Maroondah Highway
Maroondah Highway (also known as Whitehorse Road from Deepdene to Mitcham) is a major east–west thoroughfare in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, and a highway connecting the north-eastern fringes of Melbourne to the lower alpine region of Victoria, Australia.
Maroondah Highway Whitehorse Road | |
|---|---|
| Maroondah Highway, Ringwood North | |
| General information | |
| Type | Highway |
| Length | 188 km (117 mi)[1] |
| Route number(s) |
|
| Former route number |
|
| Major junctions | |
| Southwest end | Cotham Road Deepdene, Melbourne |
| Northeast end | Mount Buller Road Mansfield, Victoria |
| Location(s) | |
| Major settlements | Nunawading, Ringwood, Lilydale, Coldstream, Healesville, Buxton, Alexandra, Merton |
| Highway system | |
Route
Whitehorse Road/Maroondah Hwy begins as a continuation of Cotham Road at Burke Road, through the suburbs of Balwyn and Deepdene. At this point, it is a typical inner-Melbourne, four lane, single carriageway arterial road. The route 109 tram also runs along this stretch of the road.[2] The road continues through Mont Albert, until its intersection with Elgar Road in Box Hill, where the road becomes a four lane dual carriageway with trams running down the central median strip. Burke Road and Elgar Roads being the east and west boundaries of Captain Elgar's original two mile square property. The tram terminates at Market Street, a few blocks further on. It passes through the suburbs of Blackburn, Nunawading and Mitcham. From Ringwood, the road is known only as Maroondah Highway and it continues north-east past Croydon towards Lilydale where it becomes a rural highway. There is a moderately steep and moderately twisty section through forest between Healesville and Buxton, and the road then continues through farmland all the way through to Mansfield via Alexandra and Bonnie Doon.
History
In the 1850s, Whitehorse Road was built to be the primary route from Melbourne to Gippsland, a rather circuitous route which went via the Dandenong Ranges[citation needed]. Today the primary route is now via the Monash and Princes Freeways.
The road, when first built, was named Three Chain Road, due to the road width being 66 yards (60 m) wide.[citation needed]
The traffic led to the establishment of a hotel in Box Hill named the White Horse hotel which had been named for a horse belonging to Captain Elgar, a property owner in the area. It is this hotel of which the road obtained its name. However, the hotel was forced to shut its doors in 1921 when Box Hill became a dry area. A replica of the white horse from the roof of the hotel now stands in the median strip of Whitehorse Road, while the restored original is located in the Box Hill Town Hall.[3]
The passing of the Highways and Vehicles Act of 1924[4] through the Parliament of Victoria provided for the declaration of State Highways, roads two-thirds financed by the State government through the Country Roads Board (later VicRoads). The Maroondah Highway was declared a State Highway in the 1947/48 financial year,[5] from Union Road in Surrey Hills via Lilydale, Healesville, Alexandra, Yarck and Merton to Mansfield (for a total of 116 miles); before this declaration, the roads were referred to as (Main) Healesville Road, Healesville-Alexandra Road, Yarck Road and Mansfield Road.[6] The Maroondah Link Highway was later declared in June 1983 along the former Cathkin-Mansfield Road.[7][8]
The Maroondah Highway was signed as Metropolitan Route 34 between Deepdene and Lilydale in 1965, later extended to Alexandra in 1986,[9] and signed State Route 153 between Yarck and Mansfield in 1986.[9] With Victoria's conversion to the newer alphanumeric system in the late 1990s, Metropolitan Route 34 was truncated back to Lilydale, and replaced by routes B300 between Lilydale and Coldstream, route B360 between Coldstream and Alexandra, C516 between Koriella and Yarck, B300 between Yarck and Maindample, and B320 between Maindample and Mansfield. Maroondah Link Highway was signed State Route 153 between Cathkin and Yarck in 1986, and was later replaced by route B300.
The passing of the Road Management Act 2004[10] granted the responsibility of overall management and development of Victoria's major arterial roads to VicRoads: in 2004, VicRoads declared this road as Whitehorse Road (Arterial #5996), beginning from Burke Road in Balwyn and ending at Union Road, Surrey Hills,[11] as Maroondah Highway (Arterial #6720), from Burke Road to where it meets Midland Highway in Manfield[12] (this declaration overlaps the Whitehorse Road declaration in its entirety, where dual-naming is observed on signposts, but confusingly such dual-naming has been signposted as far east as Mitcham Road), and as Maroondah Link Highway (Arterial #6020), from Goulburn Valley Highway in Cathkin to Maroondah Highway in Yarck.[13]
Major intersections and towns
| LGA | Location[1][12] | km[1] | mi | Destinations | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boroondara | Kew-Deepdene boundary | 0.0 | 0.0 | Cotham Road (Metro Route 34) – Kew, Collingwood, Parkville | Western terminus of highway and Whitehorse Road; Metro Route 34 continues west along Cotham Road |
| Burke Road (Metro Route 17) – Camberwell, Heidelberg | |||||
| Balwyn | 1.8 | 1.1 | Balwyn Road – Canterbury, Bulleen | ||
| Surrey Hills | 3.4 | 2.1 | Union Road – Surrey Hills, Balwyn | Eastern terminus of Whitehorse Road (declared) | |
| Mont Albert-Box Hill boundary | 4.8 | 3.0 | Elgar Road – Burwood, Doncaster | ||
| Whitehorse | Box Hill | 5.6 | 3.5 | Station Street (Metro Route 47) – Huntingdale, Doncaster | |
| Box Hill-Blackburn boundary | 6.9 | 4.3 | Middleborough Road (Metro Route 23) – Clayton, Mount Waverley, Doncaster | ||
| Blackburn | 8.3 | 5.2 | Chapel Street (Blackburn Road) (Metro Route 13 north) – Blackburn, Syndal, Monash University | Concurrency with Metro Route 13 | |
| 8.5 | 5.3 | Surrey Road (Blackburn Road) (Metro Route 13 south) – Doncaster East, Warrandyte | |||
| Nunawading | 10.2 | 6.3 | Springvale Road (Metro Route 40) – Glen Waverley, Donvale | ||
| Mitcham | 11.8 | 7.3 | Mitcham Road (Metro Route 36) – Wantirna, Donvale, Doncaster | Eastern terminus of Whitehorse Road (sign-posted) | |
| Maroondah | Ringwood | 13.8 | 8.6 | EastLink (M3) – Clifton Hill, Frankston Ringwood Bypass (Metro Route 62) – Ringwood | Modified SPUI northbound exit from EastLink westbound only |
| 14.8 | 9.2 | Wantirna Road (Metro Route 9 south) – Wantirna | Concurrency with Metro Route 9 | ||
| 15.2 | 9.4 | Warrandyte Road (Metro Route 9 north) – Warrandyte | |||
| 15.8 | 9.8 | Ringwood Bypass (Metro Route 62 west) – Ringwood Mount Dandenong Road (Metro Route 62 east) – Croydon, Mount Dandenong | |||
| Croydon | 20.2 | 12.6 | Kent Avenue (Metro Route 7 south) – Croydon, Bayswater | Concurrency with Metro Route 7 | |
| Croydon North-Croydon boundary | 20.4 | 12.7 | Yarra Road (Metro Route 7 north) – Wonga Park, Warrandyte | ||
| 22.9 | 14.2 | Dorset Road (Metro Route 5) – Boronia, Ferntree Gully | |||
| Yarra Ranges | Lilydale | 29.0 | 18.0 | Anderson Street (C401) – Montrose, Bayswater, to Hereford Road (C404) – Monbulk | Eastern terminus of Metro Route 34, western terminus of route B300 |
| 30.8 | 19.1 | Warburton Highway (B380) – Woori Yallock, Warburton | |||
| Coldstream | 34.2 | 21.3 | Melba Highway (B300) – Yarra Glen | Route B300 continues north; western terminus of route B360 | |
| Healesville | 46.5 | 28.9 | Yarra River | ||
| 48.7 | 30.3 | Healesville–Koo Wee Rup Road (C411) – Woori Yallock, Cockatoo, Pakenham, Koo Wee Rup | |||
| 50.7 | 31.5 | Healesville-Kinglake Road (C724) – Yarra Glen, Kinglake, Yea | |||
| 51.5 | 32.0 | Badger Creek Road (C505) – Badger Creek | |||
| 51.9 | 32.2 | Don Road (C506) – Mount Donna Buang, Yarra Junction | |||
| Murrindindi | Narbethong | 75.5 | 46.9 | Marysville Road (C512) – Marysville, to Archeron Way (C507) – Warburton | |
| Buxton | 89.9 | 55.9 | Buxton-Marysville Road (C508) – Lake Mountain, Marysville | ||
| Taggerty | 101.5 | 63.1 | Taggerty-Thornton Road (C515) – Eildon, Jamieson | ||
| Alexandra | 116.7 | 72.5 | Goulburn River | ||
| 119.2 | 74.1 | Goulburn Valley Highway (B340 east) – Eildon | Concurrency with route B340 | ||
| Koriella | 126.1 | 78.4 | Goulburn Valley Highway (B340 west) – Yea, Seymour | ||
| Yarck | 132.0 | 82.0 | Maroondah Link Highway (B300) – Yea, Yarra Glen, Melbourne | Southbound exit to and northbound entrance from Maroondah Link Highway only | |
| Mansfield | Merton | 150.9 | 93.8 | Euroa-Mansfield Road (C366) – Euroa, Shepparton | |
| Bonnie Doon | 167.6 | 104.1 | Lake Eildon | ||
| Maindample | 175.3 | 108.9 | Midland Link Highway (B300) – Benalla | Route B300 continues north; western terminus of route B320 | |
| Mansfield | 187.5 | 116.5 | Midland Highway (C518 north) – Benalla Highett Street (south) – Mansfield | Roundabout | |
| Mount Buller Road (C320) – Mount Buller, Whitfield | Road continues east as Mount Buller Road Eastern terminus of route B320; western terminus of route C320 | ||||
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi
| |||||
See also
References
- ^ a b c Google. "Maroondah Highway" (Map). Google Maps. Google.
- ^ "109 Box Hill - Port Melbourne". Public Transport Victoria.
- ^ "Box Hill – Place". eMelbourne. University of Melbourne. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
- ^ State of Victoria, An Act to make further provision with respect to Highways and Country Roads Motor Cars and Traction Engines and for other purposes 30 December 1924
- ^ "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.
- ^ "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. 86, 88, 93–4.
- ^ "Road Construction Authority of Victoria. Annual Report for the year ended 30 June 1984". Road Construction Authority of Victoria. Melbourne: Victorian Government Library Service. 21 December 1984. p. 54.
- ^ "Victorian Government Gazette". State Library of Victoria. 30 June 1983. p. 1973. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
- ^ a b "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. (PDF) from the original on 19 October 2021. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
- ^ VicRoads. "VicRoads – Register of Public Roads (Part A) 2015" (PDF). Government of Victoria. p. 932. from the original on 1 May 2020. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
- ^ a b VicRoads. "VicRoads – Register of Public Roads (Part A) 2015" (PDF). Government of Victoria. pp. 1020–1. from the original on 1 May 2020. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
- ^ VicRoads. "VicRoads – Register of Public Roads (Part A) 2015" (PDF). Government of Victoria. p. 936. from the original on 1 May 2020. Retrieved 19 October 2021.