Tumut-Canberra Road Upgrading Wanted

25 October 1972 The Canberra Times 

The Minister for Shipping and Transport, Mr Nixon, said yesterday he would refer to the Bureau of Roads a proposal that a road between Tumut and Canberra be made into a main highway link.

He was replying in Parliament to a question without notice from Mr. Pettitt (CP, NSW),

who had referred to the recent Commonwealth undertaking to join with the States in a developmental program for a national highway system.

Mr Pettitt said outside the House later that he had been pressing for the up-grading of the road for years. Thousands of people still were prepared to use the route of about 70 miles, instead of travelling about 120 miles along the Hume Highway, through Gundagai and Yass.

Mr Frank Olley, ALP candidate for Hume, said the CP became interested in the road every three years at election time. The link should have been constructed years ago.