F3 Sydney to Newcastle

Dunno Marilyn, I have lived in Newcastle for about 35 yrs. It was certainly operating in about the mid to late 70's. The toll was dropped in the early 80's I think. I have no idea of how much the toll used to be but remember often paying it.
Sorry, not any help to you.

I drove Trucks up and down it for years , I can remember when it finished near Mt White, and later we used to go from about Wyong to Hexham via Heavy Vehicle around Newcastle, and to tell the truth I can't ever remember a Toll on it ,

Doug

Marilyn,

From what I have found off the internet

F3 Freeway - History
The construction of the F3 Freeway has been a major engineering achievement taking almost 40 years and almost $1,000,000,000 ($1 billion) to complete.

The Freeway is 127 km long and links Sydney, the Central Coast and Newcastle and is part of the National Highway funded by the Commonwealth Government. The F3 replaced the old Pacific Highway which was built in the 1920’s along a route that had existed since 1847, when settler George Peat cut a track to his property on the banks of the Hawkesbury River. The first section of the F3 was constructed between the Hawkesbury River and Mount White and opened as a toll road in 1965. The Liberal State Government subsequently removed the toll on the F3.

The Federal Government has spent more than $1 Billion building and improving the F3 since 1965.

I hope this helps found it by Googling F3 History

Cheers Kev

A road is a "major engineering achievement"?????

Blast through a stack of sandstone, roller it flat, stick some concrete and then tar over it .. viola! Instant Freeway.

Must have been written by one of the "academics" at the RTA.

If it is such a masterpiece, how come it has speed restrictions along it (apart from the current roadworks). I always thought freeways were designed to move high volumes of traffic over large distances quickly. They are in the US. Here they are an excuse to raie a bit more revenue.

Oh, and sorry Marilyn, I cannot remember the toll charge, although I paid it regularly.

Jack

I don't know when they opened the toll booths at Hornsby (too young) but I do remember the toll in the early 80's as being 20c. When Dad bought the 1st diesel 75 series troopie in NSW (1985) the toll was no longer charged. Funny how you remember things by either vehicles or music.

If my memory is wrong I was only young!!
Regards
Dave

The tolls at one stage were 20c for each section. The toll was removed in about late 1986 maybe early 1987 with the opening of the section from berowra to hornsby. The only reason the toll was dropped was because the road became a federal road and then funded by the federal government. I was the first motor bike to ride along it when it became a federally funded road with the opening of the last section.

Garry

Hi Marilyn, The first sectioned opened in 1965 as mentioned above, The southern side of the Hawksberry bridge was well under construction in 1967, I remember that well,as there was a bad incident that happened regarding a dozer dislodging a large boulder which went over the edge landing on top off a new vc valiant sedan stopped in a line of traffic below, unfortunately it was a fatal result.

The toll was 60c at the closing years of those booths.

Cheers Axle.

LOL @ people who have to pay Tolls to drive on roads when the Govt make so much money from the tax's on fuel. Sure they save time, but no road should ever be tolled. People get brainwashed into thinking it's acceptable.

Marilyn,
The Tollway opened on 15 December 1965. The first section was between Hawkesbury River and Mount White, about 6 mikes in length.
I am less certain of the toll, but I remember it being 2 shillings when it was changed to decimal currency in early 1966.

You know that the toll booths are still there, ready to be reactivated at any time.
They hide by the Berowra on ramp North on the old pacific Highway.
Regards Philip A

G'day Marilyn, It's been a long time!, Yeah I remember the toll way, from memory when I moved to Newcastle in the early 70's(about 71) I remember the toll just starting but for the life of me can't remember it being cut out when the F3 opened.
I do remember the toll being 60cents for me when I passed through but I was on a bike then.
By the way Sal and I are in Tumbolong tonight, not as cold as Carcoar or Bilpin.

Say hello to all.....dogs included

Andrew and Sally

Hi Marilyn,
I remember as a kid in Mum and Dad's grey EH Holden stopping at the toll gates at Berowra and Dad religiously pointing out "I didn't buy the bloody road, just borrowed the bastard" for years.
Mum and Dad sold the EH to buy a HT so somewhere between 1965 and about 1968 is my guess.
I know the EH came out in 1964 but Dad never bought a current model Holden, he'd always wait for the new model runout.

I also remember Mum worming my brother and I one morning before we left for Sydney in the EH. She only did it once.
Why? Because I puked this bright red worm stuff all down the back of her kneck!!

Hope this helps,
Geoff

The toll was removed by Nick Greiner the day after he won the election in NSW. It was a promise during the campaign but I don't know which year. 60 cents sounds right too.

Hi Marilyn,

Gosh now that was a long time ago. I worked on the southern section of the road (Hawksbury River to Berowra).

By now the good folks here have given you the opening date of the northern section (Hawksbury to Mt White). The memory is cloudy now but 1970 may have been the date of the opening of the toll booth at Berowra.

Little things I do remember..

Abigano was the main earth moving contractor, he had only just started out in business then. If it rained too much ( a cigarette paper held up..if it got wet the work stopped) the company would stop work so the tyres on the CAT and WABCO scapers didn't get damaged. (WABCO scrapers had no steering wheel..all done by butons.

And yes, I remember the accident of the Valiant. Just north of the bridge a D9 was stacking rocks and one slipped over the edge, hit the "hall road" and then bounced down onto the Pacific hwy below.A grandfather and two kids didn't know what happened, the only thing left was a case of oranges in the back seat.

I had a couple of jobs there. One hanging off the side of a cutting (near the railway tunnel south of the bridge) on a rope knocking loose rocks off. The other as a "Tallyman". Each scraper had a number which was ticked off according to their number and so paid by the load. Nightshift was great ..cash in the pocket for a young guy for a tick :)

That particular tunnel was so close to the road that they would stop trains when blasting went on due to cracks being made.

The last job I worked on was with the landscape crew. Every plant from the bridge to the tollbooth was grown at Mt White nursery and planted by hand. Young fellows from Milson Island were sent over to drive walk behind lawnmowers. Our boss told us to wear green so we could hide behind the newly installed guard-rails LOL

The toll was 20 cents each way.

Way back at the beginning of the plan for a road north, an American company, forget who now, tendered but it went to Abigano and someone else umm, as the Americans wanted to build the whole thing with their equipment and labour and collect the toll. The government of the time decided that Australians could do the job cheaper and better. How they figured that out I don't know, we had never built such a roadway before. $1 million per mile it cost.

Oh yes..that's why the road is designed in two different ways. The northern section didn't "stack" rocks to hold the fill. and surveyors screwed up on some of the corners making them only 90 kph :)

Let me know if you need any further information

Peterll

Peter
Does Chicago Bridge ring a bell as they were big when I was young......ger.
I think they later bacame Chicago Lennox.
ian

Thanks everone for your input. Tried to find the answers on the internet myself but had difficulties. Your collective knowledge has helped me out. Thank you.

Hi all

I can remember the day they removed the toll they made a real big thing about it and the premier was the last to pay the toll and with all the TV cameras their. Funny thing about it was that the toll collector did not see the good side of it and gave the minister heaps for tacking his job away, surprising no one saw that one coming.

Have fun
Craig