In short
- A car crossing the Sir Leo Hielscher Bridges (the Gateway Bridges) pays A$6.02 at the Murarrie toll point, at the time of writing (October 2026). The price is reset each 1 July.[3]
- The Gateway Motorway runs 23.1 km from Nudgee to Eight Mile Plains, joining the Bruce and Pacific highways without going through the city centre.[1]
- Near the airport the ramps are one-way pairs: at Moreton Drive, Kingsford Smith Drive and Southern Cross Way you can join heading south and leave heading north.[2]
- From Hendra, map routing sends trips to the Port of Brisbane and the Gold Coast over the Gateway, so those trips include the bridge toll.[6][7]
- Rentzy passes on tolls it pays with a A$5 fee each (how Rentzy handles tolls).
What is the Gateway Motorway?
It's the motorway that lets traffic between Brisbane's north and south skip the city centre. Transurban, which operates it, describes a 23.1-kilometre road from Nudgee to Eight Mile Plains that connects the Bruce and Pacific highways, crosses the Brisbane River on two bridges and links to the Australia TradeCoast precinct and Brisbane Airport.[1]
The two river crossings are the Sir Leo Hielscher Bridges, which most people still call the Gateway Bridges. The first opened in January 1986 and the duplicate bridge was finished in May 2010.[2] South of the motorway proper, the 10.4-kilometre Gateway Extension Motorway, opened in 1997, carries on to the Logan Motorway.[1]
How much is the Gateway Bridge toll?
Linkt prices the bridge crossing at a toll point it calls Murarrie. These were the amounts on Linkt's pricing page when this guide was written in October 2026; they include GST and exclude any extra fees, such as the video matching fee for travel without a valid tag.[3]
| Vehicle class | Toll |
|---|---|
| Class 1: motorcycle | A$3.02 |
| Class 2: car (including a car towing a trailer) | A$6.02 |
| Class 3: light commercial vehicle | A$9.04 |
| Class 4: heavy commercial vehicle | A$20.74 |
A rental hatchback or SUV is Class 2, the car class.[3] Gateway prices move every 1 July in line with Brisbane's consumer price index, so check the page again if you're reading this after mid-2027.
Murarrie is the only toll point on Linkt's Brisbane list that carries the Gateway's name. A longer trip south that runs on towards the Logan Motorway can pass other toll points on the same list, such as Kuraby/Compton Road (A$3.55 for a car) and Loganlea (A$2.28).[3] Linkt's toll calculator adds up the whole trip before you go.[4]
Where can you get on and off the tolled section?
Linkt publishes the ramps for the stretch between Moreton Drive at the airport and the Logan Motorway. Several are one-directional, which matters when you're planning a return trip.[2]
| Interchange | Heading south | Heading north |
|---|---|---|
| Moreton Drive (Airport) | Entry only | Exit only |
| Kingsford Smith Drive | Entry only | Exit only |
| Southern Cross Way | Entry only | Exit only |
| Lytton Road | Exit only | Entry only |
| Port of Brisbane Motorway | Entry and exit | Entry and exit |
| Wynnum Road, Old Cleveland Road, Mount Gravatt/Capalaba Road, Miles Platting Road | Entry and exit | Entry and exit |
| Pacific Highway | Exit only | Entry and exit |
| Logan Road, Compton Road | Entry and exit | Entry and exit |
| Logan Motorway | Exit only | Entry only |
Read the first three rows together: from the airport side you join the Gateway southbound, and on the way home you come off at the same interchanges northbound. Lytton Road works the other way round.[2]
When would you use it from Hendra or the airport?
For trips across the river to the south-east, the Gateway is usually the direct road. OpenStreetMap's routing from Rentzy's yard at 238 Nudgee Road shows the pattern:
- Port of Brisbane. Lilley Street, Nudgee Road, Kingsford Smith Drive, Links Avenue and Southern Cross Way, then south on the Gateway Motorway over the bridges and along the Port of Brisbane Motorway and Port Drive: about 19.5 km and 22 minutes in free-flowing traffic.[6]
- Gold Coast. The same start onto the Gateway, then the M1 Pacific Motorway: about 80 km to Benowa, a little over an hour before traffic.[7] The drive itself is covered in Brisbane to the Gold Coast.
- Wynnum, Murarrie and the bayside. Wynnum Road and Old Cleveland Road both have ramps in each direction south of the bridges, so they're simple to reach and return from.[2]
Each of those trips crosses the bridges, so expect the Murarrie toll each way. The alternatives to the bridge are crossing the river nearer the city on surface roads, which is slower, or the Clem7 tunnel, which is also tolled; see Brisbane's toll tunnels.
What about the Nudgee end and the north side?
North of the airport turn-off the motorway continues past Nudgee. The Queensland Government's Gateway Upgrade North project widened it from four to six lanes between Nudgee and Deagon; construction finished in early 2019, at a cost of $1.143 billion shared by the Australian and Queensland governments.[5]
Linkt's ramp tables start at Moreton Drive, so the Nudgee-to-Deagon section isn't among the tolled entries and exits it lists.[2] If you're heading north towards the Bruce Highway, check your app's toll setting rather than assuming either way.
Motorway driving habits that suit the Gateway, such as merging at speed and choosing a lane early, are in Brisbane motorways and merging.
Using the Gateway in a Rentzy car
Before a long run south, set your route with tolls allowed or avoided on purpose, and note the date and time you crossed so the trip is easy to match against any charge later.
Sources
- Transurban Group: Brisbane (read 23 October 2026)
- Linkt (Transurban): Gateway Motorway (read 23 October 2026)
- Linkt (Transurban): Toll pricing (read 23 October 2026)
- Linkt (Transurban): Toll calculator (read 23 October 2026)
- Queensland Government — Department of Transport and Main Roads: Case study: South East Queensland – Gateway Upgrade North (read 23 October 2026)
- OpenStreetMap (OSRM routing): Directions: 238 Nudgee Road, Hendra to the Port of Brisbane (car) (read 23 October 2026)
- OpenStreetMap (OSRM routing): Directions: 238 Nudgee Road, Hendra to Benowa, Gold Coast (car) (read 23 October 2026)
Written by the Rentzy team at Rentzy Car Rentals. Rentzy prices, fees and rules in this guide come from our published terms and update with them; rules set by others (roads, tolls, licences, transport) are from the official pages above, as read on the dates shown. Something out of date? Tell us.
