All photos were taken northbound.


A43 comes off of M1 (Pacific Mwy.) as a motorway link and meets the Pacific Highway (obviously bypassed by the Motorway) here in Doyalson. It is no longer SR 83, or any route number for that matter.


This part of NSW suffered from bushfires during October 2013, wiping out swaths of land southeast of Lake Macquarie and ravaging A43. I was there on November 4. That's why you see whole trees burned in place, dead leaves clinging to dead branches. I'm including this photo to set the scene for the next few.


These signs were at Kanangra Dr., which led to Pt. Wolstoncroft Sport-Rec Centre. Turn left 300m if you can read this.


Same location, burned even worse. You can make out pieces of the messages: PACIFIC HIGHWAY to Swansea and Newcastle, KANANGRA DRIVE to Gwandalan and Summerland Point. Up arrow top right, left arrow bottom left. All that's left is the square patch on top: an A43 shield patched over a SR 111 route marker, melted into the rest of the sign.


Finishing up the fire photos, under Wallarah Peninsula Track, and to the future intersection with the Newcastle Inner City Bypass, now A37. The second photo looks west along Lake St.


This is the Hexham Bridge carrying A1 SB across the Hunter River. NH 1 used to follow Pacific Hwy. south from here on what's now A43, and the New England Highway that now takes A43 to the northwest used to be NH 15. With the construction of M1 around the west side of Newcastle, the 1 number needs to get back from Pacific Mwy. to its namesake Hwy., so it uses this stretch of A43 for the task. Meanwhile, in 2013, A43 just magically turned into A15 after Branxton. More on that later.


Routes can move, highway names can't, so here you find A1 on a highway north of Sydney that's not named Pacific. (The last photo is on the next interchange ramp north, a second chance to head back south.) The A43 patches over an NH 15 shield and the A1 is just an addition to the distance sign. Obviously, they missed a few patches. The freeway used to be numbered SR 132 before NH 1 was moved over from Pacific Hwy.


Ashtonfield, with a view of Lambs Mountain 25 km away.


The 1897 Land Boards District Office at Banks St. in Maitland. Apparently this was sold in 2019, so we'll see what becomes of it.


Skipping way ahead to Greta. I apologize for the non-roads interlude. Back to roads.


Approaching Branxton, this is a future connector to the future Hunter Expwy. (M15) that will serve as a Branxton bypass for A43 through traffic. You can sort of see in the last photo that the future configuration will in fact encourage that traffic pattern: A43 NB will flow straight onto the connector, and the old (now decommissioned) New England Hwy. through Branxton will be a right turn at a "T" intersection.


Jaunting by the connector onto the future old road. The first bridge is some sort of culvert or waterway, and the one in back is M15.


Still on A43 as of my 2013 visit, at B82 (not SR 82) in Branxton. Maybe they replaced the signs when they got rid of A43.


North of Branxton, M15 approaches from the left, across the Hunter Line railway.


Here's the actual tie-in point, ending with a view of the first SB sign on the new motorway.


As M15 merges into A43, both highways end and merge nomenclature into A15. NH 15 used to follow A43 all the way back up to where you saw A1 on this page, and the number 43 didn't exist. It was truncated once M15 construction got underway.

More M15 construction

Onto A37
Onto A1
To the 1 Freeway (M1)
Continue north on New England Hwy. to A15
Back to New South Wales Roads
Back to Roads