Eastern Highway

Eastern Highway Alexandra Parade Victoria
General information
Type	Highway
Length	1.2 km (0.7 mi) [1]
Route number(s)	Metro Route 83 (1989–present) Entire route Concurrencies: Metro Route 46 (1965–present) (through Fitzroy North)
Major junctions
West end	Princes Street Fitzroy, Melbourne
	Nicholson Street Brunswick Street Queens Parade Hoddle Street
East end	Eastern Freeway Collingwood, Melbourne
Location(s)
Major suburbs	Collingwood, Fitzroy
Highway system
Highways in Australia National Highway  • Freeways in Australia Highways in Victoria

Eastern Highway is a 1.2 kilometre highway in inner northern Melbourne, Australia, that ultimately acts as a feeder road into Eastern Freeway. This name however is not widely known to most drivers, as the allocation is still best known by the name of its sole constituent part: Alexandra Parade.

Route

Eastern Highway commences at the intersection with Nicholson Street and Princes Streets in Fitzroy as Alexandra Parade along a wide dual-carriageway alignment, varying between eight and ten lanes, heading east across Brunswick Street, before terminating shortly after at Gold Street in Collingwood; the alignment skews into Eastern Freeway and continues east beyond, along with ramps for access to/from Hoddle Street 350m further east.

History

The passing of the Highways and Vehicles Act of 1924 ^[2] through the Parliament of Victoria provided for the declaration of State Highways, roads two-thirds financed by the State government through the Country Roads Board (later VicRoads). Eastern Highway was declared a State Highway in October 1977, ^[3] along Alexandra Parade from Nicholson Street in Fitzroy to Gold Street in Collingwood, but was still referenced on local signage as Alexandra Parade.

Alexandra Parade previously extended a short distance east beyond Hoddle Street, under the Whittlesea railway line to end at Dights Falls on the Yarra River: with the opening of the first stage of the Eastern Freeway in December 1977, Alexandra Parade was truncated back to Gold Street. A vestigial alignment partially survives as Alexandra Parade East, ^[4] running parallel to the eastbound entry ramp.

Alexandra Parade was signed as Metropolitan Route 83 between Fitzroy and Collingwood in 1989; it previously continued east along Eastern Freeway until it was replaced by route M3 when EastLink opened in 2008. Metropolitan Route 46 runs concurrent along Alexandra Parade, between Nicholson Street and Queens Parade through Fitzroy North, signed from 1965.

The passing of the Road Management Act 2004 ^[5] granted the responsibility of overall management and development of Victoria's major arterial roads to VicRoads: in 2004, VicRoads re-declared Eastern Highway (Arterial #6830) between Nicholson and Gold Streets. ^[6] The road is still presently known (and signposted) as Alexandra Parade along its entire length.

Major intersections

LGA	Location [1] [6]	km [1]	mi	Destinations	Notes
Melbourne–Yarra boundary	Carlton–Carlton North–Fitzroy–Fitzroy North quadripoint	0.0	0.0	Princes Street (Metro Routes 46/83) – North Melbourne, Flemington	Western terminus of highway, Metro Routes 46/83 continue west along Princes Street Western end of Alexandra Parade
				Nicholson Street  – Coburg, Brunswick East, City
Yarra	Fitzroy–Fitzroy North boundary	0.3	0.19	Brunswick Street (Metro Route 45) – East Melbourne, Preston, Reservoir
		0.4	0.25	Queens Parade (Metro Route 46) – Heidelberg, Greensborough, Hurstbridge	One way, eastbound entry only
		0.6	0.37	George Street (Metro Route 46) – Heidelberg, Greensborough, Hurstbridge	One way, westbound exit from Queens Parade only
	Collingwood–Clifton Hill boundary	1.2	0.75	Gold Street – Collingwood, Clifton Hill, to Hoddle Street (Metro Route 29) – Northcote, Reservoir, Epping	Westbound entry and exit, and eastbound exit and entry, to Gold Street only Access to Hoddle Street 400m further east via ramps
				Eastern Freeway (M3) – Doncaster, Ringwood, Frankston	Eastern terminus of highway and Metro Route 83
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi        Incomplete access        Route transition

See also

Australian Roadsportal

• List of Melbourne highways

References

1. "Eastern Highway" (Map). Google Maps . Retrieved 29 October 2021.
2. State of Victoria, An Act to make further provision with respect to Highways and Country Roads Motor Cars and Traction Engines and for other purposes 30 December 1924
3. "Country Roads Board Victoria. Sixty-Fifth Annual Report: for the year ended 30 June 1978". Country Roads Board of Victoria. Melbourne: Victorian Government Library Service. 29 September 1978. p. 8.
4. "Alexandra Parade East" (Map). Google Maps . Retrieved 29 October 2021.
5. 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.
6. VicRoads. "VicRoads – Register of Public Roads 2024" (PDF). Government of Victoria. p. 960. Archived from the original on 19 June 2024. Retrieved 19 June 2024.