Warrego Highway

The highway commences at the end of the M2 Ipswich Motorway, near Ipswich and runs to Helidon Spa, at the foot of the Great Dividing Range. From there it follows the Toowoomba Bypass to Charlton, west of Toowoomba. The Warrego then crosses the Darling Downs, bypassing the town of Oakey and then passing through the towns of Dalby, Chinchilla and Miles, in the Western Downs. The highway continues through the towns of Roma and Mitchell in the Maranoa Region of South West Queensland. After Morven, the A2 Route continues north–west along the Landsborough Highway, with the western turnoff continuing the Warrego Highway down to its terminus at Charleville.

The section of highway between Ipswich and Charlton is mostly motorway grade; a four lane divided highway with motorway-style on-ramps and off-ramps. At a point between Charlton and Oakey the highway merges from 4 to 2 lanes (however, throughout 2017–2019, the highway was planned to be duplicated up until Oakey)[1] Then, the highway mostly continues in a straight line with minimal turns. At Dalby, the highway briefly returns to 4 lanes (where a longer stretch of the highway was planned to be duplicated in 2017). The Warrego then continues as a rural 2 lane highway, until Charleville.

Towns along the route

Approximate road distances (in kilometres) of towns from Brisbane along the highway

From east to west, the highway passes through or close to the cities and major towns of:

• Ipswich (Bypassed)
• Gatton (Bypassed)
• Toowoomba (Bypassed)
• Oakey (Bypassed)
• Dalby
• Chinchilla
• Miles
• Roma
• Mitchell
• Morven
• Charleville

• 
  Highway at Haigslea, 2014
• 
  Stretch of Highway between Ipswich and Toowoomba
• 
  A signpost

In January 2011, the former highway was extensively damaged where it crossed the Toowoomba Range. This included land slips, shoulder and embankment erosion, the erosion of drains and damaged rock fall netting.[3] The road wasn't fully repaired with all four lanes open until September 2011.[4]

The Toowoomba Bypass was completed in September 2019 and bypasses the urban area of Toowoomba and provides a better crossing of the Great Dividing Range. Warrego Highway (A2) was rerouted via the bypass between Helidon Spa (in the east) and the interchange at Charlton (in the west). The bypass continues as the Gore Highway (A39) and is 41 km in length. The original section of Warrego Highway through Toowoomba was renamed Toowoomba Connection Road (A21).[5]

• 1957 – Helidon bypass. New road built to bypass Helidon including a steel and concrete bridge over Lockyer Creek opened by the end of June 1957.
• 1959 – Ipswich bypass. New 8 mile long bypass including a steel and concrete bridge over the Bremer River built to bypass Ipswich City, shortening the highway by 2 miles. The date of opening was Tuesday, July 28th.[6]
• 1971 – Marburg bypass. 1.9 miles (3.1 km) of new road built to bypass Marburg, including bridges over Queen Street and Black Snake Creek.[7]
• 1971 – Blanchview deviation. 5.15 miles (8.3 km) of new road that replaced the old twisting route built in the late 1920s. The deviation opened to traffic in December of that year.[8]
• 1974 – Minden Range deviation. 2.6 km of new road built to bypass a sub-standard section of road over the Minden Range.
• 1976 – Hattonvale to Laidley Creek duplication. 8 km of road widened to four lanes at a cost of $870,000.
• 1989 – Gatton bypass. 20 km of new road built to bypass Gatton, Grantham and Helidon at a cost of $20 million opened in November 1989.[9]
• 1994 – Dinmore Duplication. 2.7 km of road duplicated to four lanes from the railway at Dinmore to the Bremer River bridge. A grade-separated interchange at River Road was also built. [10]
• 2002 – Yaralla Deviation. 18.5 km realignment built to bypass a notorious section prone to flooding west of Dalby.[11]
• 2017 – Toowoomba to Oakey Duplication Stage 1. Highway duplicated from Nugent Pinch Road to west of Charlton.
• 2018 – Toowoomba to Oakey Duplication Stage 2. Highway duplicated from Charlton to Kingsthorpe including an interchange at Kingsthorpe–Haden Road
• 2019 – Toowoomba Second Range Crossing – Helidon Spa to Charlton (Northern concurrency terminus with Gore Highway)

The Roads of Strategic Importance initiative, last updated in March 2022, includes the following project for the Warrego Highway.

• Highways in Australia
• List of highways in Queensland

Media related to Warrego Highway at Wikimedia Commons