Mount Ousley Road: Australia's FAKE Motorway

[@freeman10000]

Human from Perth here. Mad respect to Sharath for the amount of effort and energy he puts into his videos.

[@jackkrause6936]

Human from Sydney here, mad respect to you for learning about the other side of the country! (Haha dated a girl from Perth, was quite shocked by her “culture shock”) 😅😅

[@fknows1]

obviously not much on this one

[@ChrisTopher_Urbanism]

I can't believe Mt Ousley Rd has been lying to us this whole time. I trusted it when it said it was a motorway. Pure betrayal 😭

[@electro_sykes]

Mate, you need to travel on the sunshine motorway up on the Sunshine Coast in Qld. Despite it being called a motorway, sections of it are not even dual carriageway and it even has roundabout junctions on the actual motorway.

[@whophd]

@@electro_sykesRight!!! And that’s before we even talk about ALL the dodgy classifications of Victoria. They even used full “limited access” status at the same time as renaming them, eg “Hume Freeway”. Ironically when you get into Melbourne, they go too hard in the other direction with all the multi-lane madness, giving the place a Los Angeles vibe. They wrongly assume that using more than 2 or 3 lanes (not even any parallel corridors) makes the road work better and easier to travel. Queensland’s Gold Coast motorway suffers from some of that too. It’s the most unpleasant motorway in Australia, and I’m not even sure why. But as soon as you cross the border into NSW, the curves and layout are much better. Something very subtle about motorway engineering - you notice it in California if you compare the state freeways with the federal “interstate” freeways.

[@jsonattard2179]

@@whophd "smith st motorway"

[@whophd]

@@jsonattard2179 TIL, damnnnnn But you know, having been to San Francisco a number of times, it reminds me of the tiny I-380. I guess Sydney's M12 will feel like this, but I always trust Sydney to do it better. (Even the 1990s ones like Gore Hill and ED make up for narrow lanes with really good greenways and landscaping).

[@fknows1]

it was a motor way. building beautifully needs to do proper research instead of shooting his mouth off

[@mssm9495]

I used to live close to the bottom interchange. Still remember dad driving us home, turning right, across the southbound lanes - which has been closed-off for ages now. However you missed one important detail: the entire steep section is sliding down the mountain. The roads department has been treading water on this for decades.

[@adamsnow3951]

Back in the 80's, travelling north you could turn right into Mount Pleasant

[@Cullerin112]

I'm sorry, but did you say the road is sliding down the mountain?

[@zalired8925]

Yep, I remember that. My old Cortina stalled halfway across the down lanes with two old Heggies coal trucks thundering down. Thankfully pulled up and both drivers helped me push the old girl into the carpark. I actually ran out of fuel, didn't admit that of course.

[@rogue265]

@@Cullerin112 Yes. The entire escarpment is highly unstable. RMS spends huge amounts of money to keep Mount Ousley Pass open. The actual proposed M1 true freeway route, that now has been partially de-gazetted, was to take the Northern Distributor to Bulli, then a mostly new alignment up to Bulli Tops, which can still be seen on the zoning maps. See here: eplanningdlprod.blob.core.windows.net/pdfmaps/8450_COM_LZN_023_020_20230110.pdf It is the SP2 Road, that disappears as it hits the U bend on Bulli Pass...

[@illawarragreens3865]

Yep, plus the Russell Vale mine cuts under Mount Ousley "Motorway", contributing to subsidence and surface cracking.

[@Raichase]

That animated graphic was excellent. I’ve driven this road a number of times to/from Wollongong and have never been able to understand it. Well done! Thanks for the video.

[@leokimvideo]

Here's a tip, if you want to investigate the current most dangerous road in Sydney take a look at the crash statistics related to the M1 between Wahroonga & the Hawkesbury. It's major crash rate frequency is getting ridiculous. A string of drivers also entering the motorway going in the wrong direction, usually happening in the early hours of the morning. Drug use and high speed tailgating are some of the causes of incidents. The crashes are so frequent now the NSW government is building a new Ambulance / Rescue station at Berowra. Once your done no need to leave the money of the fridge but maybe we can catch up and get a coffee.

[@ThaBoss3006]

Bruce Highway joins the chat

[@Leon1Aust]

I see your Prince Planet medallion ! ......now that brings back memories of a 1963er 🤣

[@jack2453]

I grew up in Southern Sydney and had friends and relatives in the Illawarra. Every trip starred with a 15 minute debate on Mt Ousley v Bulli Pass v Coast Road.

[@DEATHSTARER]

Whenever I travel south on this road,I have memories of the old Golden Fleece restaurant and petrol station which is now occupied by the Southern Gateway Centre.

[@tonywood4992]

Still remember that too. Occasionally stopped there on day trips from Green Valley down Appin Road to Thirroul or Corrimal beaches in the "60s.

[@simonolsen9995]

Southern Gateway Centre, one of Wollongong Council's greatest achievements...

[@fknows1]

yes and the old service(GOLDEN FLEECE) station goes back before Mt Ousley was build when you only had the princes hwy, appin road and bulli pass, there was no other road, if you wanted use it when first build Mt Ousley was a real goat track, worse than Bulli Pass

[@andyh3065]

Damn, that brought some old memories back.

[@GreatAussieDrives]

Absolutely fantastic video Sharath!! One that I've been looking forward to for a long time (as you would know ), definitely super interesting learning about the strange history of a motorway - ahem, "motorway" - I drive so often! 4:35 - This is probably the most boneheaded design choice in the whole interchange, they could easily redraw the road markings so that both lanes continue onto the M1, and the Appin Road exit is a slip lane (like what is done heading southbound). Instead the right lane can only be used to access Appin Road, and way too often you have traffic cutting across in order to stay on the M1. 5:52 - Wow SUPER interesting photo, nice find! I didn't know that Mt Ousley didn't even have a central Jersey barrier back then. 12:17 - The Wollongong Local Environmental Plan 2009 zoning map does indeed show the reservation/alignment the motorway was originally planned to take. It seems like it would've employed the use of two tunnels to help navigate the steepness of the escarpment, with the northern tunnel portals being located at the wide gap in the current carriageways you mentioned at Appin Road. There are gaps in the alignment which suggest they would have been for tunnels.

[@electro_sykes]

It’s not as fake as the sunshine motorway in Qld. I still can’t get my head around how that’s a motorway yet is a single carriageway and has roundabouts

[@5fifty]

Do you at all have a link or similar to the 2009 zoning maps?

[@GreatAussieDrives]

@@5fifty I have it but KZbin doesn't allow links in comments unfortunately. If you search for the Wollongong Local Environmental Plan 2009 on the NSW legislation website and find the zoning maps, the reservation is on map tile 023.

[@gregessex1851]

@@electro_sykes Because it has no driveway access points

[@5fifty]

@@GreatAussieDrives Thanks, It does look as if there was something planed.

[@whophd]

Good to see the channel returning to its roots - trashing the F6! And this is probably the biggest highlight the mysterious F8 has ever had on KZbin.

[@russellhorsefield9199]

The F8 would be a joke if you ask me.

[@whophd]

@@russellhorsefield9199 True, I spent years believing I had seen the sign wrongly or it had graffiti joining a "6" into an "8"

[@tonywood4992]

I still remember my dad playing "Brake Fail Bingo" driving trucks going down Bulli Pass and Mt. Ousley in the '60s & '70s.

[@kenoliver8913]

There is a reason the Appin Road/Mt Ousley merge came into being. It might be wrid and confusing, but it is far, far safer than the old merge it replaced in the late 1980s. The Port Kembla steelworks in those days were fed entirely by coal from the Nattai/Appin/Buragorang mines which was transported by a steady stream of heavily overloaded and often dubiously roadworthy coal semis, sometimes driven by drivers who used chemical assistance to work their long shifts. Corruption was widespread in NSW in those days and everyone knew the truck firm (still a well known one BTW) was - err- "politically influential". They came down Appin Road and turned right onto Mt Ousley Road. The intersection there followed by the steep down grade after it was the blackest of black spots - an awful lot of cars coming from Sydney got crushed by coal trucks.

[@flamingfrancis]

Well stated remembering the "strangehold" certain trucking companies had at the time. There were very few hard working privateers then. Additionally, coal from Mt. Kembla (Dendrobium) and O'Briens Drift system was also railed down via the still used line that crosses the Princes Hwy near O'Briens Road, Unanderra. To fully understand the roadways in the area one has to understand the background of the road transporting and even the days of the collier shipping.

[@juddy953]

I heard fox was the reason the dombartan rail link was stopped because he wanted his trucks taking the coal instead of the trains

[@illawarragreens3865]

​@juddy953 it was NSW Premier Nick Greiner that cancelled the Dombarton rail link, and then when he resigned under investigation by ICAC, went and worked for Transgrid building freeways, and then Infrastructure NSW which recommended the Westconnex freeway. It's rotten.

[@illawarragreens3865]

​@flamingfrancis there is a song by Robin Connaughton of the Roaring Forties about the trucking down Mount Ousley kzbin.info/www/bejne/hoG2YWB7ntWtic0si=HE5ml6wbYkXwAmPe

[@TimRobson]

The right turn to head north on Ousley is a horror show. I’ll often turn left and loop over the uni overpass, entering the freeway from the left and adding no more than two minutes to a trip (according to Waze). It can be congested in the am, though.

[@feenostrineeks]

I'll often do this too, it may take a minute or so longer, but it feels quicker than sitting there yelling at the guy in front of you that "tHeRE wAs pLEnTy oF TimE jUsT noW yOu FoOL GO GO GO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR AAAAAGH"

[@samwiserando]

so much safer to do that.

[@crowie5415]

Nice video Sharath, a couple of things that you may find interesting... There have been multiple instances of trucks with failed brakes not taking the emergency stopping lane and continuing down Mt Ousley Rd and hitting the McDonalds at the end, these always make the news and can be found with a search engine. Also, the Picton Rd intersection bridge originally had both lanes travelling in the same direction heading towards Wollongong leaving vehicles wanting to turn right from Mt Ousley Rd onto Picton Rd still having to turn right across the Northbound traffic on the level, this was changed (I think in the late '90s) when they put the extra curve from Mt Ousley Southbound to loop onto the bridge and head to Picton Rd and this is why there are the large seemingly superfluous white arrows across this bridge indicating that it is a two way road. You may also be interested in researching O'Brien's Drift which is an underground coal conveyor from the top to the bottom of the escarpment where trucks could dump their coal at the top and not need to drive down and then back up Mt Ousley Rd at all. It is unfortunately disused now, but the dump buildings are still on both sides of the road at the intersection of Harry Graham Dr and Firetrail 15c with the conveyor emerging near a still in use large coal stockpile accessed from Stones Rd Mount Kembla Village. The seemingly useless right turn from Appin Rd onto the M1 towards Sydney is there for people leaving Panorama House or Sublime Point and heading to Sydney, basically allowing them to perform a U-turn.

[@btonkes]

Mt Ousley Road also obliterates pedestrian (i.e., hiker; also mountain bike) access along the top of the escarpment (parts of it really are quite lovely up there, away from the roads) at Clive Bissel Drive.

[@craigtroth4524]

You dont have to ride, hike or walk on MO Road to access the top of the escarpment.........go down to Wollongong and ascend Mt. Keira Road to be on top of the escarpment

[@froginasock8782]

6:05 Bellambi Creek Bypass; I was born & raised in Wollongong and I recall often hearing on the news of coal truck fatalities at Bellambi Creek. The original road was a long downhill and a hard turn at the bottom, too fast and miss the turn and the truck ended in... Bellambi Creek.

[@Lillith444]

As someone who travels up and down this road several times a week I'm completely used to it and never thought of how dangerous it is until you pointed it out just now 😂 My daughter is on her L's and is an expert in jumping onto the "motorway" from New Mt Pleasant Road, then merging into the right lane of cars doing 80kph to avoid the slow trucks. Great training ground !! 😂

[@justanotheryoutubechannel]

A >10% grade!? No wonder this is a fake motorway; that’s crazy. Especially with the random drop down to 2 lanes! Most of this I’d say is decent enough to qualify as a motorway, but that unprotected right turn lane, wrong side exits, and crazy grades really make this unsafe. They’ve definitely gotta work on this…

[@aquacactuscheeseburger]

We have a number of those fake freeways in Melbourne... the Calder, Western, and Hume on the outskirts of the city carry huge volumes of traffic and have numerous unprotected T intersections. Also, regarding Bulli Top interchange, as long as the signage is good it really shouldn't be a problem. No point spending millions shifting ramps and building new bridges when the existing ones work. Great video, keep up the good work!

[@jurgentreue1200]

In the 1980s, I used to commute from Shellharbour to the Sydney Institute of Technology four times a week, via Mount Ousley Road, on a motorbike. I did this for four years. I found Mount Ousley Road less stressful than negotiating Sydney city traffic, especially on a bike. I'd come home well after dark, deer along the F6 were the scariest. Now do the Oak Flats interchange.

[@russellmoore1533]

Driving up Mt Ousley in a car is almost as dangerous as descending it, slow trucks use the far left lane, and slightly faster trucks coming up behind the slower trucks will often veer out into the middle lane at the last minute. I always find it safer to drive up in the far right lane, doing the speed limit, especially around left hand bends, when the faster trucks will suddenly appear in the middle lane.

[@chriswashere016]

That's why people hate you.

[@evj4082]

Not to mention those smaller trucks that identify as cars and use the right-most lane despite not being able to travel 80 km/h speed limit up the mountain

[@ozthunder]

Agree 10000%, had this happen a few times

[@EpicCorn0]

Problem is no one wants to do the speed limit going up Mt Ousley. It's so frustrating that 80kmh is so justified as the speed limit for a chaotic road like this but still no one follows it. Feels like a battle royale driving up in rush hour.

[@ads998]

Thanks for this one Sharath. I don't often drive to Wollongong but have done so many times in the past in heavy rain and fog, and this road is a nightmare! The descent is utterly treacherous for trucks, and God help the driver who moves into the right lane to pass the conga line of them. You become an instant victim of the predatory road beast known as the Ford Ranger!

[@meth47471]

Thanks for another great vid, Shareth. Your animation takes it to another level. Also, as half of my high school gang got accepted into Wollongong Uni back in the early '90's; Mt Ousley, as well as Appin Way, et al, was a bit of an inglourious racetrack of ours, travelling from Penrith. There were some medium levels of P.B. breaking, and excesses of posted speed limits being performed at the time, for no excusable reasons except for that we were "those guys". Rest assured we've all grown out of that.

[@Sydneycidal]

Thank you for pronouncing it as "Princes" (like the plural of Prince) and not "Princess" highway. No idea when or why this misconception is so huge.

[@flamingfrancis]

PRINCES (no apostrophe) Hwy here and PRINCESS Hwy in Melbourne (where else!!)

[@Sydneycidal]

@@flamingfrancis Oops sorry that was a typo

[@crowie5415]

It's not the plural of Prince, it's the possessive of Prince but with the apostrophe dropped due to our naming conventions (possessive apostrophes in road names are omitted). It comes from "Prince's Highway" and is named after King Edward VIII when he was still Prince of Wales.

[@Sydneycidal]

@@crowie5415 That makes more sense, that it is named like it belongs to/ is named for the Prince. Thanks for clearing that up

[@jurgentreue1200]

The Princes Highway was named after Edward the Prince of Wales who became king Edward VIII.

[@peterwilliams6289]

The grade separation at 10:03 is a left-over. The original Mt Ousley Road went straight ahead here and intersected with the Princes Hwy (at a T intersection, of course). The freeway curving right was a later addition. Even back in the 1960s I saw a motorbike that had been wiped out at this intersection. Before the link, you had to enter Princes Hwy then almost immediately turn off again onto the Wollongong bypass (now Memorial Drive & M1). And even as it runs across the top of the escarpment, the grades have always been steep. In the 1960s & 70s, there would be a number of vehicles, often towing caravans, sitting steaming and overheated beside the road on the various climbs.

[@dazb3459]

Talking safety, you forgot to mention that the road is continually subsiding. In 2022 the southbound truck lane was closed for months for repairs after it cracked and dropped after a severe rain event. All the pipework & small buildings visible on the uphil side next to the north bound lanes are actually pump stations that continuously pump groundwater out to try and slow the road slipping down the escarpment. In 2022 it was reported they were pumping a million litres a day out during the storms & it still dropped.

[@ozthunder]

Great video of a pass I travel often. Can you do a video on the roundabout (2 actually) from hell at Oak Flats where New lake Entrance Road , Princes hwy, Princes Motorway and East West Link all crowd. It is actually two roundabouts in quick succession, but during peaks the traffic queues across both, often blocking the smaller roudabout. They put traffic lights on the major roundabout, almost an acknowledgment of the poor planning that could have been solved with a couple of flyovers.

[@GrahamParker-b7q]

I agree .. Mt Ousley is a toddler compared with the Oak Flats dogs breakfast

[@si_vis_amari_ama]

Spot-on.

[@jurgentreue1200]

The Oak Flats interchange is a shocker. The engineers who designed it, need to have their licences revoked.

[@peterinthegong9437]

Thank you for your video highlighting the dangers of using Mt Ousley Road. As a retired professional driver running from Wollongong to Sydney 6 days a week for many years I am well aware of the risks. Many are caused by cars when descending Mt Ousley as they refuse to read the well marked decending lane signs. The cars should stay in the right lane and keep out of the truck and bus inner lanes, - they don’t ! Also, many drivers have no idea on how to use their gear box to slow their vehicles down and rely heavily on their brakes. But, here is the real problem ! Mt Ousley Rd is not feeding Wollongong , it’s feeding the entire South Coast of NSW . We now have daily commuters driving from South Nowra to Sydney and back daily. The Mt Ousley Road is just too busy. The answer is to build the new Pass from the Bellambi Creek area, ( the Big Dipper) and straight across and come down behind Mt Kembla (Dombarton) into the Albion Park area.with exits on and off ramps at Wongawilli and Avondale. A part 2 video would be interesting if you walked the fire trail that exists there

[@mtozzy11]

There was also Rixons Pass Road, which was the main road over the mountain before bulli and Mount ousley. Rixons Pass was closed due to WWII, being very invisible from sea as the mountain during that time was pretty much devoid of most vegetation as it was logged heavily for timber for the mines. At the time bulli pass was nothing more than a bullock track. The Motorway title came during Gladys' time as transport when she spent millions rebranding to make it easier to sell.

[@IIGrayfoxII]

8:10 There are 2 arrester beds First one is at 8:20, just out of view, but it is to the left of the divider and light pole, you can see the other light pole where the arrester bed is Second one is at 9:49, you can see it on the top right(10:04 shows a better view of it) For some stupid reason, HWP love to park at the entry points to these ramps

[@5ertified]

As a kid we saw a family parked with picnic table set up in one of the emergency run off bays. At the bottom had a car pull across the road in front off us and I ended up, up side down with my back against the windscreen tumbling from the back seat. XT falcon them were the days with drum brakes.

[@martinking9659]

Thank you Sharath, another wonderful video. As a long time resident of the Illawarra but infrequent user of Mount Ousley Road, I fully understand what you have described. I really enjoy your work, looking forward to the next video 😊

[@lindsaydonovan6241]

9:05 this actually isn't too bad as trucks/coaches as 40 kph provide lots of safe merging spaces. The real issue is when a ute towing a 3.5T caravan shits itself heading uphill, with the trailer blocking lanes 1 & 2, with trucks & coaches gunning it uphill.

[@holiday197]

I've been to the old Helensburgh Station tunnel site years ago and it is a bit creepy. In the other tunnel on the other side, I heard a moan in the short tunnel. Hopefully you consider doing a video of the old Illawarra alignment and the tunnels. Although some of them are tricky to get through and you have to trudge through some bushland.

[@5fifty]

As an Illawarra local, I can say that while Mt Ousley Road looks pretty bad, It isn’t really too difficult do drive up or down, so much so that its harder to do in an Auto than a manual. I can imagine that for someone who doesn’t know the area too well, it would be pretty confusing, but overall, not as bad as it seems. It was bad enough though for the DMR to not include it in the F6 Southern Freeway alignment, but they were just stick to standards.

[@Roadrunnerz45]

The issue really is when the 3 lanes become 2 downhill as all trucks will be in the left lane doing 40. The quick merging across is dangerous.

[@5fifty]

@@Roadrunnerz45 I Agree, that road should not have the M1 Designation and that the 3 to 2 lanes is dangerous, but not as bad as he stated in the video.

[@IIGrayfoxII]

Its easy with Auto. Just ride the brakes all the way down. While not the best of things to do, riding the brakes on a car which has ventilated disc brakes and is not towing is going to get the brakes hot, but not too hot to the point of fade or failure.

[@Roadrunnerz45]

@@IIGrayfoxII oh yeah. That's what most would do. I don't think many would bother in a lower gear even in auto

[@IIGrayfoxII]

@@Roadrunnerz45 I shift down to 4th or 3rd. with 4th, i use the brakes here and there, in 3rd i dont have to use brakes and have to apply throttle at times.

[@BadDriversOfTheIllawarra]

There was only a fatal crash under the Mount Pleasant Rd bridge just days before you posted this. I drive this road to and from work multiple times a week, I actually like driving along there. Its everyone else that makes it annoying lol

[@gr33tr33frog]

Dude! I saw you recording this, drove past you doing the recording Dumfries Ave nearby, before Mt Ousley... this was a few months ago... I live nearby so good to see the local roads in the video and definitely agree the intersection at Mt Ousley to turn right towards Sydney is insanely dangerous and shouldn't be... it's fine at early hours (ie 6am or so) but any other time, very unsafe. Thanks for a good video mate.

[@jarrynsmith]

One day when i was heading back from sydney a flash flood hit mt ousley and it was spilling over the concrete barriers in the middle of the highway

[@milnez]

I remember the tragic accident on Mt Ousley decades ago when a truck trailer axle part came loose and went through an oncoming windscreen… 😢

[@zalired8925]

I remember that and it's always been on my mind.

[@zalired8925]

I remember when all the tow trucks would line up in the carpark at Old Mt Ousley road every time it rained waiting for the inevitable wreck or wrecks.

[@TrundlingOn]

The at grade intersection was updated 10 or so years ago (maybe more). At the bottom of the mountain, you used to have to turn into the left hand (truck) lane when turning left, now you turn into an additional lane that ends up being the exit to uni. A bit of an improvement, which, alongside better management means that traffic doesn't bank up as badly as it used to when uni is in session (esp the first month or so).

[@Pine_Gap_Island]

It's a shame that there isn't a train line that parallels this road. Much tunneling would be required but it would cut Wollongong to Sydney train trips massively. Nobody lives at frigging Otford!

[@paullees5705]

If you think Mount Ousley is a dangerous road. You should go back to the 60s and 70s and 80s. 🎉 before they built the concrete devider down the centre of the road. The number of fatalities that happened on the road was absolutely astronomical, I drove this road weekly from Sydney to the NSW South Coast. You took your life into your own hands every time you drove on this road.

[@jurgentreue1200]

The jersey barrier was built after the May 1979 fatalities.

[@yesbeautyfly]

Was the video of the Mt Ousley Road a bit old? Last 2 months, lots of nearby trees were chopped around the bottom of it, to make way for the new bridges, roundabouts & etc.

[@craiga7907]

You used to be able to turn right from Mt Pleasant, but after the 1979 crash they put a concrete barrier down the middle and stopped it. That was scary! Oh…and the F6 north (distributor) didn’t start construction until 1983 not 63 🙂

[@tippo5341]

Great great great topic this one Sharath, and yet again (apologies have been AWOL for a while) you have proven why you now have nearly 43k subs (I remember subscribing when it was under 1k). This section of roadway...I'm more specifically talking from Picton Rd down to the bottom of Ousley and the long slow painful return trip back up (older truck drivers perspective here 🙄🙄) is one of the biggest pain in the ass sections of roadway now in NSW...there are a few more...Bulli Pass, the old Lapstone Hill climb, Mt Vic, Bellbird Hill, River Lett Hill, Chifley Rd up/down from/to Lithgow (and others further afield I'm sure), that earn the angst of many a driver (again talking in a truck)...damn the Escarpment down into the Illawarra and those damn Blue Mountains 😂😂😂😂 I could go on for ages about the close calls I've had with cars crossing the southbound carriageway to beat the truck coming down the hill, and the many many near sideswipes from drivers (both car and truck alike) that seem to believe their side and rear vision mirrors are just there for aesthetics and are blissfully UNAWARE OF THEIR SURROUNDINGS...idiots...regardless of all that...another impressive production from an equally impressive channel, with an intelligent young man at its helm, keep up the great work!!! Cheers from the Springs of Jordan...near The Riff 😁😁😀😀

[@beautifully_wonderfullymade]

I am glad you have touched on this, because I have got on the wrong roads often. Now I know I need to get across a crazy amount of lanes to get to the right roads this happens less often, but you do need to concentrate big time.

[@davidlp3019]

Yep the grade intersection at 10:03 is so dangerous. I nearly t-boned an idiot a few months ago who decided it would be a great idea to pull out 10 metres in front of me. Was on the brakes so hard you have no idea. I've also driven past many cars written off there. Thank god they're finally fixing it.

[@eadonnlawrence9934]

I grew up in Balgownie as a child and remember when you could turn right on the ascent in to Mt Pleasent road across the descending traffic. Makes the right turn across traffic at the base of the descent feel like a breeze.

[@davidcarter4247]

The Mount Ousley Road looks like a motorway, drives like a motorway and is a motorway. Similar speed restrictions exist on other difficult parts of the M1 in NSW and there are much tighter bends on the Cahill Expressway section. Mount Ousley Road is by far the best and safest road down the Illawarra Escarpment. Bulli Pass and the Illawarra Highway are very steep and have hairpin bends, Lawrence Hargreaves Drive spills you into suburban traffic.

[@electro_sykes]

I think Queenslands sunshine motorway beats this as Australia’s fake motorway. Sections of it aren’t even dual carriageway, but rather are just a regular two lane road in both directions. and north of Maroochydore, there are just random roundabouts on the motorway. Mount Ousley road is nothing in comparison to the sunshine motorway. Next time you come up to the Sunshine Coast, you have to do a video on the sunshine “fake” motorway. That said, the sunshine motorway south of Maroochydore is actually a standard motorway conditions.

[@JamesFFiT]

Western freeway M5 more like ‘fake M5’ in Brisbane ain’t much better😂

[@pwhnckexstflajizdryvombqug9042]

Problem is there are a lot of other motorways like the Sunshine motorway. It is common to build future motorways as 1 lane each way with 2 land roundabouts as interchanges, until they could be bothered to come back and do it properly. This is exactly what has happened with the Sunshine motorway, and they do it a fair bit with other roads (like the one to Springfield) south of brisbane. The issue is that roads are extremely expensive and they don't make money, so it's really hard to justify building them.

[@DEATHSTARER]

I must say that north of Maroochydore going to Gympie is some of the best motorway in the country,and will get better with the Gympie bypass opening soon.

[@91Caesar]

It's largely future proofing and is incredibly standard for how motorways in greenfield areas are built these days. The corridor for the Sunshine motorway is mostly large enough for a dual carriage motorway. If there isn't enough congestion to justify the full build out, it's better to build the smaller version first with the land reserved for easy expansion later. You'll notice this all through Caloundra South. There is essentially a planned motorway through this emerging suburban region, but it's current form is a 2 lane single carriage way with oversized round-abouts. This will be perfectly sufficient to service the traffic for the next decade or so. The space required to expand upon it is already reserved, making it an easy expansion when the time comes. Another good example of this is the centenary highway between Springfield and Yamanto. They built the single carriage way and roundabout intersections a decade ago, to service new developments. In that time, not much has happened, and the single carriage way set up is plenty. Imagine if they'd built it to the full, dual carriage way limited access standard? It'd be a hell of a lot more money for excessive capacity that won't be needed for another 10 or more years?

[@Luke-1296]

Not to mention that when the sunshine motorway reaches Mooloolaba you have to turn left onto an onramp to merge onto the road you are already on. Worse if you are going the opposite direction. To continue on the sunshine motorway you have to exit and go around a looped slip lane to continue on the route.

[@si_vis_amari_ama]

The stupidest part of the whole show is at the top of Mt Ousley heading North. When that huge truck stop was built there, they didn't bother putting in a decent extra merging lane (heading north), which, if extended one km, could then function as a safe left-turn into Picton Rd. Both these places are accident black-spots.

[@sloshme]

Pretty much all of those interchanges had right hand turns on them, even after duplication. There was one for northbound traffic to turn into New Mt Pleasant Road (closed roughly early to mid 90s). Clive Bissel Drive i'm pretty sure had the kind of intersection without turn lanes but could turn both off and onto the motorway. The northbound Appin Road traffic had a right turn lane to get onto Bulli Pass (closed circa 2009). Further up along the Old Princes Highway northbound carriageway, people could turn right both into the Panorama House entry and could turn right out to go north again (closed circa 2009). Also fun little tidbit of info, the gateway centre used to be a Caltex service station.

[@gbf111]

I make that dangerous turn almost everyday for work, it sucksssssss and becomes even more terrifying when people get beeped at for missing "gaps"

[@jamesmcmah2020]

Then maybe take the gap ya flop 😜

[@gbf111]

@@jamesmcmah2020 i do haha, but i have witnessed people being beeped and its scary of whether they will be forced into a possible collision

[@craigtroth4524]

Why ??

[@gbf111]

@@craigtroth4524 because its the way to work for me?

[@dougsta315]

Great video, man i still hate that at level turn to go northbound after 7.30am, i usually just hook it left and turn around at the university, saves me all the headache.

[@kutto5017]

When you could also turn right into that junction from the south it was really dangerous. Been closed for years

[@kutto5017]

Everyone only looked right up the hill and missed the traffic coming from the left

[@Hawko2196]

Hey mate how my ousley road is nowhere near as bad as Adelaide Hills with a very steep Hill and set of traffic lights at the bottom there has been many accidents including a really bad one in August 2014 I believe I have never been there but have heard reports you should try and get over there and do a video on it

[@paul0075r]

Both Clive Bissell Dr and New Mt Pleasant Rd crossed traffic to allow RH turns in the 80s and earlier. From memory the jersey barrier was installed in the mid to late 80s. Nice review of the route. There was a proposal to connect Bulli Tops to the northern end of the Northern Distributor. The latter was also meant to be fully grade separated in its final form. This connection was marked in street directories for years and reservations put in place to allow for it.

[@mattymcmacca]

Back in the day you could turn right from New Mount pleasant road onto the M1, you could also turn right from the M1 into New Mount Pleasant Road. You could in the past turn right from Clive Bissell Drive onto the M1. Crazy stuff.

[@Squato]

Great video that covers a lot of the funny bits about this road. The parts about Bulli top, that you highlight, are more or less what I kinda figured might be the case. What is the chance of a second part? Either looking at the other bits of the road more (such as Bulli Pass), the northern section overall (aka the road and rail links, since the suchdown of the development of Thirroul by the Land & Enviroment Court meant north is now super limited in the types of builds and work that can be done due to the shutdown on work that blocks the road due to the lack of any alts in place. Almost makes me wonder if you might do a video in future showing how you might fix the area, if given a chance (but we both know you'll suggest a lot of towers for apartments and the like).

[@CataIana]

I remember driving down this road on my L's. It was terrifying. That intersection at 0:37 is so awful, I can't believe it still exists.

[@AnonyDave]

I don't think I've ever driven that road. but now I'm wondering how it compares to the motorway through the Adelaide hills. Ok, this one has much worse intersections, but it's more the craziness of cars flying past slow trucks I'm curious about

[@zalired8925]

After spending a few years in Adelaide I can confirm they're both on par with each other. Mt Ousley never had a Devils Elbow like Adelaide had, the Bellambi Creek dipper made up for it though.

[@chuckselvage3157]

It's a nightmare when U get fog at Bulli Tops.Idiots in 4 WD utes flying past.

[@nmuzza1]

You were once able to turn right off Mt Ousley Rd onto New Mt Pleasant Rd to get to Mt Pleasant and Balgownie!

[@paolagalletly5535]

Omg

[@si_vis_amari_ama]

I never turn right across the M1 at that dodgy intersection. It'sdangerous. All you have to do is turn left, head south for 1km, cross the overpass and straight back on to go up Mt Ousley. Too Easy.

[@nswtrains3153]

I was going down Mount Ousley Road and a bloody cement truck did that turn. A huge one!

[@Illawarrian]

I always feel nervous driving up or down Mount Ousley Road. People don't drive to the conditions - and there are too many trucks.

[@paolagalletly5535]

I have the ‘pleasure’ of driving Mt Ousley often. My strategy is to get into the right lane ascending and descending, sit on 80km/h. I’m sure I annoy many would be goons, but c’est la vie! It’s and awful road, and getting worse as it gets busier.

[@noelcastle3986]

Seen badly loaded trailers start to sway severely down those steep fast hills.

[@buchinsku]

I used to live down there. Believe it or not, Bulli Tops interchange becomes second nature when you use it all the time. Mt Pleasant Rd also goes East from Mt Ousley Rd, it doesn't just serve the tiny tiny suburb itself. It runs down to the Northern suburbs, via Balgownie. So a shortcut home for people coming down from Sydney into Corrimal/Balgownie/Fairy Meadow. THe proposed connection of the F8 up to the M1 was a proposal to use the Metro tunnelling machines once they'd done Sydney. The alignment was going to be underground through and up the escarpment, and they could make it as steep or flat as the terrain and stone would allow. I don't think it was ever gazetted, more or less kicked around as an idea by the press, planners and egineers. The F8 bypassing Bulli to Lawrence Hargrave Drive is a no-brainer and will turn the old Princes Highway from Corrimal right through to Woonona and Bulli into a nice local road. The by-pass will also go over the greyhound track, so doubly good.

[@johndwilson6111]

Would you believe that in the nineties and naughties the main roads department objected to speeding up the railway from Sutherland to near Wollongong because it would remove car and truck traffic from the M1/Mt Ousley Rd. Result no rail upgrade. 😢😮

[@cathblakey8510]

Easy to believe, considering that NSW Premier Griener stopped the Maldon Dombarton rail line construction when it was almost complete and would have taken thousands of trucks off Mount Ousley.

[@CustomcrowdMitroc]

the thing is the interchange looks very confusing on paper but in reality its very easy to work out because once the lanes are marked and barricades are up its very easy to see where each road leads

[@nicko6710]

In Europe they just bore a straight tunnel

[@carisi2k11]

Except if you did that here it would collapse the whole mountain.

[@nicko6710]

@@carisi2k11 Only because Australia doesn't want to invest in the rest of the worlds processes.

[@electro_sykes]

In Australia our politicians are never willing to bore a tunnel. Unless it’s Campbell Newman

[@YuckFoutube-e1z]

@@electro_sykes Unless they get kick backs you mean. Corrupt bastards.

[@Pete7554htp]

A straight tunnel would be steep and very expensive.

[@PlanesTrainsEverything]

My OPCD kicks in when watching this video. Too many junctions, off-ramps, on-ramps and messiness in general. Great video.

[@Luke-1296]

I’ll never forget driving down mount ousley road a few years ago on my learners at about 8pm at night. Being from further north I’d never been on the road and was unaware of its conditions. Since I was on my learners and could only go 90 I always stuck in the left lane as everyone would pass me on a normal freeway. I didn’t realise however that trucks could only go 40 so as I was coming down I could see very well and was staying in the left lane when I came near a truck so went to try and overtake it and as I did someone came hooning down in the centre lane well above 80 and I almost got wedged in between the truck and the car. I’ll never forget the panic I felt at that moment.

[@OutimageNet]

In the graphic that took you all day to do, you forgot the northbound link from Bulli Pass to the old Princes Highway LOL! Great video though!

[@amrjon]

I like your videos- nice work. The interchanges at Bulli tops are fine to drive on. The work at the bottom is now underway. I’d be interested in your thoughts on the proposed Picton road / Hume intersection. Looks like a ridiculous design with more traffic lights when the overpass is so obviously what is needed ?

[@Thebibs]

I worked on the tender for the Mt Ousley Interchange Project. Its going to be a very difficult project to build with live traffic. It will be great though, with the heavy vehicle bypass and grade separated interchange though.

[@fluffypuppy1040]

About 2 weeks ago there was a major accident (with fatality and person charged) on a Friday afternoon. It made a trip from Sydney that should have been 2 hours into 4 and a half hours as all traffic was diverted down Bulli Pass.

[@nswtrains3153]

I am literally a local who hears the trucks on the M1 and I didn’t know that.

[@Saalmanzo2]

There's another piece of lost history in the region. There was plan by the DMR in the 80's for an alternate freeway from the F6 near Kembla Grange, which would have gone up the escarpment via Mt Kiera and then would have followed Picton Rd to the F5. The proposal was called the F5-and-a-half (I'm not making this up)

[@BarryJTaylor]

Good!! Im glad you explained why I have at times ended up at places I did not expect ... only whilst going north though ... and probably exacerbated by fog.

[@ptoomey74]

You have a remember that M classification doesn't mean grade separated 110km/h roads, think M31 beyond Berrima. Originally when they put in a new numbering system they referred to M as motorway-standard as opposed to just motorway. It's not fake it's just the labelling is misunderstood.

[@jack2453]

If M doesn't mean fully grade separated, there is no point having it.

[@campbeld63]

Part of the problem here is that the Illawarra Escarpment is made up almost entirely of material that has fallen off the cliffs, and material that's about to fall off the cliffs. Bulli pass is closed from time to time to allow stabilisation work to be carried out, and has been closed for extended periods by major landslips. (Mount Ousley Rd is also sliding down the hill.) The topography pretty much rules out any sort of straight(ish) surface route at a reasonable grade, and the geology of the area makes tunnelling impractical. It's a crap road, but the cost of upgrading it to anything that approaches an acceptable standard would be prohibitive.

[@Jeffra_010]

I remember going to Wollongong and back as a kid and always asking my parents to stop over at the gelato place (labeled Southen Gateway Centre at around 4:50) and them always telling me that we would "stop by on the way back." Apparently northbound Mt Ousley Road doesnt allow you to stop by the gelato place... Banger video tho!!

[@eventhusist6969]

The main road coming into Adelaide from Melbourne and Sydney, the South Eastern Freeway has a 7km continuous decent at a 7% gradient. I drive buses down that stretch of road multiple times a day. We are restricted to 60km/h decent while cars can go 90km/h. 15 years ago the speed used to be 100km/h for EVERYONE, including massive B doubles. Then due to so many accidents the speed limit changed to 60 for trucks with 5 or more axles around 2013 and then 60 for all trucks and buses

[@SydneyCityTransportVlogs]

That exit from Picton Rd onto Mt Ousley Rd is a horror show, I can't even imagine it as a stop sign. The sharp left bend means you have to slow all the way down to make the turn safely before absoutley flogging it up a giant hill to catch up with the "motorway" speed of 110, usually a foot flat adventure. The interchange with Appin Rd is definitely confusing and is made worse if you try to visit the lookouts there (which are absolutely beautiful and highly recommended), you have to continue down to Wollongong or Bulli to try and turn around to head back to Sydney though, so it's a stop on the way down. I've never had to use that at grade intersection, but it has always shocked me that it exists. Along that section as you head towards Sydney is chaos as well with trucks and other heavy vehicles blocking the left 2 lanes and incompetent or unaware drivers not driving fast enough up the mountain in the right lane.

[@damienberry7679]

Another entertaining, informative video, thanks for sharing 👍🏻

[@markk9348]

I always love to drive it. Up or down . The views on the way down are stunning. Not everything has to be straight and flat it would be boring. 😃

[@Scruffy325]

I found an old forum post that said there was once an idea proposed to cross the escarpment in a more southerly location. It was to connect with the former SR153 at Masters Road via a corridor along American Creek. It appears it would have connected further south of the Bulli Tops interchange though.

[@davanci4116]

@@Scruffy325 sounds like O'Briens Rd, which once upon a time was a legitimate route into southern Wollongong... Back in the day when the Figtree was still alive

[@lukeowen3660]

Use this road often and love the excitement it offers. These kind of flawed roads make you more alert as a driver which is something sorely missing from today’s Australia driverscape. Great video

[@nswtrains3153]

The excitement for me is the truck spotting😂

[@annabelapurva-madhuri4861]

obsessed with your channel 🙌🏽❤

[@billeves4627]

Those dangerous ascents and descents are the single reason we have excluded Wollongong as somewhere we would like to live. They just seem so dangerous everytime. Many many deaths have occurred there and also on Picton Road between there and the Hume Motorway.

[@cliffwoodbury5319]

9:50 - U GATTA BE KIDDIN ME!!!! THAT IS UNEXEPTIBLE!!! (by the way no one is going to skip your videos, because they are some of the best on the internet, but it makes sense the way you laid the video out, but you're very good at presentation)

[@yesbeautyfly]

Some stupid people still attempt to turn right during busy hours which is basically not possible. Clearly going south & use the flyover to turn & merge before UOW is much safer & easier.

[@cliffwoodbury5319]

@@yesbeautyfly I'm just happy they are about to fix this problem

[@yesbeautyfly]

@@cliffwoodbury5319 Construction has started months earlier before this video. Lots of machines right now.

[@yesbeautyfly]

This KZbinr knew the history. Mt Ousley Road was also called M1, F6 & Princes Highway as different names at different times. M1 is always different from the relatively new tolled Motorways like M2, M4, M5, M7 & M8.

[@rickneill6924]

Good call. It's a scary piece of work! I used to use it semi-regularly for work.

[@claireroberts5051]

Coming south from Appin Road and attempting to move over left to go down Bulli Pass can be a bit daunting when there is a lot of fast moving traffic on the motorway.

[@garybell6410]

The deviation at Bellambi Ck was built because the corner near the end was the first corner after leaving Sydney that you had to think about. 75km/hr recommended. Too challenging for some drivers.

[@raycochrane3971]

The engineering and design of Seacliff bridge is awful. It hasn't really addressed the problems of land slips and rock falls ...simply pushing those events to the ends of the bridge. Subsidence and water movement have caused the bridge to be closed for serious, but ultimately temporary, fixes.

[@andrewsaxton2421]

I drive it daily, idiots coming down the mountain tailgating doing 100kph +, there was a fatality on Friday causing chaos !

[@DragonPhlegm]

It's clear there was plans to have a southbound carriageway bypassing the entire Bulli Tops interchange like the northbound one, I wonder why it was never built

[@justnik8727]

Remember hitting 240km/h down the big dipper in my '94 XR6 20 years ago. It was 2am no traffic. Love the drive down to Wollongong.

[@brendanmeadors3099]

Wow. Cool story bro

[@ADingoTookMyDasco]

I used to drive to Corrimal & back to Sydney every Friday during peak hour. I hated the run every time they closed Bulli Pass for maintenance & I was forced to go down Mount Ousley Rd. On the way back I’d always drive further south to take the overpass near the Uni rather than risk that crazy right hand turn. I’ve never thought of it as being part of the motorway. I’ve always thought that that part of the motorway was missing, like the airport to Waterfall section. Maybe it’s because I live in the St George shire & we’re used to being almost devoid of motorways in the area.

[@ernesthemingway2885]

Up until sometime in the 2000's I remember on Masters road westbound you could actually turn right across 3 lanes of traffic going 80km/h into drummond street, super dangerous