Drive

Australia is a massive country, and with a big country comes the big road trip, and for decades, one of the nation’s most frequent road trips has been the Pacific Highway; the main road link between Sydney and Brisbane. Millions use the highway every year, and there’s something strangely captivating about the fact that so many towns across our states, from the heavily-urbanised Chatswood, to the regional city of Coffs Harbour, to the tiny country town of Coopernook, all share one thing in common; the Pacific Highway.

Tuesday Drive host Felix Shannon is joined by Sharath, founder and host of ‘Building Beautifully‘, to talk about the highway’s history, significance, and evolution. From a small two-lane road with a speed change through every small town, to the modern full-bypass dual-carriageway, what changed? What drove these changes? How have the small towns fared? All these little mysteries to solve as we unravel Sydney’s infrastructure on ‘Solving Sydney’.

Building Beautifully is a YouTube channel all about city planning, with a special focus on Sydney, Australia, and planning decisions over the past 50 years that have shaped our great city, for worse or for better. On the channel I explore everything, from railways and freeways lost to time, to in-depth analyses of infrastructure and urban planning in Sydney, and even exploration of different railway stations and roads across Sydney.

Image: Building Beautifully/Wikimedia Commons, Maksym Kozlenko, CC BY-SA 4.0