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
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
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]
The passing of the Highways and Vehicles Act of 1924[7] 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); before this declaration, the roads were referred to as St Arnaud-Birchip Road, Avoca-St Arnaud Road and Avoca-Ballarat Road.[8] In the 1959/60 financial year, another section from Birchip via Woomelang to Lascelles was added,[9] 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.[9] 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.[10]
Sunraysia Highway was signed as State Route 121 between Ouyen and Ballarat in 1986;[11] 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[12] 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
| LGA | Location[3][5] | km[3] | mi | Destinations | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mildura | Ouyen | 0.0 | 0.0 |  Calder Highway (A79) – Mildura, Bendigo | Northern terminus of highway and route B220 |
| Yarriambiack | Speed | 28.1 | 17.5 |  Patchewollock–Sea Lake Road (C248) – Patchewollock, Ninda | |
| Lascelles | 55.9 | 34.7 |  Henty Highway (B200) – Warracknabeal | ||
| Woomelang | 68.8 | 42.8 |  Hopetoun–Sea Lake Road (C246) – Hopetoun, Sea Lake | ||
| Buloke | Ballapur | 107.0 | 66.5 |  Birchip–Rainbow Road (C243) – Rainbow | |
| Birchip | 118.3 | 73.5 |  Birchip–Sea Lake Road (C244 north) – Sea Lake Birchip–Wycheproof Road (C268 east) – Wycheproof | ||
| Morton Plains | 128.0 | 79.5 |  Warracknabeal–Birchip (C242) – Warracknabeal | ||
| Litchfield | 156.1 | 97.0 |  Borung Highway (C234 west) – Warracknabeal | ||
| Donald | 170.5 | 105.9 |  Donald–Stawell Road (C238) – Marnoo, Stawell | ||
| 171.2 | 106.4 |  Borung Highway (C261 east) – Charlton, Swan Hill | |||
| Northern Grampians | St Arnaud | 209.2 | 130.0 |  St Arnaud–Wycheproof Road (C271 northwest) – Wycheproof St Arnaud–Wycheproof Road (C272 northeast) – Charlton | |
| 209.8 | 130.4 |  Inkerman Street (Wimmera Highway) (B240) – Marnoo, Horsham | Concurrency with route B240 | ||
| 210.6 | 130.9 | Inglewood Road (Wimmera Highway) (B240) – Tarnagulla, Marong, Bendigo | |||
| Moyreisk | 242.5 | 150.7 |  Maryborough–St Arnaud Road (C275) – Maryborough | ||
| Pyrenees | Tanwood | 258.8 | 160.8 |  Stawell–Avoca Road (C221) – Stawell, Navarre | |
| Avoca | 271.4 | 168.6 |  Pyrenees Highway (B180) – Maryborough, Castlemaine, Ararat | ||
| Lexton | 294.6 | 183.1 |  Lexton–Talbot Road (C172 east) – Talbot Beaufort–Lexton Road (C172 west) – Beaufort | ||
| Ballarat | Mitchell Park–Miners Rest boundary | 330.2 | 205.2 |  Western Freeway (M8) – Horsham, Ararat, Bacchus Marsh, Melbourne | Southern terminus of highway and route B220 at trumpet interchange |
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi
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See also
References
- ^ a b "Victorian Government Gazette". State Library of Victoria. 23 December 1914. p. 5855. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b c Google (12 October 2021). "Sunraysia Highway" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
- ^ "Victoria's Regions". Regional Development Victoria. Victoria State Government. 11 August 2021. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
- ^ 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.
- ^ An Act relating to Country Roads State of Victoria, 23 December 1912
- ^ 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
- ^ "Country Roads Board Victoria. Twenty-Sixth Annual Report: for the year ended 30 June 1939". Country Roads Board of Victoria. Melbourne: Victorian Government Library Service. 10 November 1939. pp. 84, 88, 92, 98.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "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.
- ^ 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.
External links
Media related to Sunraysia Highway at Wikimedia Commons
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