The Dunghutti Elders Council chairperson gave a welcome to country on September 18 and told Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull about his experience of the Pacific Highway going back decades.

“I first travelled this highway in 1959 and I went to Sydney,” he said.

“It was a horrible trip.”

He said the highway of the past had bad conditions, U-bends, a railway crossing at Telegraph Point and ferry crossings of several rivers.

Mr Mumbler told the Prime Minister that he saw the death traps with wooden bridges and no safety rails in those days.

“With all these wooden bridges and railway crossings, it was a nightmare but today when I look around I must give thanks to the staff and the workers who constructed this highway,” he said.

Mr Mumbler said if he was to do an audit on the highway now, he would have to say it was a superb highway.

The Prime Minister said the highway upgrade was a nation building project.

“Bob in his welcome to country spoke so eloquently about what the Pacific Highway was like in 1959 when he had to get onto ferries to cross rivers,” Mr Turnbull said.

“That seems like a bygone era but there is still work to be done and we are getting it done.”

Some 74 per cent of the Pacific Highway, between Hexham and the Queensland border, is divided carriageway.

Mr Turnbull saw the Pacific Highway upgrade firsthand on September 18 during a visit to Barrys Creek rest area.

One northbound and one southbound lane is open on the Kundabung to Kempsey section.

The 14 kilometre stretch is on track to be fully open to traffic in about four to six weeks.

Work continues on the Oxley Highway to Kundabung stretch.