Mallee Highway –Victoria | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Coordinates | |
| General information | |
| Type | Highway |
| Length | 374.4 km (233 mi)[3] |
| Gazetted | December 1914(as Main Road)[1] 1947/48(as State Highway)[2] |
| Route number(s) |  B12(1997/1998–present) |
| Former route number |  National Route 12(1955–1997/1998) |
| Major junctions | |
| West end |  Dukes HighwayTailem Bend, South Australia |
| East end | Tooleybuc Road VIC/NSW border |
| Location(s) | |
| Region | Murray and Mallee,[4]Loddon Mallee[5] |
| Major settlements | Lameroo,Pinnaroo,Murrayville,Walpeup,Ouyen,Manangatang |
| Highway system | |
Mallee Highway is a highway connectingTailem Bend in south-easternSouth Australia andPiangil in north-westernVictoria,[6] running mostly across theMallee plains. It forms part of the shortest route betweenAdelaide andSydney.
Mallee Highway commences at the intersection withDukes Highway just south-east ofTailem Bend in South Australia and runs east as a dual-lane, single-carriageway road, through cereal-growing farmland at the southern end of theMurray Mallee toPinnaroo near the border with Victoria, where it crosses theNgarkat andBrowns Well Highways. It continues east into Victoria throughMurrayville andWalpeup until it reachesOuyen, where it meetsCalder Highway, then continues east throughManangatang toPiangil, where it meets withMurray Valley Highway, then along Tooleybuc Road two kilometres to the north where it continues east until it eventually terminates at theNew South Wales border and theMurray River atTooleybuc, where the highway officially ends.
Beyond the New South Wales border, the road continues toBalranald, where it meets theSturt Highway. This stretch of road is named theBalranald-Tooleybuc Road, and also known as theYanga Way. However, it does not formally form part of the Mallee Highway and has not been assigned a route number.
Within Victoria, the passing of theCountry Roads Act of 1912[7] through theParliament of Victoria provided for the establishment of theCountry Roads Board (laterVicRoads) and their ability to declare Main Roads, taking responsibility for the management, construction and care of the state's major roads from local municipalities.Ouyen-Pinnaroo Road was declared a Main Road fromOuyen viaWalpeup andMurrayville to the state border withSouth Australia on 14 December 1914,[1] andTooleybuc Road was declared a Main Road from Swan Hill-Euston Road (todayMurray Valley Highway) inPiangil to the state border withNew South Wales (the Tooleybuc punt on the Murray River) on 23 August 1917.[8]
The passing of theDevelopmental Roads Act of 1918[9] allowed the Country Road Board to declare Developmental Roads, serving to develop any area of land by providing access to a railway station for primary producers.Ouyen-(Kulwin-)Manangatang Road was declared a Developmental Road, between Ouyen andKulwin on 8 April 1920,[10] and between Kulwin andManangatang on 18 November 1920[11]
The passing of theHighways 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.Ouyen Highway was declared a State Highway within Victoria in the 1947/48 financial year,[2] fromCalder Highway atOuyen via Murrayville and Walpeup to the border (for a total of 81 miles), subsuming the original declaration of Ouyen-Pinnaroo Road as a Main Road.
With the passing of theTransport Act of 1983,[13] the highway was renamed asMallee Highway, and extended east along the formerOuyen–Piangil Road toPiangil in December 1990,[14] subsuming the original declarations of Tooleybuc Road as a Main Road and Ouyen-Manangatang Road as a Developmental Road.
The highway was signed as National Route 12 betweenTailem Bend andOuyen in 1955[citation needed], later extended with the road to Piangil in 1990[citation needed]. With both states' conversion to their newer alphanumeric systems in the late 1990s, its former route number was updated to B12 in 1997 (within Victoria), and in 1998 (in South Australia).
The passing of theRoad Management Act 2004[15] granted the responsibility of overall management and development of Victoria's major arterial roads toVicRoads: in 2004, VicRoads re-declared the road asMallee Highway (Arterial #6650), beginning at the South Australian border atPanitya and ending at the New South Wales border inPiangil.[6]
| State | LGA[16] | Location[3][6][17] | km[3] | mi | Destinations | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Australia | The Coorong | Tailem Bend | 0.0 | 0.0 | Dukes Highway (A8) – Adelaide,Keith,Bordertown,Melbourne | Western terminus of highway and route B12 |
| Moorlands | 14.5 | 9.0 | Old Dukes Highway – Coomandook | |||
| Sherlock | 29.7 | 18.5 | Kulkawurra Road (north) – Karoonda Tynan Road (south) – Yumali | |||
| Southern Mallee | Lameroo | 98.5 | 61.2 | Billiat Road – Alawoona | Roundabout | |
| Pinnaroo | 132.7 | 82.5 |  Ngarkat Highway (B57 south) – Bordertown,Naracoorte | Concurrency with route B57 | ||
| 139.3 | 86.6 | Browns Well Highway (B57 north) – Loxton,Renmark | ||||
| State border | 145.0 | 90.1 | South Australia – Victoria state border | |||
| Victoria | Mildura | Panitya | 148.4 | 92.2 | Panitya Road – Panitya | |
| Murrayville | 166.4 | 103.4 | Murrayville–Nhill Road – Nhill | |||
| Boinka | 205.9 | 127.9 | Boinka South Road – Tutye | |||
| Underbool | 226.3 | 140.6 | Underbool–Patchewollock Road – Patchewollock | |||
| Walpeup | 246.1 | 152.9 |  Walpeup–Patchewollock Road (C247) – Patchewollock,Hopetoun | |||
| Ouyen | 273.0 | 169.6 | Ouyen–Patchewollock Road – Patchewollock,Hopetoun | |||
| 275.3 | 171.1 |  Calder Highway (A79 south) – Ballarat,Bendigo,Melbourne | Concurrency with route A79 | |||
| 275.5 | 171.2 | Calder Highway (A79 north) – Red Cliffs,Mildura | ||||
| Swan Hill | Manangatang | 330.0 | 205.1 |  Robinvale–Sea Lake Road (C251) – Robinvale,Sea Lake | ||
| Piangil | 371.1 | 230.6 |  Murray Valley Highway (B400 south) – Swan Hill,Melbourne | Concurrency with route B12 | ||
| 373.0 | 231.8 | Murray Valley Highway (B400 north) – Robinvale | ||||
| 374.4 | 232.6 | Tooleybuc Road – Tooleybuc,Balranald | Eastern terminus of highway and route B12; road continues as Yanga Way toBalranald | |||
| State border | Victoria – New South Wales state border | |||||
| New South Wales | Murray River | Tooleybuc Bridge | ||||
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi
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Media related toMallee Highway at Wikimedia Commons
Road infrastructure in regionalVictoria | |||
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| Freeways and dual carriageways | |||
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