Murray Valley Highway
Murray Valley Highway is a rural highway located in Victoria, Australia, between Euston, New South Wales and Corryong, Victoria. The popular tourist route mostly follows the southern bank of the Murray River and effectively acts as the northernmost highway in Victoria. For all but the western end's last three kilometres, the highway is allocated route B400.
Route
Murray Valley Highway commences at the intersection with Sturt Highway just outside Euston, New South Wales and heads south to cross the Murray River over the Robinvale-Euston bridge at Robinvale and into Victoria; the western end of route B400 starts here. The highway continues in a south-easterly direction, tracking close to the southern bank of the Murray River for the majority of its length through the towns of Swan Hill, Kerang, Cohuna, Echuca, Nathalia, Strathmerton, Cobram, Yarrawonga and Rutherglen, until it reaches Wodonga, before heading in an easterly direction via Tallangatta until it eventually terminates at the foothills of the Great Dividing Range at Corryong; the road beyond crosses the border east into New South Wales as Alpine Way, to eventually reach Khancoban and Jindabyne.Most of the highway is fairly straight and flat, much of it through irrigated farmland. It becomes hillier and more winding east of Wodonga, with a moderately steep mountain pass near Shelley, midway between Tallangatta and Corryong.
History
Within Victoria, 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. Murray Valley Road was declared a Main Road on 30 November 1914, from Bonegilla over Sandy Creek, through Bethanga and Granya, following the course of the Murray River, to Burrowye; Kyabram-Nathalia Road from Wyuna to Nathalia, Swan Hill Road from Lake Boga to Swan Hill, Euston Road from Swan Hill through Nyah and Piangil to the punt over the Murray River to Euston, Yarrawonga-Cobram Road from Yarrawonga to Cobram, Cobram-Strathmerton Road from Cobram to Strathmerton, and Wangaratta-Yarrawonga Road between Bundalong and Yarrawonga was declared a Main Road on 28 May 1915; and Murray Valley Road between Nathalian and Strathmerton was declared a Main Road on 28 June 1926. Further sections were declared or built in the late 1920s and early 1930s by the Country Roads Board as part of a program of rural roads to facilitate development of the more remote parts of the state and provide connections between communities in addition to the roads and railways radiating out from Melbourne. Parts of the route included a stretch of newly-constructed road between Mildura and the South Australian border, opened in 1927.The passing of the Developmental Roads Act of 1918 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. Murray River Valley Road between Merbein and the state border with South Australia was declared a Developmental Road on 7 February 1927. The eastern end of the road was re-aligned to run from Bethangra and Talgarno to Tallangatta and Bullioh, to accommodate the opening of Hume Dam and the filling of Lake Hume.
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. Murray Valley Highway was declared a State Highway in September 1932, cobbled from a collection of existing and newly constructed roads running along the southern bank of the Murray River from Corryong through Walwa, Wodonga, Rutherglen, Yarrawonga, Cobram, Echuca, Swan Hill and Bannerton to the intersection with Calder Highway in Hattah, and again from Mildura to the state border with South Australia, subsuming the original declarations of Murray River Valley Road, Ruthergen-Wodonga Road, Wangaratta-Yarrawonga Road, Yarrawonga-Cobram Road, Cobram-Strathmerton Road, Kyabram-Nathalia Road, Lake Boga-Swan Hill Road, and Swan Hill-Euston Road as Main Roads, and Murray River Valley Road as a Developmental Road; this also subsumed a section of Omeo Highway between Tallangatta and Wodonga, with the northern end of Omeo Highway truncated to meet Murray Valley Highway in Tallangatta as a result.
Sturt Highway was rerouted to reach Renmark through Victoria instead of via Wentworth in 1939, subsuming the alignment of Murray Valley Highway between Mildura and the state border with South Australia; Murray Valley Highway was subsequently truncated to terminate at Calder Highway in Hattah. Robinvale Road, connecting the "irrigation settlement of Robinvale" to the highway, was declared a Main Road when it was surfaced for the first time in 1952, and later declared a State Highway as Robinvale Highway on 9 May 1983, between Robinvale and Lake Powell.
The alignment was further altered at both ends in 1990:
- its western end, running from Lake Powell via Bannerton to Hattah, was re-aligned to run through Robinvale along Robinvale Highway instead, subsuming it to terminate just outside Euston, New South Wales in May 1990; the former alignment is now known as Hattah-Robinvale Road.
- its eastern end, running through Thologolong, Walwa and Towong, was re-aligned to run along the more-direct, present-day route to Corryong in June 1990; the former alignment is now known as Murray River Road.
The passing of the Main Roads Act of 1929 through the Parliament of New South Wales on 8 April 1929 provided for the declaration of State Highways, Trunk Roads and Main Roads, partially funded by the New South Wales' state government through the Main Roads Board. Main Road 583 was declared on 17 June 1959, from the intersection with State Highway 14 at Euston to the state border with Victoria north of Robinvale; this declaration as a Main Road did not change when the road on the Victorian side of the bridge was declared a State Highway, despite adopting its name as Murray Valley Highway from the Victorian side of the road to remain contiguous. The road today, as Main Road 583, still retains this declaration.
Murray Valley Highway was signed National Route 16 across its entire length in 1955. With Victoria's conversion to the newer alphanumeric system in the late 1990s, its former route number was replaced by route B400 for the highway within Victoria; the New South Wales section was left signed as National Route 16 until switching to their alphanumeric system in 2013, after which it was left unallocated.
Upgrades
Major roadworks have taken place in the 2010s and 2020s around Echuca and Moama and are continuing. The project is being built in four stages:- Stage 1: Upgrade of the Murray Valley Highway and Warren Street intersection, completed in mid-2018
- Stage 2: Warren Street upgrade, completed November 2019
- Stage 3: Construction of new bridges over the Campaspe and Murray Rivers, major works started in March 2020
- Stage 4: Intersection upgrades to the Cobb Highway, Meninya Street and Perricoota Road intersection, works started in March 2020.