Glenelg Highway

Glenelg Highway is a rural highway in south-eastern Australia, linking the major regional centres of Mount Gambier in south-eastern South Australia with Ballarat in western Victoria.^[6]

Glenelg Highway Victoria –South Australia
West end East end
Coordinates	37.850895°S 140.852153°E / -37.850895; 140.852153 (West end) 37.585148°S 143.840849°E / -37.585148; 143.840849 (East end)
General information
Type	Highway
Length	299.8 km (186 mi)[1]
Gazetted	November 1914 (as Main Road)[2] 1947/48 (as State Highway)[3]
Route number(s)	B160 (1998–present)
Former route number	State Route 112 (1986–1998)
Major junctions
West end	Princes Highway Glenburnie, South Australia
	Henty Highway Hamilton Highway Pyrenees Highway
East end	Midland Highway Sebastopol, Ballarat
Location(s)
Region	Limestone Coast,[4] Grampians[5]
Major settlements	Casterton, Coleraine, Hamilton, Dunkeld, Glenthompson, Lake Bolac, Skipton
Highway system
Highways in Australia National Highway • Freeways in Australia Highways in Victoria Highways in South Australia

Route

Glenelg Highway commences at the intersection with Princes Highway in Glenburnie, South Australia and heads on a north-easterly direction as a two-lane, single carriageway rural highway, crossing the interstate border into Victoria 15km later (some maps identify the South Australian section as Casterton Road), continuing northeast to Casterton, then heading in an easterly direction through the towns of Hamilton, Dunkeld and Skipton, before eventually terminating at the intersection with Midland Highway in the south-eastern suburb of Sebastopol in Ballarat.^{[7][8][9][10]}

History

The passing of the Country Roads Act of 1912^[11] 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. Hamilton- (Coleraine-) (Casterton-) Mount Gambier Road was declared a Main Road, from Hamilton to Coleraine on 16 November 1914,^[2] and Coleraine through Casterton to the border with South Australia on 30 November 1914;^[12] Hamilton-Dunkeld Road from Hamilton to Dunkeld was declared a Main Road on 16 November 1914;^[2] and Ballarat-Hamilton Road from south-western Ballarat through Scarsdale, Skipton to Lake Bolac was declared a Main Road on 31 May 1915.^[13]

The passing of the Highways and Vehicles Act of 1924^[14] provided for the declaration of State Highways, roads two-thirds financed by the State government through the Country Roads Board. Glenelg Highway was declared a State Highway in the 1947/48 financial year,^[3] from Ballarat via Skipton and Hamilton to Casterton (for a total of 149 miles), subsuming the original declarations of Hamilton-Coleraine-Casterton-Mount Gambier Road, Hamilton-Dunkeld Road and Ballarat-Hamilton Road as Main Roads.

The alignment of the highway through Ballarat was changed in June 1983: previously terminating at the intersection of Albert and Hertford Streets in Sebastopol, it was extended north 3 km along Albert Street, Skipton Street, and Doveton Street South to terminate at Sturt Street (Western Highway) in central Ballarat,^[15] only to be truncated back to its original terminus in Sebastopol in May 1990; the former alignment was subsumed into the Midland Highway, re-aligned to this route at the same time.^[16] A new bridge over Hopkins River in Wickcliffe was opened in 1996, replacing an older, flood-prone structure and the last on the highway with a timber deck, at a cost of $145,000, with bridge approaches costing $700,000.^[17]

Glenelg Highway was signed as State Route 112 between Glenburnie and Ballarat in 1986; with Victoria's conversion to the newer alphanumeric system in the late 1990s, this was replaced by route B160.

The passing of the Road Management Act 2004^[18] granted the responsibility of overall management and development of Victoria's major arterial roads to VicRoads: in 2004, VicRoads re-declared the road as Glenelg Highway (Arterial #6670), beginning at the South Australian border and ending at Midland Highway in Sebastopol, Ballarat.^[6]

Major Intersections and Towns

State	LGA[19]	Location[1][6][20]	km[1]	mi	Destinations	Notes
South Australia	Grant	Glenburnie	0.0	0.0	Princes Highway (A1 west, east) – Portland, Mount Gambier Attiwill Road (south) – Murrawa	Western terminus of highway and route B160
State border			15.3	9.5	South Australia – Victoria state border
Victoria	Glenelg	Casterton	58.4	36.3	Casterton–Penola Road (C198) – Penola, Robe
			61.6	38.3	Casterton–Naracoorte Road (C211) – Naracoorte
	Glenelg River		62.1	38.6	Bridge name unknown
	Glenelg	Casterton	63.4	39.4	Portland–Casterton Road (C195) – Portland
			67.7	42.1	Casterton–Edenhope Road (C207 north) – Edenhope Lodge Road (south) – Sandford
	Southern Grampians	Coleraine	89.2	55.4	Coleraine–Balmoral Road (C203/C206) – Balmoral, Harrow, Nhill
			90.7	56.4	Coleraine–Merino Road (C196) – Merino
		Hamilton	121.5	75.5	Henty Highway (A200 north) – Horsham, Warracknabeal, Mildura	Concurrency with route A200
			123.8	76.9	Henty Highway (A200 south) – Heywood, Portland
			124.9	77.6	Lonsdale Street (west) – Hamilton Thompson Street (south) – Hamilton	Roundabout
			126.3	78.5	Portland railway line
			127.7	79.3	Hamilton Highway (B140) – Mortlake, Warrnambool, Geelong
		Moutajup	148.3	92.1	Portland railway line
		Dunkeld	152.9	95.0	Penshurst–Dunkeld Road (C178 north) – Penshurst, Warrnambool Dunkeld–Cavendish Road (C188 south) – Cavendish, Balmoral
			156.1	97.0	Grampians Road (C216) – Halls Gap, Stawell
		Glenthompson	174.6	108.5	Pyrenees Highway (B180) – Ararat, Avoca, Castlemaine
			175.7	109.2	Portland railway line
	Hopkins River		192.2	119.4	Bridge name unknown
	Ararat	Lake Bolac	203.0	126.1	Mortlake–Ararat Road (C148) – Mortlake, Ararat
		Westmere	215.1	133.7	Western SG railway line
		Streatham	223.5	138.9	Rossbridge–Streatham Road (C182) – Ararat
	Fiery Creek		224.2	139.3	Bridge name unknown
	Corangamite	Skipton	250.8	155.8	Skipton Road (C172) – Beaufort	Western terminus of concurrency with route C172
	Mount Emu Creek		251.2	156.1	Bridge name unknown
	Corangamite	Skipton	251.3	156.2	Lismore–Skipton Road (C172) – Lismore	Eastern terminus of concurrency with route C172
			251.8	156.5	Rokewood–Skipton Road (C143) – Rokewood, Geelong
	Woady Yaloak River		278.4	173.0	Bridge name unknown
	Golden Plains	Scarsdale	279.5	173.7	Lismore–Scarsdale Road (C171) – Lismore
	Ballarat	Delacombe	297.1	184.6	Delacombe–Wendouree Road (C307 north) – Alfredton, Wendouree Cherry Flat Road (south) – Bonshaw
		Sebastopol	299.8	186.3	Midland Highway (A300 north, south) – Ballarat City Centre, Bendigo, Geelong Sayle Street (east) – Sebastopol	Eastern terminus of highway and route B160
Concurrency terminus

See also

• Australian Roads portal

• Highways in Australia
• List of highways in Victoria

References

1. "Glenelg Highway" (Map). Google Maps. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
2. "Victorian Government Gazette". State Library of Victoria. 25 November 1914. p. 5287. Retrieved 25 June 2024.
3. "Country Roads Board Victoria. Thirty-Fifth Annual Report: for the year ended 30 June 1948". Country Roads Board. Melbourne: Victorian Government Library Service. 1 November 1948. p. 7.
4. "Location SA Map viewer with regional layers". Government of South Australia. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
5. "Victoria's Regions". Regional Development Victoria. Victoria State Government. 11 August 2021. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
6. VicRoads. "VicRoads – Register of Public Roads 2024" (PDF). Government of Victoria. p. 945. Archived from the original on 19 June 2024. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
7. Gange, P. H; Konings, L. F (1959), Highway record survey. Glenelg Highway, Melbourne: Country Roads Board, retrieved 23 November 2012
8. Royal Automobile Association of South Australia (RAA); Royal Automobile Club of Victoria (RACV) (1979), [Highway strip maps of Australia]. Ballarat-Lake Bolac, 99  km. Glenelg Highway, RAA, retrieved 23 November 2012
9. Royal Automobile Association of South Australia (1979), [Highway strip maps of Australia]. Lake Bolac-Dunkeld and Hamilton, 78 km., Glenelg Highway, RAA, retrieved 23 November 2012
10. Hema Maps; Martin, Ray (2006), Melbourne to Adelaide, Hema Maps, retrieved 23 November 2012
11. An Act relating to Country Roads State of Victoria, 23 December 1912
12. "Victorian Government Gazette". State Library of Victoria. 9 December 1914. pp. 5527, 5530. Retrieved 28 June 2024.
13. "Victorian Government Gazette". State Library of Victoria. 16 June 1915. pp. 2111–2. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
14. 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
15. "Victorian Government Gazette". State Library of Victoria. 30 June 1983. p. 1973. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
16. "Victorian Government Gazette". State Library of Victoria. 2 May 1990. pp. 1216–9, 1225. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
17. "VicRoads Annual Report 1995-96". VicRoads. Melbourne: Victorian Government Library Service. 18 October 1996. p. 16.
18. State Government of Victoria. "Road Management Act 2004" (PDF). Government of Victoria. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 October 2021. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
19. "Location SA Map viewer with LGA layers". Government of South Australia. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
20. "Location SA Map viewer with suburb layers". Government of South Australia. Retrieved 16 June 2022.