Along that part of the highway it might be possible to adopt the same solution that was applied to the Rockhampton to Mackay section of the highway back in the fifties and the part running out of Mackay before the present realignment went into place back in the early eighties or thereabouts.
Operating in areas where the road didn’t have to go through towns along the way (and a couple of settlements along the new look Rockhampton to Mackay stretch are still off the highway) the flood proofing solution involved running the road through higher ground, taking a sharp right turn in downtown Sarina, and rejoining the current route just north of Marlborough.
That road’s still there should anyone be inclined to head that way, negotiating the twists and turns up the Sarina Range and savouring the scenic delights (that’s a hefty note of sarcasm) of Lotus Creek, passing Funnel Creek, scene of a notorious murder in the seventies, when the main highway still went that way.
That stretch of highway was regarded as sufficiently horrendous to have my family take the coast road (which more or less relates to the current route) on what may have been our last as a family road trip from Brisbane back to Townsville in, if I remember correctly, 1967.
Subsequently, as a student and afterwards as a recent graduate, when finances didn’t permit an airfare to Brisbane I was forced to travel by bus. That invariably meant a meal stop at Lotus Creek. On northbound trips that happened in the wee small hours, and presented the chance to watch National Servicemen en route to Townsville’s Lavarack Barracks marvelling at the size of the insects drawn to what were probably the only floodlights between Sarina and Rockhampton that were still on at two a.m.
That’s not much of a highlight and explains the previous note of sarcasm.
In Mackay, the highway ran through the old CBD, crossing the Pioneer at the town bridge. From there it headed through North Mackay into the uplands around Habana and doglegged around to join the contemporary route at Farleigh.
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