Sunraysia Highway

Sunraysia Highway

Sunraysia Highway, just outside Birchip
Sunraysia Highway is located in Victoria
North end
North end
South end
South end
Coordinates
General information
TypeHighway
Length330.2 km (205 mi)[3]
GazettedDecember 1914 (as Main Road)[1]
1947/48 (as State Highway)[2]
Route number(s) B220 (1998–present)
Former
route number
State Route 121 (1986–1998)
Major junctions
North end Calder Highway
Ouyen, Victoria
 
South end Western Freeway
Mitchell Park, Victoria
Location(s)
RegionLoddon Mallee, Grampians[4]
Major settlementsSpeed, Lascelles, Woomelang, Birchip, Donald, St Arnaud, Avoca, Lexton
Highway system

Sunraysia Highway (route B220) is a 330 kilometres (205 mi) north–south rural highway in western Victoria, linking Ouyen to the north-western Ballarat suburb of Mitchell Park,[5] and acts as a secondary route to Calder Highway, the main route between Melbourne and Mildura. It serves a number of important industries in the region such as agriculture, viticulture, food processing, winemaking and tourism. It forms an important link for these industries to markets and ports in the south of Victoria and South Australia.

Route

[edit]

Sunraysia Highway commences at the intersection with Calder Highway and heads in a southerly direction as a two-lane, single carriageway rural highway, mostly following the course of Mildura railway line through the eastern Wimmera region. It meets Henty Highway in Lascelles, takes a more south-easterly direction through Birchip and meets Borung Highway in Donald and then Wimmera Highway in St Arnaud, before heads again in a southerly direction, meeting Pyrenees Highway in Avoca and heading again in a south-easterly direction until it eventually terminates at the interchange with Western Freeway on the north-western borders of Ballarat at Mitchell Park.

History

[edit]

Within Victoria, the passing of the Country Roads Act of 1912[6] through the Parliament of Victoria provided for the establishment of the Country Roads Board (later VicRoads) and their ability to declare Main Roads, taking responsibility for the management, construction and care of the state's major roads from local municipalities. Beulah-Birchip-Wycheproof Road was declared a Main Road from Ballapur to Birchip (and continuing westwards from Ballapur to Beulah, and eastwards to Wycheproof) on 14 December 1914;[1] St Arnaud-(Donald-)Birchip Road was declared a Main Road, between Donald and Birchip on 28 May 1915,[7] and between St Arnaud and Donald on 20 September 1915;[8] Ballarat-(Lexton-)(Avoca-)St Arnaud Road was declared a Main Road, between Addington through Lexton and Avoca to Redbank on 31 May 1915,[9] and from north-western Ballarat to Addington and from Redbank to St Arnaud on 20 September 1915.[8]

The passing of the Highways and Vehicles Act of 1924[10] provided for the declaration of State Highways, roads two-thirds financed by the State government through the Country Roads Board. North-Western Highway (not to be confused by Calder Highway, which was also known as North-Western Highway in the late 1920s) was declared a State Highway in the 1947/48 financial year,[2] from Ballarat via Avoca, St Arnaud, and Donald to Birchip (for a total of 138 miles), subsuming the original declarations of Ballarat-Lexton-Avoca-St Arnaud Road and St Arnaud-Donald-Birchip Road as Main Roads. In the 1959/60 financial year, another section from Birchip via Woomelang to Lascelles was added,[11] subsuming the original declaration of Beulah-Birchip-Wycheproof between Ballapur and Birchip as a Main Road, along the former Kinnabulla-Woomelang Road and Woomelang-Lascelles Roads.[11] The name of the highway was later changed to Sunraysia Highway on 11 September 1972, and extended from Lascelles to the intersection with Calder Highway in Nunga, southern Ouyen, subsuming the former portion of Henty Highway between Lascelles and Nunga.[12]

Sunraysia Highway was signed as State Route 121 between Ouyen and Ballarat in 1986;[13] with Victoria's conversion to the newer alphanumeric system in the late 1990s, it was replaced by route B220.

The passing of the Road Management Act 2004[14] granted the responsibility of overall management and development of Victoria's major arterial roads to VicRoads: in 2013, VicRoads re-declared the road as Sunraysia Highway (Arterial #6700) between Calder Highway in Ouyen and Western Freeway at Mitchell Park in north-western Ballarat.[5]

Major intersections and towns

[edit]
LGALocation[3][5]km[3]miDestinationsNotes
MilduraOuyen0.00.0 Calder Highway (A79) – Mildura, BendigoNorthern terminus of highway and route B220
YarriambiackSpeed28.117.5 Patchewollock–Sea Lake Road (C248) – Patchewollock, Ninda
Lascelles54.934.1Mildura railway line
55.934.7 Henty Highway (B200) – Warracknabeal
Woomelang68.742.7 Hopetoun–Sea Lake Road (C246) – Hopetoun, Sea Lake
68.842.8Mildura railway line
69.543.2
BulokeBallapur107.066.5 Birchip–Rainbow Road (C243) – Rainbow
Birchip118.373.5 Birchip–Sea Lake Road (C244 north) – Sea Lake
Birchip–Wycheproof Road (C268 east) – Wycheproof
Morton Plains128.079.5 Warracknabeal–Birchip (C242) – Warracknabeal
Massey147.791.8Mildura railway line
Litchfield156.197.0 Borung Highway (C234 west) – Warracknabeal
Donald164.4102.2Mildura railway line
170.5105.9 Donald–Stawell Road (C238) – Marnoo, Stawell
171.2106.4 Borung Highway (C261 east) – Charlton, Swan Hill
172.9107.4Mildura railway line
Northern GrampiansSt Arnaud186.2115.7
209.2130.0 St Arnaud–Wycheproof Road (C271 northwest) – Wycheproof
Charlton–Wycheproof Road (C272 northeast) – Charlton
209.8130.4 Inkerman Street (B240) – Marnoo, HorshamConcurrency with route B240
210.6130.9 Inglewood Road (B240) – Tarnagulla, Marong, Bendigo
Moyreisk242.5150.7 Maryborough–St Arnaud Road (C275) – Maryborough
PyreneesTanwood258.8160.8 Stawell–Avoca Road (C221) – Stawell, Navarre
Avoca River268.3166.7Vale Bridge
PyreneesAvoca270.4168.0Avoca railway line
271.4168.6 Pyrenees Highway (B180) – Maryborough, Castlemaine, Ararat
Lexton294.6183.1 Lexton–Talbot Road (C172 east) – Talbot
Beaufort–Lexton Road (C172 west) – Beaufort
BallaratMitchell ParkMiners Rest boundary330.2205.2 Western Freeway (M8) – Horsham, Ararat, Bacchus Marsh, MelbourneSouthern terminus of highway and route B220 at trumpet interchange
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "Victorian Government Gazette". State Library of Victoria. 23 December 1914. p. 5855. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  2. ^ a b "Country Roads Board Victoria. Thirty-Fifth Annual Report: for the year ended 30 June 1948". Country Roads Board of Victoria. Melbourne: Victorian Government Library Service. 1 November 1948. p. 7.
  3. ^ a b c "Sunraysia Highway" (Map). Google Maps. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
  4. ^ "Victoria's Regions". Regional Development Victoria. Victoria State Government. 11 August 2021. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
  5. ^ a b c VicRoads. "VicRoads – Register of Public Roads 2024" (PDF). Government of Victoria. p. 948. Archived from the original on 19 June 2024. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
  6. ^ An Act relating to Country Roads State of Victoria, 23 December 1912
  7. ^ "Victorian Government Gazette". State Library of Victoria. 9 June 1915. p. 2028. Retrieved 11 July 2024.
  8. ^ a b "Victorian Government Gazette". State Library of Victoria. 16 August 1915. pp. 3122–3. Retrieved 15 July 2024.
  9. ^ "Victorian Government Gazette". State Library of Victoria. 16 June 1915. pp. 2111–2. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
  10. ^ An Act to make further provision with respect to Highways and Country Roads Motor Cars and Traction Engines and for other purposes State of Victoria, 30 December 1924
  11. ^ a b "Country Roads Board Victoria. Forty-Seventh Annual Report: for the year ended 30 June 1960". Country Roads Board of Victoria. Melbourne: Victorian Government Library Service. 21 November 1960. pp. 7–8.
  12. ^ "Country Roads Board Victoria. Sixtieth Annual Report: for the year ended 30 June 1973". Country Roads Board of Victoria. Melbourne: Victorian Government Library Service. 1 November 1973. p. 14.
  13. ^ "Road Construction Authority of Victoria. Annual Report for the year ended 30 June 1986". Road Construction Authority of Victoria. Melbourne: Victorian Government Library Service. 24 November 1986. p. 42.
  14. ^ State Government of Victoria. "Road Management Act 2004" (PDF). Government of Victoria. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 October 2021. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
[edit]

Media related to Sunraysia Highway at Wikimedia Commons