Parkes is strategically located within five hours of Sydney and three hours of Canberra. Ideally situated along the Newell Highway, Australia’s major inland touring route, where it intersects with essential rail corridors, Parkes is an accessible and appealing destination for tourism, lifestyle and business.

The Parkes Region boasts a diverse economy with strong industries including transport, mining, health care, tourism, agriculture and public administration.  With its central location Parkes allows businesses to connect with suppliers and customers quickly with over 80% of the Australian population able to be reached by road within 12 hours.

Parkes is also serviced by a regional airport with several return flights daily between Parkes and Sydney and is also accessed by daily coach and rail services to and from Sydney.

The Parkes Region is a great place to live and raise a family with affordable housing and great lifestyle, diverse employment opportunities, health services including a new hospital, quality educational facilities, a strong sporting culture and first class community facilities. 

The Australian and NSW Governments are funding the $168 million Parkes Bypass project. The bypass seeks to improve connectivity, road transport efficiency and safety for local and interstate motorists.

Roads and Maritime Services proposes to build a new 10.5 kilometre bypass on the western outskirts of Parkes to reduce travel time, improve freight productivity and efficiency, pedestrian access through Parkes and traffic flow.

Roads and Maritime Services is delivering this work as part of the $500 million Newell Highway upgrade program to support the interstate freight industry, provide economic growth, and improve access and safety along a vital transport corridor in New South Wales.

The upgrade would involve relocating the highway about two kilometres west, between Maguire Road to the north and Barkers Road to the south - a total length of 10.5 kilometres. The bypass would remove up to 1200 trucks per day from local streets and improve safety for motorists.

Upgrade of the Newell Highway at Parkes will improve:

• Freight efficiency and productivity
• Access for high productivity vehicles (double road trains, B-triples, AB triples) through Parkes as well as providing a link to existing road train routes to the west
• Safety of the railway level crossings
• Travel times at Forbes Road level crossing (near Hartigan Avenue) and the Welcome level crossing
• Pedestrian access in Parkes particularly across Bogan Street
• Access to Parkes Special Activation Precinct.

Project features:

The new highway west of Parkes would be about 10.5km long and would include:

• A new two-lane road (one lane in each direction) across the travelling stock reserve to the west of the golf course, from the railway line to Barkers Road
• Four key intersections at Bogan Road, Barkers Road, London Road and a four-way roundabout at Condobolin Road
• A bridge over the Broken Hill and Parkes-Narromine rail lines and Hartigan Avenue
• A second shared path bridge connecting Victoria Street and Back Trundle Road
• An extension of Hartigan Avenue, connecting it with Brolgan Road and Moulden Street.

Australia’s produce is seen as clean, green and safe. Efficiently connecting Australian produce to international markets will take advantage of this.

The Parkes SAP is an opportunity for Central West producers to access new markets, enterprises and connections to efficient transport networks, at a national and international level.