Kiewa Valley Highway

Kiewa Valley Highway Victoria
North end South end
Coordinates	36°08′52″S146°55′41″E / 36.147716°S 146.928174°E / -36.147716; 146.928174 (North end) 36°44′35″S147°10′06″E / 36.743159°S 147.168212°E / -36.743159; 147.168212 (South end)
General information
Type	Highway
Length	79.2 km (49 mi) [1]
Gazetted	November 1914 (as Main Road) [2] 1959/60 (as State Highway) [3]
Route number(s)	C531 (1998–present)
Former route number	State Route 191 (1986–1998)
Major junctions
North end	Murray Valley Highway Bandiana, Victoria
	Kiewa East Road Running Creek Road
South end	Bogong High Plains Road Mount Beauty, Victoria
Location(s)
Region	Hume [4]
Major settlements	Dederang, Tawonga
Highway system
Highways in Australia National Highway  • Freeways in Australia Highways in Victoria

Kiewa Valley Highway is a rural highway which traverses the Kiewa Valley near the alpine regions of Victoria, Australia, connecting the eastern Wodonga suburb of Bandiana to Mount Beauty, ^[5] at the foot of Mount Bogong in the Alpine National Park.

Route

Kiewa Valley Highway commences at the intersection with Murray Valley Highway in Bandiana and heads in a south-easterly direction as a two-lane, single carriageway rural highway, mostly following the course of Kiewa River through Kiewa until it reaches Dederang, where it starts to wind through the valleys of the Victorian Alps, eventually terminating at the intersection with Bogong High Plains Road in Mount Beauty. From Mount Beauty, Bogong High Plains Road takes a winding and twisty route via the Falls Creek alpine resort to meet Omeo Highway at Glen Valley.

History

Within Victoria, the passing of the Country Roads Act of 1912 ^[6] 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. Dederang Road was declared a Main Road from Dederang to Mount Beauty (and continuing northwards from Dederang to Yackandandah) on 30 November 1914. ^[2]

The passing of the Developmental Roads Act of 1918 ^[7] through the Parliament of Victoria 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. Kiewa-Wodonga Road between Kiewa and Baranduda was declared a Developmental Road on 16 August 1919; ^[8] this section was later re-declared as a Main Road on 13 May 1929. ^[9]

In the 1950s the road was sealed and realigned to Mount Beauty to permit the transport of materials for the construction of the Kiewa Hydroelectric Scheme.

The passing of the Highways and Vehicles Act of 1924 ^[10] provided for the declaration of State Highways, roads two-thirds financed by the State government through the Country Roads Board. Kiewa Valley Highway was declared a State Highway in the 1959/60 financial year, ^[3] from Bandiana via Kiewa and Dederang to Mount Beauty (for a total of 49 miles), subsuming the original declaration of Kiewa-Wodonga Road and Dederang Road (between Dederang and Mount Beauty) as Main Roads; before this declaration, this road was also referred to as Kiewa Valley Road. ^[3]

Kiewa Valley Highway was signed as State Route 191 between Bandiana and Mount Beauty in 1986; with Victoria's conversion to the newer alphanumeric system in the late 1990s, this was replaced by route C531.

The passing of the Road Management Act 2004 ^[11] through the Parliament of Victoria granted the responsibility of overall management and development of Victoria's major arterial roads to VicRoads: VicRoads re-declared the road in 2004 as Kiewa Valley Highway (Arterial #6790), from Bandiana to Mount Beauty. ^[5]

Major intersections

LGA	Location [1] [5]	km [1]	mi	Destinations	Notes
Wodonga	Bandiana	0.0	0.0	Murray Valley Highway (B400) – Wodonga, Tallangatta, Corryong	Northern terminus of highway and route C531
	Baranduda	4.3	2.7	Yackandandah–Wodonga Road (C527) – Yackandandah, Myrtleford
Wodonga–Indigo boundary	Staghorn Flat–Kiewa boundary	11.4	7.1	Allans Flat Road (C533) – Allans Flat, Yackandandah	Concurrency with route C533
Indigo	Kiewa	14.4	8.9	Kiewa East Road (C533) – Tangambalanga
Alpine	Dederang	41.4	25.7	Dederang Road (C528) – Yackandandah
	Running Creek	53.1	33.0	Running Creek Road (C534) – Myrtleford, Wangaratta
	Tawonga–Tawonga South boundary	75.6	47.0	Tawonga Gap Road (C536) – Bright, Mount Buffalo
	Mount Beauty	79.2	49.2	Bogong High Plains Road (C531 southeast) – Falls Creek, Omeo Lakeside Avenue (northeast) – Mount Beauty	Southern terminus of highway at roundabout Route C531 continues south along Bogong High Plains Road
Concurrency terminus        Route transition

See also

• Australian Roads portal

• Highways in Australia
• Highways in Victoria

References

1. "Kiewa Valley Highway" (Map). Google Maps . Retrieved 1 July 2024.
2. "Victorian Government Gazette". State Library of Victoria. 9 December 1914. p. 5531. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
3. "Country Roads Board Victoria. Forty-Seventh Annual Report: for the year ended 30 June 1960". Country Roads Board of Victoria. Melbourne: Victorian Government Library Service. 21 November 1960. pp. 7–8.
4. "Victoria's Regions". Regional Development Victoria. Victoria State Government. 11 August 2021. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
5. VicRoads. "VicRoads – Register of Public Roads 2024" (PDF). Government of Victoria. p. 958. Archived from the original on 19 June 2024. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
6. An Act relating to Country Roads State of Victoria, 23 December 1912
7. An Act to make provision for Developmental Roads and to amend the Country Roads Acts State of Victoria, 4 April 1918
8. "Victorian Government Gazette". State Library of Victoria. 3 September 1919. p. 2014. Retrieved 7 May 2025.
9. "Victorian Government Gazette". State Library of Victoria. 29 May 1929. p. 1599. Retrieved 3 November 2025.
10. 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
11. 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.