Northern Territory

Crossing from South Australia into the Northern Territory. Image © Tourism NT.

You've arrived at the road photos and information section that covers the Northern Territory.

In the Northern Territory, as is the case with the rest of Australia, the roads are classified into different categories, and are also numbered for maintenance purposes and also navigation purposes.

NT's roads are managed by the Department of Planning Infrastructure & Logistics. The DPIL has begun slowly implementing and converting the territory's routes over to alphanumeric numbering, inline with most of the rest of Australia.

With an area of 1.4 million square kilometres, the Northern Territory covers 15 per cent of Australia's land mass yet contains just 1 per cent of her population. The territory's location and small population mean air and sea services are expensive and limited and rail is under-developed. Consequently, road transport is central to the prosperity and welfare of the people of the Top End. ¹

The Territory is served by three national highways which provide links to Queensland (Barkly Highway), South Australia (Stuart Highway) and Western Australia (Victoria Highway). The national highway network is the backbone of the road network system across the Territory and provides the only sealed road link between the Territory and the rest of Australia. ²

The Territory road network consists of more than 36 000 kilometres of road. About 22 000 kilometres are managed by the Territory Government including 12 per cent classified as national highways, 19 per cent as arterial roads and 69 per cent as secondary or local roads. The government also manages 189 bridges. The remaining approximately 14 000 kilometres of roads primarily for distributing traffic within local areas, are administrated by local governments. All three levels of government are responsible for developing and maintaining the road networks in the Northern Territory. ²

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