Bruce Highway report: From Townsville to Proserpine | Watch the video

A four-hour road trip is peanuts for many of us – but you can learn a lot about the Bruce Highway and its many faults thanks to a timelapse camera. SEE THE VIDEO

A new section of road south of Bowen with an extra-wide medium strip. Installing wide centre lines is meant to increase the distance between oncoming lanes of traffic, preventing head-on collisions.

We all know what’s happening with the Bruce Hwy — overtaking is getting harder, there are more vehicles than ever, and you need a 4WD for the potholes.

Back in the old days no one lived in North Queensland, so it wasn’t really an issue when the road linking up all the cattle yards was a dirt track and we drove like one-armed prospectors.

But how far we have fallen ... now we have “international tourist destinations” and “towns” full of “people”.

I was recently asked to drive from Townsville to Airlie Beach for work, and my bosses were keen to receive a report on the state of the highway from someone who’s driven all around the country.

Here is my review.

– Townsville to Ayr, fine, there is that 90km/h high crash zone that drives everyone nuts. The detour around Ayr needs to be more clear.

– Ayr to Bowen, patchy with degradation and the best rest stop on the section also prohibits overnight sleeping, which is disappointing in this age of fatigue awareness.

– Bowen to Proserpine, good, clearly recently upgraded with an extra-wide medium strip but it gets messy as you come into Proserpine and hit turning local traffic.

Bowen to Proserpine is what I call a "dead spot" on the Bruce Hwy, full of dry landscape and not much else, encouraging people to drive long hours with few breaks. Mackay to Rockie is similar.

If we were to hypothetically improve Queensland’s busiest transport corridor, what would that look like?

Option one: Going back to rail.

Trains are beautiful things — comfortable seats, nice views, and enough room to walk around and stretch your legs.

The main issue is that when you jump off at Cairns, you look around and realise you don’t have a car. Not an option in 32 degree heat.

This is easily solved by trains letting us load our cars on the back, but we’ll discover life on Europa before they let that happen.

Mark this one as ‘in your dreams’.

Bundaberg, 2020: The Tilt Train pulls into Bundaberg station. At the time, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was announcing a $600 million commitment for 20 new trains to be built in Maryborough should Labor win government in 2020. In 2023 Qld Labor increased this promise to 65 new passenger trains by 2032. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Option two: Flying.

Bonza did have a red hot crack at opening more regional routes up for us, and look what happened to them. Next.

Bonza chief executive Tim Jordan. RIP.

Option three: Boats.

Of course the ships may have to bypass the majority of towns because they don’t have a convenient deep-sea harbour, but it has potential, aside from the whole shallow, razor-sharp reef thing Queensland specialises in.

The new TT Line boat Spirit of Tasmania IV in Finland. This is the class of ship we will need if we want to get serious about moving Bruce Hwy traffic onto open water. Picture: Rauma Marine Constructions

Option four: Build a better road?

It might sound radical but I’ve heard rumour roads can be improved through the use of a thing called ‘con-struc-tion’.

A bit of research revealed the odd people down south have trialled this strange concept, resulting in the Hume Motorway, a “modern, four-lane dual carriageway” that runs from Sydney to Melbourne.

People have called the Hume “a conveyor belt for big trucks” and I agree.

Boxing Day traffic on the Hume Motorway as people head south out of Sydney. Picture: Jonathan Ng

During my questionable past, I actually drove the Hume Motorway semi-frequently, and it always felt like I was entering the space age.

Let me describe it: imagine the German autobahn, OK now imagine for your entire 800km trip you always have an overtaking lane right beside you, and oncoming traffic doesn’t exist because it’s nowhere near you.

There are no side roads to look out for, no turning traffic, no burlesque show of road signs fighting for your attention as you hit a country town that expects you to grind down to 60km/h — it’s just a pure conveyor belt.

Very boring, but also safe — especially for those towing who’d benefit from being able to swerve across a lane when faced with a worst-case scenario.

Corner of Hume Motorway and Narellan Road looking north towards Liverpool at 1pm on Good Friday. Picture: Live Traffic NSW

Local roads are saved from interstate travellers, and heavy interstate freight is protected from crazy locals.

Also, the Hume Hwy has a universal speed limit of 110km/h.

It’s a big change from the Bruce Highway where you either risk life and limb to overtake between increasingly long rows of oncoming traffic, or have to get up to Bathurst 1000 levels of speed to make use of a short overtaking lane, bouncing over a rough surface that threats to punt your into an oncoming truck passing just 10cm from your driver’s side-mirror.

Ah, the Bruce.

A burnt out car beside the Bruce Hwy, south of Bowen.

Meanwhile, the Hume cost the feds and states a few billion, took over 50 years to build, and cut the travel time between Sydney and Melbourne by three hours.

Are you living in a fantasy land? I hear you say, we all know if they did commit to this, they would start in Brisbane and work their way up, so the north would see upgrades in about... 2070.

OK, I see your point. We need immediate election pledges, not long-term nation building ... back to the train idea!

Originally published as Bruce Highway report: From Townsville to Proserpine | Watch the video