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Pyrenees Highway, Victoria

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Pyrenees Highway

Pyrenees Highway through Elmhurst
Pyrenees Highway, Victoria is located in Victoria
West end
West end
East end
East end
Coordinates
General information
TypeHighway
Length148.4 km (92 mi)[1]
GazettedMay 1915 (as Main Road)[2]
August 1938 (as State Highway)[3]
Route number(s) B180 (1998–present)
Former
route number
State Route 122 (1986–1998)
Major junctions
West end Mortlake-Ararat Road
Ararat, Victoria
 
East endBendigo-Sutton Grange Road
Elphinstone, Victoria
Location(s)
RegionGrampians, Loddon Mallee[4]
Major settlementsAmphitheatre, Avoca, Maryborough, Castlemaine, Chewton
Highway system

Pyrenees Highway is a rural highway in western Victoria, Australia, linking Ararat to Elphinstone.[5] It was named after the Pyrenees ranges, the set of low mountain ridges the road travels through.

Route

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Pyrenees Highway commences at the intersection with Western Highway and Mortlake-Ararat Road in Ararat and heads in a north-easterly direction as a two-lane, single carriageway rural highway, winding with gentle curves through the Pyrenees ranges through Elmhurst to Avoca where it meets Sunraysia Highway. It continues in an easterly direction through Maryborough to Castlemaine, where it meets Midland Highway, and continues east through Chewton before it eventually terminates at the interchange with Calder Freeway at Elphinstone.

History

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The passing of the Chinese Immigration Act 1855[6] through the Parliament of Victoria severely limited the number of Chinese passengers permitted on an arriving vessel. To evade the new law, ship's captains landed many Chinese in the south-east of South Australia, from where the new arrivals travelled more than 400 km across country to the Victorian goldfields, along tracks including what is now Pyrenees Highway.[7]

Pyrenees Highway at Willaura
Pyrenees Highway (B180) road sign at Willaura heading south between Ararat and Glenthompson.

Construction of a replacement Glenmona Bridge as a wrought-iron lattice-girder deck-truss bridge over Bet Bet Creek at Bung Bong was completed in 1871, and still stands, minus the deck, today; it replaced a timber structure from 1857 which was washed away by severe floods in 1870. It is the third-oldest of its type in Victoria, is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register,[8] and stands just to the south of the modern-day bridge used today by the highway.

The passing of the Country Roads Act of 1912[9] 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. Ararat-(Elmhurst-)Avoca Road from Ararat through Elmhurst and Amphitheatre to Avoca, and Avoca-Maryborough Road from Avoca to Bung Bong, were declared Main Roads on 31 May 1915;[2] Castlemaine–Maryborough Road was declared a Main Road between Maryborough through Carisbrook to Joyces Creek on 21 June 1915,[10] and between Joyces Creek through Newstead to Castlemaine on 28 June 1915;[11] and the rest of Avoca-Maryborough Road between Bung Bong and Maryborough was declared a Main Road on 21 June 1915.[10]

The passing of the Highways and Vehicles Act of 1924[12] provided for the declaration of State Highways, roads two-thirds financed by the State government through the Country Roads Board. Pyrenees Highway was declared a State Highway in August 1938,[3] cobbled together from roads between Calder Highway at Castlemaine via Maryborough and Avoca to Ararat (for a total of 92.5 miles), subsuming the original declarations of Ararat-Avoca Road, and Avoca-Maryborough Road Castlemaine–Maryborough Road as Main Roads. With the deviation of Calder Highway past Castlemaine declared in the 1959/60 financial year,[13] the previous alignment of Calder Highway between Castlemaine and Elphinstone was added to the eastern end of Pyrenees Highway.

Pyrenees Highway was signed as State Route 122 between Ararat and Elphinstone in 1986; with Victoria's conversion to the newer alphanumeric system in the late 1990s, this was replaced by route B180.

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 2011, VicRoads re-declared the road as Pyrenees Highway (Arterial #6740) between Western Highway in Ararat and Calder Freeway at Elphinstone;[5] while the road south of Ararat is signed solely as B180, it is not usually referred to as part of Pyrenees Highway.

Major intersections and towns

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LGALocation[1][5]km[1]miDestinationsNotes
AraratArarat0.00.0 Mortlake-Ararat Road (B180 south) – Glenthompson, Lake Bolac, MortlakeWestern terminus of highway, route B180 continues south along Mortlake-Ararat Road
Western Highway (A8) – Horsham, Ballarat, Melbourne
Dunneworthy16.910.5 Ararat-St Arnaud Road (C241) – Navarre, St Arnaud
Elmhurst31.719.7Avoca railway line
Pyrenees39.924.8
Amphitheatre49.530.8
Avoca River62.038.5Bridge name unknown
PyreneesAvoca62.338.7 High Street (B220) – Ouyen, St Arnaud, Ballarat
Bet Bet Creek70.343.7Bridge name unknown
Central GoldfieldsMaryborough84.852.7Avoca railway line
86.853.9 Maryborough-St Arnaud Road (C275) – Natte Yallock
87.754.5 Ballarat-Maryborough Road (C287) – Talbot, Clunes, Ballarat
88.354.9 Maryborough-Dunolly Road (C277) – Dunolly, Laanecoorie, Bendigo
89.455.6Mildura railway line
Carisbrook95.559.3 Landringan Road (C288 south) – Red LionConcurrency with route C288
96.059.7 Carisbrooke-Eddington Road (C288 north) – Eddington
Cairn Curran Reservoir113.170.3Bridge name unknown
Mount AlexanderNewstead118.173.4Mildura railway line
119.374.1 Hepburn–Newstead Road (C283/C285 south) – Franklinford,
to Creswick-Newstead Road (C283) – Creswick
Western terminus of concurrency with route C283
Loddon River119.674.3Bridge name unknown
Mount AlexanderNewstead120.074.6 Maldon-Newstead Road (C283 north) – Maldon, Lockwood SouthEastern terminus of concurrency with route C283
McKenzie Hill131.982.0 Castlemaine-Maldon Road (C282) – Maldon, Newbridge, Bridgewater
Castlemaine133.683.0Victorian Goldfields Railway
134.783.7 Midland Highway (A300 south) – Daylesford, Ballarat, GeelongSouthern terminus of concurrency with route A300
135.684.3Bendigo railway line
135.984.4 Midland Highway (A300 north) – Bendigo, Shepparton, BenallaNorthern terminus of concurrency with route A300
Elphinstone145.690.5Bendigo railway line
146.691.1Diggers Way – Elphinstone
146.991.3Bendigo railway line
147.891.8 Old Calder Highway (C794 south) – Elphinstone, Malmsbury
Harmony Way (north) – Faraday, Harcourt
148.492.2 Calder Freeway (M79) – Mildura, Bendigo, Melbourne
Bendigo-Sutton Grange Road – Sutton Grange, BendigoEastern terminus of highway and route B180
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

See also

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icon Australian Roads portal

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Pyrenees Highway" (Map). Google Maps. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
  2. ^ a b "Victorian Government Gazette". State Library of Victoria. 16 June 1915. p. 2111. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
  3. ^ a b "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. p. 4.
  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. 953. Archived from the original on 19 June 2024. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
  6. ^ "Chinese Immigration Act 1855 (Vic)". Documenting a Democracy. Museum of Australian Democracy. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  7. ^ "The Chinese Trek to Gold" (PDF). Australian Heritage. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 March 2015. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  8. ^ "Glenmona Bridge". 3 September 1999.
  9. ^ An Act relating to Country Roads State of Victoria, 23 December 1912
  10. ^ a b "Victorian Government Gazette". State Library of Victoria. 7 July 1915. p. 2336. Retrieved 11 July 2024.
  11. ^ "Victorian Government Gazette". State Library of Victoria. 14 July 1915. p. 2616. Retrieved 11 July 2024.
  12. ^ 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
  13. ^ "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.
  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.
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Media related to Pyrenees Highway at Wikimedia Commons