The Bass Highway is a highway in Tasmania, Australia. It connects the three cities across the north of the state – Burnie, Devonport and Launceston. The road was named due to its proximity to the Bass Strait. It is a part of the National Highway, designated as National Highway 1, together with the Midland and Brooker highways in Tasmania. The highway passes through or near the following localities: Launceston Prospect and other Launceston suburbs Hadspen Carrick Hagley Westbury Exton Deloraine Elizabeth Town Sassafras Latrobe Devonport Forth Ulverstone Penguin Burnie From here, the highway ceases to be part of the National Highway, but continues as the Bass Highway (A2) through the following towns: Somerset Wynyard Smithton Marrawah Upgrades The name "Bass Highway" was in use by 1938. Since the mid-1970s the highway has undergone significant upgrades that have included bypasses and deviations, duplications and grade separations, particularly between Burnie and Launceston. On 30 March 1977, ‘stage A’ of the ‘Burnie Highway System’ was opened to traffic. This stage connected the Bass Highway east of the town with Alexander Street by an elevated roadway over the port access road and rail lines. Shortly after, on 19 April 1977, the bypass of Devonport was completed with the opening of the final section between Middle Road, Devonport and Don, referred to in that year's Main Roads Annual Report as the ‘Devonport to Don Freeway’. This section was an extension of the earlier Victoria Bridge project. Three years later, the Ulverstone bypass was completed and opened to traffic in August 1980. The duplication of the highway from Wivenhoe, east of Burnie, to Chasm Creek was completed during the 1983–84 financial year, and was followed in May 1984 with the opening of 500 metres of ‘stage B' of the Burnie Highway System. This section duplicated the highway along North Terrace. In September 1986, all four lanes over the complete length of ‘stage B’ of the ‘Burnie Expressway’ (‘Burnie Highway System’) were brought into operation. Throughout 1986 and 1987, sections of the highway were progressively duplicated and opened to traffic between Don (Devonport) and the Forth River, with the last section completed in June 1987. This was followed by completion of duplication between Forth River and Ulverstone in late 1987. In 1988, at the eastern terminus of the Bass Highway, a new alignment was opened to connect directly to the then new Launceston Southern Outlet, which itself