Henry Lawson Drive

Henry Lawson Drive is an 20 km urban road linking Lansdowne and Peakhurst in the south-western suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The road is named in honour of Henry Lawson (1867–1922), one of Australia's foremost poets.

Route
Henry Lawson Drive commences at the intersection with Hume Highway and Woodville Road - also known as the Meccano Set due to its series of overhead gantries - at Lansdowne, and heads in a southerly direction as a two-lane single carriageway road, running alongside the bank of Prospect Creek and then Georges River for the most part, past Bankstown Airport and through Milperra to meet South-West Motorway. The road eventually turns in an easterly direction, still mostly following the river course, through Georges River National Park to meet Alfords Point Road at Padstow Heights where it widens to a six-lane, dual-carriageway road, until it eventually terminates at the intersection with Forest Road in Peakhurst.

The maximum elevation of the road is 60.9 m AMSL and at its lowest point it is 1.65 m AMSL.

History
The passing of the Main Roads Act of 1924 through the Parliament of New South Wales provided for the declaration of Main Roads, roads partially funded by the State government through the Main Roads Board (later the Department of Main Roads, and eventually Transport for NSW). With the subsequent passing of the Main Roads (Amendment) Act of 1929 to provide for additional declarations of State Highways and Trunk Roads, the Department of Main Roads (having succeeded the MRB in 1932) declared Main Road 508 from Lansdowne via Milperra, East Hills picnic point and Salt Pan Creek to Peakhurst on 18 October 1939.

The full length of the route was officially named Henry Lawson Drive on 16 June 1948.

The passing of the Roads Act of 1993 updated road classifications and the way they could be declared within New South Wales. Under this act, Henry Lawson Drive retains its declaration as Main Road 508.

Henry Lawson Drive was allocated part of Ring Road 3 in 1964. It was replaced by State Route 55 in 1974, and eventually decommissioned in 2004, and is currently unallocated.

Henry Lawson Drive was conceived of as a scenic drive to follow the north bank of Georges River, and was known in its planning stages as the George's River feeder road. Most of the route (from Hume Highway to The River Road) was built in the period 1946-55, with some sections in Georges Hall, Milperra, East Hills, Picnic Point and Peakhurst utilising pre-existing but unsealed roads. In 1963, following the closure of the Morgans Creek landfill waste disposal site at the southern end of The River Road, Henry Lawson Drive was extended to Padstow Heights with the completion of the 53 m bridge over Little Salt Pan Creek. In September 1964 the final section was completed with the opening of the 183 m bridge over Salt Pan Creek, connecting the road via what had formerly been Hymen Street to Forest Road in Peakhurst. In 1975 the T-intersection with Forest Road at the eastern terminus was reconfigured so that the route from Henry Lawson Drive to Forest Road northbound became the through route. Widening of the section from Alfords Point Road to Forest Road occurred incrementally, initially by reconfiguring pavement markings and construction of a westbound overtaking lane. It was later widened to four lanes in places and then six lanes. This work was completed in conjunction with the widening from two to six lanes of the Salt Pan Creek Bridge.

Upgrades
Since the opening of South-West Motorway in 1992, the section of Henry Lawson Drive between the motorway and Milperra Road has had high congestion levels and the City of Canterbury-Bankstown has been trying to overcome this.

The first section through Georges Hall was completed in May 2023, adding an extra southbound lane and a new pedestrian footpath. The second section, from Tower Road (the Bankstown Airport access road) to Auld Avenue in Milperra, previously widened to four lanes with turning bays, is still ongoing. Subsequent stages are intended to see duplication to dual two-lane carriageways from Hume Highway to South-West Motorway.