McIvor Highway

McIvor Highway is a short Victorian highway linking Bendigo and Heathcote. Together with Hume Freeway and Northern Highway, it provides an alternative route between Melbourne and Bendigo. The name 'McIvor' refers to the original name of the Heathcote region, used during the Victorian gold rush.

Route

McIvor Highway commences at the intersection with Midland Highway in Bendigo and heads in an easterly direction as a two-lane, single carriageway rural highway through Axedale, before it crosses the Campaspe River then continues in a south-easterly direction past the eastern shores of Lake Eppalock before it eventually terminates at the intersection with Northern Highway at Heathcote.

The passing of the Country Roads Act of 1912 through the Parliament of Victoria provided for the establishment of the Country Roads Board and their ability to declare Main Roads, taking responsibility for the management, construction and care of the state's major roads from local municipalities. Heathcote-Bendigo Road was declared a Main Road, between Axedale to Heathcote on 28 May 1915, and between Bendigo and Axedale on 21 June 1915.
The passing of the Highways and Vehicles Act of 1924 provided for the declaration of State Highways, roads two-thirds financed by the State government through the Country Roads Board. Eppalock Highway was declared a State Highway in the 1959/60 financial year, from Heathcote to Bendigo, subsuming the original declaration of Kilmore-Heathcote-Bendigo Road as a Main Road. The highway was later renamed McIvor Highway in 1962.
McIvor Highway was signed as State Route 141 between Bendigo and Heathcote in 1986; with Victoria's conversion to the newer alphanumeric system in the late 1990s, this was replaced by route B280.
The passing of the Road Management Act 2004 granted the responsibility of overall management and development of Victoria's major arterial roads to VicRoads: in 2004, VicRoads re-declared the road as Pyrenees Highway between Midland Highway in Bendigo and Northern Highway at Heathcote.