Calls to upgrade ‘sketchy’ Sturt Highway freight route

• A taskforce representing regional councils says the Sturt Highway urgently needs major upgrades, warning it is unsafe and no longer fit for its growing role as a key interstate freight route.
• Rising heavy vehicle traffic — driven in part by renewable energy projects — is increasing pressure on the highway, with more crashes and safety concerns highlighted by local
• The group is calling for significant federal investment (hundreds of millions of dollars) for improvements such as overtaking lanes, road widening and other safety works, criticising a lack of funding in the latest budget.

Communities and councils are calling for urgent safety upgrades across a 70-kilometre stretch of highway on one of Australia’s critical freight routes.

The Sturt Highway stretches about 605km from Tarcutta in New South Wales, through Victoria, to finish in Adelaide, South Australia.

South-west NSW residents have frequently raised safety concerns about the highway between Gol Gol and Euston and about the intersections serving agricultural and freight traffic.

Last month, a man in his 40s died after a multi-vehicle crash on that stretch of highway.

The fatal collision happened only hours after a truck driver escaped injury when his truck rolled over just kilometres away.

And on Monday, further east near Narrandera, there was a crash on the highway in which two people died.

Preliminary Transport for NSW 2025 data showed there had been four crashes reported between Gol Gol and Paringi on the Sturt Highway.

Two crashes resulted in injuries, while the other two were tow-away crashes.

Data for 2026 on the same stretch of road showed there had been one fatal crash.

However, the data only reported crashes in which a person was killed or injured, or in which …

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Original article and photo by "ABC News"