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Wimmera Highway

Victoria
–South Australia
Wimmera Highway; Victoria–South Australia
	Wimmera Highway passing through Rupanyup
	East end West end
Coordinates	36°44′33″S 144°07′48″E / 36.742535°S 144.129863°E (East end); 36°57′32″S 140°43′52″E / 36.958816°S 140.731210°E (West end);
General information
Type	Highway
Length	346.1 km (215 mi)
Gazetted	March 1915 (as Main Road); 1959/60 (as State Highway)
Route number(s)	B240 (2003–present); (Marong–VIC/SA border); C240 (1998–present); (VIC/SA border–Naracoorte);
Former; route number	C240 (1998–2003); (Marong–VIC/SA border); State Route 130 (1986–1998); (St Arnaud–Naracoorte);
Major junctions
East end	Calder Alternative Highway; Marong, Victoria
	Sunraysia Highway; Henty Highway; Western Highway; Riddoch Highway;
West end	Lucindale Road; Naracoorte, South Australia
Location(s)
Region	Limestone Coast, Grampians, Loddon Mallee
Major settlements	Newbridge, St Arnaud, Rupanyup, Murtoa, Horsham, Natimuk, Edenhope, Apsley
Highway system
	Highways in Australia; National Highway • Freeways in Australia; Highways in Victoria; ; Highways in South Australia;

Wimmera Highway is a 345 kilometre rural highway that runs predominately through the Wimmera region of western Victoria, after which the highway is named. It links the towns of Marong, Victoria, just to the west of the major regional centre of Bendigo in Victoria, and Naracoorte, in the south-eastern corner of South Australia.^[6]

Route

Wimmera Highway commences at the intersection with Calder Alternative Highway in Marong and heads in a westerly direction as a two-lane, single carriageway rural highway to Newbridge, where it crosses the Loddon River, and continues westwards until it meets Sunraysia Highway in St Arnaud. It continues west through Rupanyup until it reaches Henty Highway in Dooen, where it forms a concurrency with it and heads southwest into the regional city of Horsham, where it meets Western Highway. It continues in a south-westerly direction on its own alignment through Edenhope, before it crosses the interstate border into South Australia and eventually terminates at the intersection with Riddoch Highway in Naracoorte.

History

The passing of the Country Roads Act of 1912^[7] 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. Horsham-Natimuk(-Edenhope) Road from Horsham to the southern end of Karnak, Edenhope-Goroke Road from the southern end of Karnak to Edenhope (and continuing north to Goroke), and Hamilton-Edenhope-Aspley Road from Edenhope through Aspley to the South Australian border (and continuing east to Harrow), were declared Main Roads on 17 March 1915;^[1] and Rupanyup–Murtoa Road between Rupanyup to Murtoa was declared a Main Road on 28 May 1915.^[8]

The passing of the Highways and Vehicles Act of 1924^[9] provided for the declaration of State Highways, roads two-thirds financed by the State government through the Country Roads Board. Wimmera Highway was declared a State Highway in the 1959/60 financial year,^[2] from St Arnaud via Rupanyup, Horsham and Edenhope to the South Australian border (for a total of 146 miles), subsuming the original declarations of Rupanyup–Murtoa Road, Horsham-Natimuk-Edenhope Road, Edenhope-Goroke Road (between Karnak and Edenhope) and Hamilton-Edenhope-Aspley Road (between Edenhope and the SA border) as Main Roads; before this declaration, these roads were also referred to as Horsham–Murtoa Road, Marnoo–St Arnaud Road and Navarre Road.^[2] The highway was extended a further 90km east (along the former Bendigo–St Arnaud Road^[10]) to Marong, just outside Bendigo, in the late 1990s.

A new bridge over Loddon River in Newbridge (on the then-Bendigo-St Arnaud Road) was opened in 1996, replacing an older, flood-prone structure that could no longer be maintained in a cost-effective manner, at a cost of $1.4 million.^[10]

Wimmera Highway was signed as State Route 130 between Naracoorte and St Arnaud in 1986; with Victoria's conversion to the newer alphanumeric system in the late 1990s, this was replaced by route C240 between Naracoorte and Marong. Subsequent road upgrades allowed the Victorian section to be reallocated route B240 in 2003.

The passing of the Road Management Act 2004^[11] granted the responsibility of overall management and development of Victoria's major arterial roads to VicRoads: in 2004, VicRoads re-declared the road as Wimmera Highway (Arterial #6110), beginning at the South Australian border and ending at Calder Alternative Highway in Marong.^[6]

Major intersections

State	LGA^[12]	Location^[3]^[6]^[13]	km^[3]	mi	Destinations	Notes
Victoria	Greater Bendigo	Marong	0.0	0.0	Calder Alternative Highway (A790) – Bendigo, Ravenswood	Eastern terminus of highway and route B240
	Loddon	Newbridge	20.0	12.4	Bridgewater–Maldon Road (C282 north) – Bridgewater	Concurrency with route C282
	Loddon	Newbridge	21.0	13.0	Bridgewater–Maldon Road (C282 south) – Maldon	Concurrency with route C282
	Wimmera River		21.7	13.5	Bridge name unknown
	Loddon	Llanelly	26.0	16.2	Bridgewater–Dunolly Road (C274 north) – Bridgewater	Concurrency with route C274
		Tarnagulla	30.1	18.7	Bridgewater–Dunolly Road (C274 south) – Dunolly	Concurrency with route C274
		Tarnagulla	31.8	19.8	Robinvale railway line
		Moliagul	46.3	28.8	Dunolly–Moliagul Road (C278) – Dunolly
		Logan	67.5	41.9	Logan–Wedderburn Road (C273) – Wedderburn
	Avoca River		69.4	43.1	Bridge name unknown
	Northern Grampians	St Arnaud	89.5	55.6	Sunraysia Highway (B220 south) – Donald, Ouyen	Concurrency with route B220
			90.3	56.1	Sunraysia Highway (B220 north) – Avoca, Ballarat	Concurrency with route B220
			90.7	56.4	Mildura railway line
			95.7	59.5	Ararat–St Arnaud Road (C241) – Ararat
		Marnoo	129.3	80.3	Donald–Stawell Road – Donald, Stawell
		Rupanyup	151.9	94.4	Stawell–Warracknabeal Road (B210 south) – Stawell	Concurrency with route B210
		Rupanyup	153.3	95.3	Stawell–Warracknabeal Road (B210 north) – Warracknabeal	Concurrency with route B210
	Yarriambiack	Murtoa	167.3	104.0	Western SG railway line
			168.1	104.5	Murtoa–Glenorchy Road (C237 south) – Glenorchy	Concurrency with route C237
			168.6	104.8	Donald–Murtoa Road (C237 north) – Minyip	Concurrency with route C237
	Horsham	Jung	183.5	114.0	Western SG railway line
		Dooen	187.9	116.8	Henty Highway (B200 north) – Warracknabeal, Hopetoun	Northern terminus of concurrency with route B200
		Dooen	189.9	118.0	Western SG railway line
		Horsham	197.8	122.9	Western Highway (A8 west) – Nhill, Bordertown	Southern terminus of concurrency with route B200 Northern terminus of concurrency with routes A8/A200
		Horsham	198.4	123.3	Western Highway (A8/200 south) – Stawell, Ballarat, to Henty Highway (A200 south) – Branxholme, Portland	Southern terminus of concurrency with routes A8/A200
		Vectis	208.3	129.4	Horsham–Noradjuha Road (C214) – Toolondo
	Wimmera River		218.6	135.8	Bridge name unknown
	Horsham	Natimuk	220.4	137.0	Natimuk–Hamilton Road (C219) – Toolondo, Balmoral
	Horsham	Natimuk	223.8	139.1	Natimuk–Frances Road (C213) – Goroke
	West Wimmera	Miga Lake	253.3	157.4	Nhill–Harrow Road (C206) – Nhill, Harrow
		Edenhope	289.5	179.9	Kaniva–Edenhope Road (C208 north) – Kaniva	Concurrency with route C208
			291.4	181.1	Coleraine–Edenhope Road (C208 south) – Harrow, Casterton	Concurrency with route C208
			297.2	184.7	Edenhope–Penola Road (C212) – Langkoop
		Aspley	313.4	194.7	Casterton–Naracoorte Road (C211) – Langkoop, Casterton
		Aspley	323.3	200.9	Wimmera Highway (B240)	Western terminus of route B240
State border					Victoria – South Australia state border
South Australia	Naracoorte Lucindale	Hynam			Wimmera Highway (C240)	Eastern terminus of route C240
		Hynam	334.8	208.0	Frances Road – Frances
		Naracoorte	346.1	215.1	Riddoch Highway (A66 north, south) – Mount Gambier, Keith
		Naracoorte	346.1	215.1	Lucindale Road (west) – Lucindale, Robe	Western terminus of highway and route C240 at roundabout
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi Concurrency terminus Route transition