From its southern terminus, it follows the nearby Cann River upstream towards the New South Wales border through heavily forested terrain.

After leaving the town, it heads north along a relatively flat area following the Cann River upstream through a locality known as Noorinbee.

Continuing north, the terrain is more hilly and forested and the alignment more closely parallels the winding river upstream to the area of Weeragua.

At this point, the land to the west of the river is part of Buldah State Forest, and to the east is Coopracambra National Park.

This farmland continues as a patchwork of pastures for the rest of the journey within New South Wales and is only interrupted by the occasional town.

This street continues for a short distance before a right angle bend to the northwest to match the same manoeuvre by the river.

The road then becomes Stephen Street before returning to the Monaro Highway name at the edge of the urban area and concluding its zig-zag trajectory through Bombala.

Eventually the road swings east and meets the western end of the eastern section of the Snowy Mountains Highway at another T-intersection.

The highway takes on the name Bombala Street within the urban area and swings to the northeast through the small town.

Before reaching Cooma, the road also passes to the west of Kuma Nature Reserve and crosses over the former Bombala railway line.

Continuing east as Sharp Street, the road soon curves north and transitions back to Monaro Highway.

It then parallels the railway within the urban area and also passes by the Tadeusz Kościuszko Monument as it leaves the town.

The highway takes on the name Cooma Street through Bredbo and crosses over the railway yet again just north of the town.

The road climbs onto a small ridge with views of the urban area to the west and the Tuggeranong Pine Plantation to the east.

The SouthCare emergency helicopter is stationed to the east of the road not far after its intersection with Lanyon Drive, and further on, a prison, the Alexander Maconochie Centre, is located to the west.

[13] A minor road appeared in this region on Thomas Mitchell's 1834 map of the Nineteen Counties of New South Wales.

As part of the Bicentennial Road Development Programme, the roadway was sealed along its entire length, the project being completed in March 1985.

[14][29] During the mid to late 1960s the highway south of Nimmitabel was rerouted along a newly constructed roadway;[30][31][32] the former alignment is now known as Old Bombala Road.

[36] In 1958 Federal government agreed rename the Cooma-Canberra Road within the ACT as Monaro Highway: this gave the roadway a single name between Canberra and the Victorian border.

[38][39] Plans were publicised during the mid-1980s for an upgrade of the existing Monaro Highway to dual-carriageway standard between Isabella Drive and Jerrabomberra Avenue, and an extension of the roadway to the north.

[40][41] These plans were then given the go ahead in a report tabled on 5 May 1987, the estimated costs were $50 million including upgrades to other nearby roadways.

[42] Around the same time period a large service centre was proposed for near the Isabella Drive intersection, though it was quite controversial, and the developer pulled out.

[56] Although after the construction of the Eastern Parkway extension, the highway north of Canberra Avenue was designated Alternate National Route 23.

[60] Media related to Monaro Highway at Wikimedia Commons *Partially limited-access          ^Partially controlled-access          roadway under construction