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.
Pyrenees Highway | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Pyrenees Highway through Elmhurst | |
  West end East end | |
| Coordinates | |
| General information | |
| Type | Highway |
| Length | 148.4 km (92 mi)[1] |
| Gazetted | May 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 end | Bendigo-Sutton Grange Road Elphinstone, Victoria |
| Location(s) | |
| Region | Grampians, Loddon Mallee[4] |
| Major settlements | Amphitheatre, Avoca, Maryborough, Castlemaine, Chewton |
| Highway system | |
Route
editPyrenees 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
editThe 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]
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
edit| LGA | Location[1][5] | km[1] | mi | Destinations | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ararat | Ararat | 0.0 | 0.0 | Mortlake-Ararat Road (B180 south) – Glenthompson, Lake Bolac, Mortlake | Western terminus of highway, route B180 continues south along Mortlake-Ararat Road |
 Western Highway (A8) – Horsham, Ballarat, Melbourne | |||||
| Dunneworthy | 16.9 | 10.5 |  Ararat-St Arnaud Road (C241) – Navarre, St Arnaud | ||
| Elmhurst | 31.7 | 19.7 | Avoca railway line | ||
| Pyrenees | 39.9 | 24.8 | |||
| Amphitheatre | 49.5 | 30.8 | |||
| Avoca River | 62.0 | 38.5 | Bridge name unknown | ||
| Pyrenees | Avoca | 62.3 | 38.7 |  High Street (B220) – Ouyen, St Arnaud, Ballarat | |
| Bet Bet Creek | 70.3 | 43.7 | Bridge name unknown | ||
| Central Goldfields | Maryborough | 84.8 | 52.7 | Avoca railway line | |
| 86.8 | 53.9 |  Maryborough-St Arnaud Road (C275) – Natte Yallock | |||
| 87.7 | 54.5 |  Ballarat-Maryborough Road (C287) – Talbot, Clunes, Ballarat | |||
| 88.3 | 54.9 |  Maryborough-Dunolly Road (C277) – Dunolly, Laanecoorie, Bendigo | |||
| 89.4 | 55.6 | Mildura railway line | |||
| Carisbrook | 95.5 | 59.3 |  Landringan Road (C288 south) – Red Lion | Concurrency with route C288 | |
| 96.0 | 59.7 | Carisbrooke-Eddington Road (C288 north) – Eddington | |||
| Cairn Curran Reservoir | 113.1 | 70.3 | Bridge name unknown | ||
| Mount Alexander | Newstead | 118.1 | 73.4 | Mildura railway line | |
| 119.3 | 74.1 |   Hepburn–Newstead Road (C283/C285 south) – Franklinford,to Creswick-Newstead Road (C283) – Creswick | Western terminus of concurrency with route C283 | ||
| Loddon River | 119.6 | 74.3 | Bridge name unknown | ||
| Mount Alexander | Newstead | 120.0 | 74.6 | Maldon-Newstead Road (C283 north) – Maldon, Lockwood South | Eastern terminus of concurrency with route C283 |
| McKenzie Hill | 131.9 | 82.0 |  Castlemaine-Maldon Road (C282) – Maldon, Newbridge, Bridgewater | ||
| Castlemaine | 133.6 | 83.0 | Victorian Goldfields Railway | ||
| 134.7 | 83.7 |  Midland Highway (A300 south) – Daylesford, Ballarat, Geelong | Southern terminus of concurrency with route A300 | ||
| 135.6 | 84.3 | Bendigo railway line | |||
| 135.9 | 84.4 | Midland Highway (A300 north) – Bendigo, Shepparton, Benalla | Northern terminus of concurrency with route A300 | ||
| Elphinstone | 145.6 | 90.5 | Bendigo railway line | ||
| 146.6 | 91.1 | Diggers Way – Elphinstone | |||
| 146.9 | 91.3 | Bendigo railway line | |||
| 147.8 | 91.8 |  Old Calder Highway (C794 south) – Elphinstone, MalmsburyHarmony Way (north) – Faraday, Harcourt | |||
| 148.4 | 92.2 |  Calder Freeway (M79) – Mildura, Bendigo, Melbourne | |||
| Bendigo-Sutton Grange Road – Sutton Grange, Bendigo | Eastern terminus of highway and route B180 | ||||
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi
| |||||
See also
edit
References
edit- ^ a b c "Pyrenees Highway" (Map). Google Maps. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
- ^ a b "Victorian Government Gazette". State Library of Victoria. 16 June 1915. p. 2111. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "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. 953. Archived from the original on 19 June 2024. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
- ^ "Chinese Immigration Act 1855 (Vic)". Documenting a Democracy. Museum of Australian Democracy. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
- ^ "The Chinese Trek to Gold" (PDF). Australian Heritage. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 March 2015. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
- ^ "Glenmona Bridge". 3 September 1999.
- ^ An Act relating to Country Roads State of Victoria, 23 December 1912
- ^ a b "Victorian Government Gazette". State Library of Victoria. 7 July 1915. p. 2336. Retrieved 11 July 2024.
- ^ "Victorian Government Gazette". State Library of Victoria. 14 July 1915. p. 2616. Retrieved 11 July 2024.
- ^ 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. 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.
- ^ 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
edit
Media related to Pyrenees Highway at Wikimedia Commons