Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Aus.) the Stuart Highway running from Darwin to the south.

1949		R. Gardner Double or Quit 32: The war has given the Territory 1000 miles of good all-weather road (‘the bitumen’) from Alice Springs to Darwin.
1951		G. Farwell Outside Track 147: The ‘Bitumen’ — as the modern Alice Springs-Darwin highway is always known.
1958		R.E. Robinson Black-feller, White-feller 54: Soon, she picked up a track that led out to the bitumen, the ‘road’ to Darwin.
1964		K. Willey Eaters of the Lotus 18: Maps may tell you the thousand miles long black ribbon linking Darwin with Alice Springs and the south is the Stuart Highway. But up here it is ‘the Track’ or ‘the Bitumen’ .
1969		A. Garve Boomerang 126: We’re sloshing through the monsoon on the bitumen.
1974		P. Adam-Smith Barcoo Salute 103: I’ve driven up and down The Bitumen, the highway from Darwin to Alice Springs, many times.
1974		A. Morehead Rum Jungle 66: On my journey through the Northern Territory [...] I drove up [the Stuart Highway] [...] the local people always call it ‘The Bitumen’.
[1984		Age (Melbourne) 16 June Extra 11: They call the 1500 kilometres of bitumen south [of Darwin], the track [GAW4]].
1989		J. Hughes Aus. Words 45: If you are in the Alice you go ‘down the bitumen’ to get up to Darwin.
1992		G. Disher Paydirt [ebook] Wyatt didn’t bother with the back roads. he headed for the bitumen.
2003		(ref. to 1945) N. Lynton et al. Searching for Gaia 147: A few houses and a couple of small cross-streets straddled ‘the bitumen’ - the north-south road built [...] during War II to provide military access between the rail head at Alice Springs and Darwin almost 1500 kilometres to the north.
2005		D. Whitfield Call of the Kyeema 79: I was soon on my way again, heading off down ‘the bitumen,’ as the Stuart Highway is known.