The Cairns-Kuranda road No.47 was officially opened to traffic on 15 June 1942, providing an alternative access route to the Atherton Tableland to the Gillies Highway, built in 1926 from Gordonvale to Atherton. One of the most difficult mountain roads that the Queensland Main Roads Commission (MRC) had undertaken with the roughest sections built to one-way traffic standard only, the route zig-zagged up the old Smithfield track through rainforest and dense tropical jungle. From Kuranda the roadworks continued to Mareeba by way of pre-war forestry tracks constructed by the Public Estates Improvement Branch of the Lands Department.