Giinagay Way

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Giinagay Way is a 45.8-kilometre road in New South Wales’ Mid North Coast. It runs from the south at Eungai Creek (where it meets the Pacific Highway) to the north at Raleigh (where it meets the Pacific Highway Waterfall Way), passing through Warrell Creek, Macksville, Nambucca Heads and Urunga. It sits in Bellingen Shire and Nambucca Valley Council.

Giinagay Way uses the old section of the Pacific Highway that was bypassed by a new parallel road between 2016 and 2018. The bypass opened on 22 July 2016. The Giinagay Way name was adopted in 2015 and gazetted in February 2017 (the two sections: Warrell Creek to Nambucca Heads on 24 February 2017, and Nambucca Heads to Raleigh on 14 July 2017).

Giinagay means Hello or Welcome in the local Gumbaynggirr language. The name was chosen by Nambucca Valley Council after earlier proposals were rejected by the Geographical Names Board because those names would not reflect the whole area.

The road’s speed limits were reduced in February 2017 after a speed zone review. The section within Nambucca Valley Council was gazetted on 24 February 2017 and the section within Bellingen Shire on 14 July 2017.

There was some local concern in late 2017 that naming the old highway Giinagay Way might impact community identity and emergency services. Proposals for other names like Warrell Creek Way were discussed, but the Giinagay Way name had already been gazetted.

The old alignment was completely bypassed between late 2017 and mid-2018. The route used to be part of National Route 1 (A1) before the bypass and remains a major connection in the NSW and national highway networks.