Australian OE # 03: Burnley Tunnel


I've got a new job as of last week, back to driving trucks again. Last last Wednesday I was delivering a big load of steel out west to Sunshine late in the day. It was a very wet day in Melbourne anyway, but heading back East around 4pm is a killer. Major traffic. Sometimes stationary. Nearly as bad as Auckland!

But I got to pass through the Burnley Tunnel, which is one of the highlights of driving in Melbourne. It runs under the Yarra river, under the domain which has Government House and the botanic gardens etc. The tunnel is a toll road, it's one of the places an e-TAG will let you go.

It's about as long as the Lyttleton Tunnel in Christchurch, except it's really two tunnels (one for east, one for west) with three lanes. I always beep my horn going through the Lyttleton, it's a bright, friendly and fun place but the Burnley Tunnel is big and dark that wont echo but just swallow any beeping right up.

One cool feature the Burnley Tunnel can boast is that it has its own radio station, kinda. The first time I went though it I deduced this, and felt rather clever about it some time later when it was confirmed. Being a deep tunnel you'd expect your radio to cut out, but mine didn't. This told me that they were re-transmitting the signal within the tunnel, obviously. Knowing this, I was delighted but not surprised when the usual radio in the tunnel cut out and an announcer came on talking about roading conditions. Nobody does that in the Lyttleton.

Anyway, I'll be going in and out of this tunnel again almost daily now. But back on wet Wednesday I used my mobile phone to record this Mp3 from the radio. Turns out to be the perfect song too! In a world blogging first (surely) you get to hear what it's like inside the Burnley Tunnel in Melbourne when the usual 80kph has been reduced to 60kph.

Break out the popcorn if you've got it. :)