# Wimmera Highway

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.

## 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 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; and Rupanyup–Murtoa Road between Rupanyup to Murtoa was declared a Main Road on 28 May 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. Wimmera Highway was declared a State Highway in the 1959/60 financial year, 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. The highway was extended a further 90km east (along the former Bendigo–St Arnaud Road) 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.
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 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.

## Major intersections

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