Gillies Highway
The Gillies Highway runs from Gordonvale through the Gillies Range to the Atherton Tablelands, rising eight hundred metres over a nineteen-kilometre stretch with 263 corners.
After it branches off the Bruce Highway at Gordonvale, the road follows the Mulgrave River, to the foot of the range. It climbs through the Little Mulgrave National Park, then passes between Lake Barrine and Tinaroo Dam to Yungaburra and Atherton.
Originally known as the Cairns Range Road, the highway was renamed after former Queensland premier and M.L.A. for Eacham William Gillies in March 1934.
The rugged terrain meant that initial proposals from the Eacham Shire to build a road to connect the Atherton Tableland to Cairns produced objections to the proposed route from Gordonvale to Atherton.
A counter-proposal for a road from Smithfield to Mareeba via Kuranda would benefit the Mareeba Shire rather than Eacham, so the original plan proceeded with £10,000 from government unemployment schemes. The Kuranda Range Road was built in 1940.
After the road opened in July 1926, it was possible to travel between Cairns and the Tableland in 2½ hours. However, since the original roadway only allowed one-way traffic, a timetable regulated traffic flow with vehicles wishing to travel in the opposite directions held at the top or bottom of the range.
Links to add:
Cairns Range Road
Gillies Range
Kuranda Range Road
Lake Barrine
Little Mulgrave National Park
Mulgrave River
Tinaroo Dam
William Gillies
Yungaburra
