important industry. Much of the elegant gold rush architecture of the nineteenth remains in place and is a tourist attraction.

Pentland

Hughenden

Located 243 km further on, Hughenden, the administrative centre of Flinders shire is in the heart of sheep and cattle country.

Richmond

Richmond, a former gold rush town located 112 km further west. Currently a pastoral centre.

Julia Creek

Julia Creek, 147 km further west, another pastoral settlement

Cloncurry

Cloncurry, former copper-mining town located 139 km west from Julia Creek. The first regular Qantas flights started between here and Charleville in 1922 and Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia service started here in 1928. Nowadays it is an important road and rail junction. Flinders Highway ends here.

Major intersections

LGA	Location	km	mi	Destinations	Notes
Townsville	Stuart	0	0.0	Bruce Highway (National Route A1) - north-west - Townsville / Bruce Highway (National Route A1) - south-east - Ayr / Southern Port Road - north-east - Port of Townsville	Eastern end of Flinders Highway (National Route A6)
		1.9	1.2	Stuart Drive - north - Townsville	Flinders Highway continues south on Stuart Drive
Burdekin River		105	65	Macrossan Bridge (see also Great Northern Railway (Mt Isa line)
Charters Towers	Charters Towers	122	76	Gregory Highway (State Route 63) - west - Greenvale	Northern concurrency terminus with Gregory Highway / Flinders Highway continues south-west through Charters Towers
	Black Jack	130	81	Gregory Highway (State Route A7) - south - Clermont	Southern concurrency terminus with Gregory Highway
Flinders	Torrens Creek	284	176	Torrens Creek Aramac Road (State Route 18) - south - Aramac
	Hughenden	371	231	Hughenden Muttaburra Road (State Route 19) - south - Muttaburra
		373.0	231.8	Kennedy Developmental Road (State Route 62) - west - Winton	Southern concurrency terminus with Kennedy Developmental Road
		373.1	231.8	Kennedy Developmental Road (State Route 62) - north - Mount Garnet	Northern concurrency terminus with Kennedy Developmental Road
McKinlay	Julia Creek	637	396	Julia Creek Kynuna Road (State Route 84) - south - Kynuna
		640	400	Wills Developmental Road (State Route 84) - north-west - Burketown
Cloncurry	Cloncurry	759	472	Landsborough Highway (National Route A2) - south-east - Kynuna	Eastern concurrency terminus with Landsborough Highway
Cloncurry River		775.0	481.6	Ernest Henry Bridge
Cloncurry	Cloncurry	775.2	481.7	Burke Developmental Road (National Route 83) - north - Normanton / Barkly Highway (National Route A2) - west - Mount Isa	Western concurrency terminus with Landsborough Highway. Western end of Flinders Highway
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi