Mallee Highway

Mallee Highway is a highway connecting Tailem Bend in south-eastern South Australia and Piangil in north-western Victoria,<ref name="vicreg" /> running mostly across the Mallee plains. It forms part of the shortest route between Adelaide and Sydney.

Route

Mallee Highway commences at the intersection with Dukes Highway just south-east of Tailem Bend in South Australia and runs east as a dual-lane, single-carriageway road, through cereal-growing farmland at the southern end of the Murray Mallee to Pinnaroo near the border with Victoria, where it crosses the Ngarkat and Browns Well Highways. It continues east into Victoria through Murrayville and Walpeup until it reaches Ouyen, where it meets Calder Highway, then continues east through Manangatang to Piangil, where it meets with Murray Valley Highway, then along Tooleybuc Road two kilometres to the north where it continues east until it eventually terminates at the New South Wales border and the Murray River at Tooleybuc, where the highway officially ends; the road continues through New South Wales eventually to meet Sturt Highway at Balranald.

History

Within Victoria, the passing of the Country Roads Act of 1912<ref>An Act relating to Country Roads State of Victoria, 23 December 1912</ref> 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. Ouyen-Pinnaroo Road was declared a Main Road from Ouyen via Walpeup and Murrayville to the state border with South Australia on 14 December 1914,<ref name="vicgovgaz14" /> and Tooleybuc Road was declared a Main Road from Swan Hill-Euston Road (today Murray Valley Highway) in Piangil to the state border with New South Wales (the Tooleybuc punt on the Murray River) on 23 August 1917.<ref name="vicgovgaz17">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The passing of the Developmental Roads Act of 1918<ref>An Act to make provision for Developmental Roads and to amend the Country Roads Acts State of Victoria, 4 April 1918</ref> 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 and Kulwin on 8 April 1920,<ref name="vicgovgaz2001">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and between Kulwin and Manangatang on 18 November 1920<ref name="vicgovgaz2002">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The passing of the Highways and Vehicles Act of 1924<ref>An Act to make further provision with respect to Highways and Country Roads Motor Cars and Traction Engines and for other purposes State of Victoria, 30 December 1924</ref> 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,<ref name="CRB35AR" /> from Calder Highway at Ouyen 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 the Transport Act of 1983,<ref>An Act to Re-enact with Amendments the Law relating to Transport including the Law with respect to Railways, Roads and Tramways... State of Victoria, 23 June 1983</ref> the highway was renamed as Mallee Highway, and extended east along the former Ouyen–Piangil Road to Piangil in December 1990,<ref name="vicgovgaz90">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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 between Tailem Bend and Ouyen in 1955Template:Citation needed, later extended with the road to Piangil in 1990Template: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 the Road Management Act 2004<ref name="roadact">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> granted the responsibility of overall management and development of Victoria's major arterial roads to VicRoads: in 2004, VicRoads re-declared the road as Mallee Highway (Arterial #6650), beginning at the South Australian border at Panitya and ending at the New South Wales border in Piangil.<ref name="vicreg">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Major intersections and towns

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See also

• Highways in Australia
• Highways in Victoria
• List of highways in New South Wales
• List of highways in South Australia

External links

• Mallee Highway Touring Route