Road planning in Australia: past, present and future

The need for the building and maintenance of roads made itself felt early in Australia's settlement. Both urban growth and rural settlement relied heavily on road transport to support the trade, commerce and cultural activities of mature and developing communities. In the first six decades of settlement road development was managed by centralised control. With the discovery of gold and the introduction of railways the management of roads languished while major changes and growth occurred throughout the country. The introduction of the motor vehicle at the turn of the century introduced new opportunities for community development. This led to major changes in the role of roads and their management over three decades including some major regional planning studies. After the 1939-45 war, major town and regional planning activities were enthusiastically launched throughout the nation to achieve desirable communities and effective public infrastructure including roads. The nineteen sixties and seventies saw the application of major urban transportation planning study techniques introduced from the USA. These set over ambitious objectives in terms of transport network development. More recent reappraisal of these objectives has focussed in the need to maintain and develop our road systems for present communities while maintaining options for an unpredictable future. The criteria of effectiveness, efficiency and equity will remain the guidelines for management of the road system into the future, both short and long term (a).