South Gippsland Highway is a partially divided highway connecting the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne through the South Gippsland region of in Victoria, Australia to the town of Sale. The highway serves as a gateway from Melbourne to many attractions including Wilsons Promontory and Phillip Island as well as being an important road for farmers in Gippsland.
Route
South Gippsland Highway commences at the intersection with Princes Highway in Dandenong, and heads in a south-eastly direction as a four-lane, dual-carriageway road towards the northern shores of Western Port Bay, through Cranbourne and Tooradin, until it reaches the interchange with Bass Highway to Phillip Island outside Lang Lang, after which it is entirely an undivided rural highway. It continues in an southeasterly direction through Nyora, Korumburra, Leongatha, Foster, Welshpool and Yarram, before heading north and eventually terminating at a roundabout with Princes Highway at Sale.
History
The passing of the Country Roads Act 1912 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. (Main) South Gippsland Road was declared a Main Road, from Korumburra to Leongatha, on 10 November 1913; and Sale-Yarram Road was declared a Main Road, from Sale via Longford to Stradbroke on 23 March 1914, and Stradbroke via Woodside to Yarram on 6 August 1919; and Foster-Yarram Road was declared a Main Road from Foster via Welshpool to Yarram on 29 July 1919. provided for the declaration of State Highways, roads two-thirds financed by the state government through the Country Roads Board. South Gippsland Highway was declared a State Highway in 1933, subsuming the original declaration of Foster-Yarram Road as a Main Road. In the 1947/48 financial year, another section between Nyora via Korumburra and Leongatha to Meeniyan was added, along the former Loch-Nyora Road, Bena-Korumburra Road and Korumburra-Leongatha Roads. completing its present-day alignment at this stage.
Conversion to dual carriageways at the western end began in 1975, initially between South Gippsland Freeway and Cranbourne; a distance of 17 km. The final link in the duplication of the highway between Dandenong and Bass Highway opened in the early 1990s between Princes Highway and Pound Road.
South Gippsland Highway was signed as State Route 180 between Dandenong and Sale on 13 December 1985, the first road in Victoria signed with a State Route, and later a concurrency with Metropolitan Route 12 between Greens Road and Pound Road through Dandenong South; with Victoria's conversion to the newer alphanumeric system in the late 1990s, this was replaced by route M420 between Lynbrook and Lang Lang, B440 between Lang Lang and Sale (which was upgraded to A440 when highway upgrades along South Gippsland Highway raised the quality of the road in 2003), and unallocated (excluding the short stretch of Metro Route 12) between Dandenong and Dandenong South. The western section of the South Gippsland Highway between the intersection of the Koo Wee Rup Bypass and the Princes Highway is gradually being renumbered to A21 and B21 following the completion of major works on Koo Wee Rup Road in 2024. The upgrade has included the rerouting of M420 to the upgraded route.
The passing of the Road Management Act 2004 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 South Gippsland Highway (Arterial #6580), from Dandenong South to Sale.
Timeline of upgrades and duplication
- 1961 – Whitelaw By-pass Road: 2.5 miles just north of Korumburra completed as a 2-lane, single-carriageway road, replacing a narrow winding route 3.5 miles long consisting of portions of Bena-Korumburra and Warragul-Korumburra Roads, eliminating two railway crossings, costing A£65,000.
- 1975 – Conversion to dual carriageways at the western end began in 1975, between the South Gippsland Freeway and Cranbourne; a distance of 17 km.
- 1989 – 3 km of dual carriageways opened between Manks Road and Lynes Road, Tooradin in December 1989.
- 1990 – 3 km of dual carriageways opened between Lynes Road, Tooradin and Dore Road in April 1990. At this stage, ’27 km of the planned 32 km length of duplication between Cranbourne and Bass Highway has now been completed’. An interesting anomaly is that the kilometre lengths quoted in this annual report with construction starting in October 2020 on a new road bridge over the rail line on an alignment just east of the original level crossing to a new intersection with Princes Highway; construction was completed and the new alignment was opened to traffic in 3 August 2021.