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 (MRB, later
Transport for NSW). Great Northern Highway was declared (as Main Road No. 9) from near Woodenbong to the state border with Queensland (and continuing southwest via Tenterfield, Glen Innes, Tamworth, Singleton, Newcastle, Gosford, Peat's Ferry and Hornsby to North Sydney), to provide for additional declarations of State Highways and Trunk Roads, these were amended to State Highway 9 and Main Roads 140 and 151 on 8 April 1929. Great Northern Highway was renamed New England Highway through New South Wales on 14 March 1933 (continuing southwest via Tenterfield, Glen Innes, Tamworth and Singleton to Hexham). The southern end of Main Road 151 was later extended from South Grafton via Glenreagh to the jetty at
Coffs Harbour on 16 March 1938. Trunk Road 83 was declared on 20 July 1949, from the intersection with New England Highway near Woodenbong, via Kyogle, Casino, Myrtle Creek and Grafton to the intersection with Gwydir Highway in South Grafton, subsuming Main Road 140 and the alignment of Main Road 151 between Casino and South Grafton; Main Road 151 was truncated at South Grafton as a result. New England Highway was re-routed through
Warwick and
Cunninghams Gap in Queensland on 11 August 1954. Against the wishes of the Beaudesert Shire Council and the Woodenbong Chamber of Commerce, the former alignment of New England Highway from Tenterfield through Beaudesert to Brisbane was re-declared Mount Lindesay Highway, The New South Wales section of Mount Lindesay Highway, which still included unsealed portions, was eventually de-gazetted as a highway by the Department of Main Roads on 23 December 1981 due to very low traffic volumes, it was renamed Mount Lindesay Road and re-declared as Main Road 622. updated road classifications and the way they could be declared within New South Wales. Under this act, when Pacific Highway's
Grafton bypass opened in May 2020, Summerland Way (as Main Road 83) was officially extended south along the old alignment of Pacific Highway on 5 July 2022, although the road is known locally and sign-posted as
Big River Way. Summerland Way today, as part of Main Road 83, still retains this declaration. In 1996, the Federal Government committed $20 million toward upgrading the Summerland Way. A $7 million contract to realign 1.2 km at Dourrigan's Gap, approximately 16 km north of Kyogle, was awarded, with work starting in February 2002 and expected to take 12 months to complete. Summerland Way was signed State Route 91 across its entire length in 1974. With the conversion to the newer alphanumeric system in 2013, this was replaced with route B91.
Grafton European settlement along the Clarence River had reached the area where Grafton now stands in the 1830s, with a store and shipyard being established at
South Grafton in 1839. By the early 1840s there was a wharf, a store and an inn on the northern bank of the river. Prior to 1861, when a punt service began operating on the river, the only way to cross was by rowboat. A steam-driven vehicular ferry began operating in the mid-1860s. In 1932, a bridge across the Clarence River with a unique design of two storeys with the railway running underneath the road, known as
Grafton Bridge, was opened. by which time it had been renamed the New England Highway. In 1935 the Summerland Way was constructed between Casino and the recently completed New England Highway. During
World War II the road was improved as an inland, flood-free route to
Brisbane which avoided the major ferry crossing on the Pacific Highway of the south channel of the Clarence River at Harwood (the north channel had been bridged at Mororo in 1935). These industries made roads to where they worked, substantially contributing to the road network of the district. Road access from Casino was facilitated by the opening of the bridge at Casino in 1876. The road was the only means of travel to Casino until 1910, when the railway reached Kyogle. ==Major intersections==