Grand Ridge Road

Last updated

Grand Ridge Road

Australia Victoria location map.svg
Red pog.svg
West end
Red pog.svg
East end
Coordinates
General information
TypeRural road
Length132 km (82 mi) [1]
Opened1925
Route number(s)
  • AUS Alphanumeric Route C457.svg C457 (1998-present)
    (Mirboo North-Mirboo)
  • AUS Alphanumeric Route C458.svg C458 (1998-present)
    (Mirboo-Boolarra South)
  • AUS Alphanumeric Route C484.svg C484 (1998-present)
    (Balook-Willung South)
Former
route number
Australian state route 190.svg State Route 190 (1986-1998)
(Wonyip-Albert River)
Tourist routes
  • Australian Tourist Drive 93.svg Tourist Route 93
    Entire route
  • Australian Tourist Drive 94.svg Tourist Route 94
    (Balook-Willung South)
  • Australian Tourist Drive 95.svg Tourist Route 95
    (Wonyip-Tarra Valley)
Major junctions
West endAUS Alphanumeric Route C425.svgKorumburra-Warragul Road
Seaview, Victoria
 AUS Alphanumeric Route B460.svg Strzelecki Highway
East endAUS Alphanumeric Route C482.svg Hyland Highway
Willung South, Victoria
Location(s)
Major settlements Mirboo North

(The) Grand Ridge Road is a long tourist drive through Gippsland, in Victoria, Australia. As the name suggests, the road primarily follows ridgelines through the heavily undulating Strzelecki Ranges.

Contents

The road is known for the attractive scenery ranging from open farmland to dense forest, especially as it passes through Mount Worth State Park and Tarra Bulga National Park. Its surface ranges from good quality sealed bitumen to heavily corrugated unsealed gravel.

Route

Grand Ridge Road begins at the intersection Korumburra-Warragul Road in Seaview and runs in an easterly direction as a narrow dual-lane, single-carriageway sealed road via Allembee South to eventually meet the Strzelecki Highway at Mirboo North, where the road quality improves as a dual-lane single-carriageway rural highway. It continues east as a narrow sealed road just beyond Mirboo, where the road quality degrades further into a single-lane dirt and gravel mountain road as it winds through the eastern Strzelecki Ranges; many sections are quite steep and passing opportunities are usually possible only at road junctions. The road quality improves to a narrow dual-lane sealed road where it meets Tarra Valley Road, and continues east as a sealed road until its eastern terminus at the intersection with Hyland Highway in Willing South.

The unsealed section of the road is heavily used by logging trucks throughout the year. Large trees and branches often fall after high winds. This road is not recommended for caravans.

History

The construction of (The) Ridge Road was detailed in the Country Roads Board's annual review for the 1924/25 financial year, [2] running from Seaview, Mirboo, Gunyah, Ryton, through Balook, Blackwarry to Carrajung (for a total of 66 miles), described to "play an important part in the further development of the hill country of South Gippsland"; [2] it was referred to as the Grand Ridge Road from 1933. [3]

A section of the road between Wonyip and Albert River was later declared as part of Midland Highway in 1939; [4] this was later incorporated back into the Grand Ridge Road when highway status was revoked in 1990. [5] [6]

The Grand Ridge Road was signed as State Route 190 between Wonyip and Albert River (as part of the Midland Highway) in 1986; despite the revocation of the highway in 1990, this section was still signed as such until the change-over to the new alphanumeric system in the late 1990s, when all traces of the former route were removed. It is today signed as Tourist Route 93 for its entire route; its eastern section between Balook and Willung South is also signed Tourist Route 94 as part of the eastern loop of the Strzelecki Trail.

The passing of the Road Management Act 2004 [7] granted the responsibility of overall management and development of Victoria's major arterial roads to VicRoads: in 2004, VicRoads re-declared the road as The Grand Ridge Road (Arterial #4023) between Tarra Valley Road in Balook and Hyland Highway at Willung South; [8] the remaining section of Grand Ridge Road between Seaview and Balook remains undeclared.

Significant intersections

LGALocation [1] [8] km [1] miDestinationsNotes
Baw Baw Seaview0.00.0AUS Alphanumeric Route C425.svg Korumburra–Warragul Road (C425)  Korumburra, Warragul Western terminus of road and Tourist Drive 93
4.83.0Warragul–Leongatha Road  Warragul
8.35.2McDonalds Track  Yarragon
South Gippsland Hallston24.215.0Leongatha–Yarragon Road  Leongatha
Allambee South32.820.4Mirboo–Yarragon Road  Yarragon
Mirboo North 39.124.3AUS Alphanumeric Route B460.svg Strzelecki Highway (B460 west)  Leongatha, Inverloch Western terminus of concurrency with route B460
42.026.1AUS Alphanumeric Route C455.svg Meeniyan–Mirboo North Road (C455)  Dumbalk, Meeniyan
42.526.4AUS Alphanumeric Route B460.svg Strzelecki Highway (B460 east)  Morwell Eastern terminus of concurrency with route B460
Western terminus of route C456
42.626.5AUS Alphanumeric Route C456.svg Baromi Road (Boolarra–Mirboo North Road) (C456)  Boolarra Route C456 continues east; western terminus of route C457
Mirboo56.635.2AUS Alphanumeric Route C458.svg Foster Road  Boolarra Eastern terminus of route C457, route C458 continues south
56.635.2Olsens Road – Morwell River Falls ReserveEastern terminus route C458
Gunyah69.843.4Boolarra–Foster Road  Foster
Wellington Wonyip81.050.3Woorarra Road  Welshpool
85.453.1Albert River Road  Alberton West
Balook109.067.7AUS Alphanumeric Route C484.svg Tarra Valley Road (C484)  Yarram Route C484 and Tourist Route 94 continues south
114.871.3AUS Alphanumeric Route C483.svg Traralgon–Balook Road (C483)  Traralgon Tourist Route 94 continues north and east
Willung South132.282.1AUS Alphanumeric Route C482.svg Hyland Highway (C482) – Traralgon, Yarram Eastern terminus of road, route C484 and Tourist Route 93; Tourist Route 94 continues north
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Google (10 October 2021). "Grand Ridge Road" (Map). Google Maps . Google. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
  2. 1 2 "Country Roads Board Victoria. Twelfth Annual Report: for the year ended 30 June 1925". Country Roads Board of Victoria. Melbourne: Victorian Government Library Service. 31 December 1925. pp. 6–7.
  3. "Country Roads Board Victoria. Twenty-First Annual Report: for the year ended 30 June 1934". Country Roads Board of Victoria. Melbourne: Victorian Government Library Service. 19 November 1934. pp. 8, 74.
  4. "Country Roads Board Victoria. Twenty-Sixth Annual Report: for the year ended 30 June 1939". Country Roads Board of Victoria. Melbourne: Victorian Government Library Service. 10 November 1939. pp. 4, 14.
  5. "Victorian Government Gazette". State Library of Victoria. 15 August 1990. pp. 2502–5. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
  6. "Victorian Government Gazette". State Library of Victoria. 12 September 1990. pp. 2746–50. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
  7. 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.
  8. 1 2 VicRoads. "VicRoads – Register of Public Roads (Part A) 2015" (PDF). Government of Victoria. p. 82. Archived from the original on 1 May 2020. Retrieved 19 October 2021.

Sources


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