Burwood Highway (and its western section as Toorak Road) is a major transportation link with Melbourne's eastern fringe at the foot of the Dandenong Ranges, linking the suburbs of Hawthorn and Belgrave.[4] The highway is considered a major link for people who live in the Dandenong Ranges and acts as one of the major feeder roadway in the area along with Canterbury Road, Ferntree Gully Road, EastLink and Wellington Road.

Burwood Highway

Toorak Road

Burwood Highway through Burwood East
Burwood Highway is located in Melbourne
West end
West end
East end
East end
Coordinates
General information
TypeHighway
Length29.7 km (18 mi)[3]
GazettedOctober 1913 (as Main Road)[1]
1959/60 (as State Highway)[2]
Route number(s)
  • Metro Route 26 (1965–present)
    (Hawthorn–Upper Ferntree Gully)
  • C412 (1998–present)
    (Upper Ferntree Gully–Belgrave)
  • Concurrencies:
  • Metro Route 22 (1965–present)
    (Ferntree Gully–Upper Ferntree Gully)
  • Metro Route 5 (1989–present)
    (through Ferntree Gully)
Former
route number
Metro Route 26 (1965–1998)
(Upper Ferntree Gully–Belgrave)
Major junctions
West end Toorak Road
Hawthorn, Melbourne
 
East end Monbulk Road
Belgrave–Gembrook Road
Belgrave, Melbourne
Location(s)
Major settlementsBurwood, Wantirna South, Ferntree Gully, Upwey
Highway system

Route

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Burwood Highway commences at the interchange with CityLink and Monash Freeway at Hawthorn and heads east as Toorak Road, a four-lane single carriageway (often clogged with heavy traffic) through the southern fringes of Camberwell, with tram services continuing east along the road where it meets Camberwell Road. At the intersection with Warrigal Road in Burwood, it changes name to Burwood Highway and widens to become a six-lane dual carriageway highway, with a dedicated central median for tram tracks, carrying the Route 75 service through Burwood East to Vermont South. It passes the Westfield Knox shopping centre in Wantirna South, heading in a south-easterly direction through Ferntree Gully until it meets Mount Dandenong Tourist Road at Upper Ferntree Gully, where it narrows back to a four-lane single carriageway road, until it eventually terminates at a roundabout with Monbulk and Belgrave–Gembrook Roads in Belgrave.

History

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The passing of the Country Roads Act of 1912[5] 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) Ferntree Gully Road was declared a Main Road, from Fentree Gully through Upwey to Belgrave (and continuing west through Wheelers Hill to Oakleigh), on 20 October 1913.[1]

The passing of the Country Roads Act of 1958[6] (itself an evolution from the original Highways and Vehicles Act of 1924[7]) provided for the declaration of State Highways, roads two-thirds financed by the State government through the Country Roads Board. Burwood Highway was declared a State Highway in the 1959/60 financial year,[2] from Warrigal Road in Burwood via Vermont South, to Upper Ferntree Gully for a total of 12.5 miles (20.1 km), subsuming the original declaration of (Main) Ferntree Gully Road until Upper Ferntree Gully as a Main Road; before this declaration, this road was also referred to as Burwood Road.[2] Toorak Road was declared a Main Road on 9 May 1983,[8] from the intersection with South Eastern Freeway in Hawthorn to meet the western end of Burwood Highway in Burwood.

The declaration of the highway was extended a further 4.0 km (2.5 mi) east along Monbulk Road to Belgrave by VicRoads in June 1990,[9] and west along Toorak Road to the South Eastern Arterial at Hawthorn in October 1993,[10] subsuming its original declaration as a Main Road, however this last section was still known (and signposted) as Toorak Road. The tram line was extended 1.7 km (1.1 mi) along the central median through Burwood East from Middleborough Road to Blackburn Road in July 1993.[11]

Burwood Highway was signed as Metropolitan Route 26 between Burwood and Belgrave in 1965; with Victoria's conversion to the newer alphanumeric system in the late 1990s, the section between Upper Ferntree Gully and Belgrave was replaced by route C412.

The passing of the Road Management Act 2004[12] granted the responsibility of overall management and development of Victoria's major arterial roads to VicRoads: in 2004, VicRoads re-declared Burwood Highway (Arterial #6750) from Monash Freeway in Hawthorn to Belgrave-Gembrook Road in Belgrave.[4]

Major intersections

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LGALocation[3][4]km[3]miDestinationsNotes
StonningtonKooyongMalvernHawthorn tripoint0.00.0  Toorak Road (Metro Route 26 west) – Toorak, South YarraWestern terminus of highway (declared)
Metro Route 26 continues west along Toorak Road
  CityLink (M1 north) – City, Geelong
  Monash Freeway (M1 south) – Chadstone, Dandenong
Single-point urban interchange
BoroondaraHawthorn0.10.062Auburn Road – Kew
Hawthorn East0.40.25Tooronga Road – Malvern
Camberwell1.30.81  Burke Road (Metro Route 17) – Caulfield, Camberwell
2.61.6Glen Iris Road – Glen Iris
3.22.0  Camberwell Road (Metro Route 30) north-west – Camberwell, HawthornNo right turn from Camberwell Road to Toorak Road westbound
BoroondaraWhitehorse boundaryCamberwellBurwood boundary5.03.1  Warrigal Road (Metro Route 15) – Oakleigh, Chadstone, Surrey HillsEastern end of Toorak Road
Western end of Burwood Highway (sign-posted)
WhitehorseBurwood6.23.9Elgar Road – Doncaster
7.14.4  Station Street (Metro Route 47) – Box Hill, Huntingdale
BurwoodBurwood East boundary8.25.1  Middleborough Road (Metro Route 23) – Doncaster, Clayton, Mordialloc
Burwood East9.05.6  Blackburn Road (Metro Route 13) – Blackburn, Clayton
Burwood EastForest HillVermont South tripoint11.57.1  Springvale Road (Metro Route 40) – Glen Waverley, Nunawading
KnoxWantirnaWantirna South boundary14.99.3  Mountain Highway (Metro Route 28) – Bayswater, Wantirna
15.49.6  EastLink (M3) – Dandenong, Frankston, Ringwood, MelbourneDiamond interchange
17.610.9  Stud Road (Metro Route 9) – Bayswater, Scoresby
Wantirna South18.811.7  High Street Road (Metro Route 24 south) – Glen Waverley, Glen Iris, Scoresby
Lewis Road (north) – Wantirna South
KnoxfieldFerntree Gully boundary19.712.2  Scoresby Road (Metro Route 7) – Scoresby, Bayswater, Croydon
Ferntree Gully21.613.4  Ferntree Gully Road (Metro Route 22 west) – Scoresby, Oakleigh
Commercial Road (north) – Ferntree Gully
Western terminus of concurrency with Metro Route 22
22.313.9  Dorset Road (Metro Route 5 north) – Boronia, LilydaleConcurrency with Metro Route 5
22.714.1  Glenfern Road (Metro Route 5 south) – Lysterfield, Narre Warren
23.414.5Brenock Park Drive (south) – Lysterfield
Selman Avenue (north) – Ferntree Gully
KnoxYarra Ranges boundaryUpper Ferntree Gully25.415.8  Mount Dandenong Tourist Road (C415) – Olinda, Mount DandenongEastern terminuses of Metro Routes 22 and 26
Western terminus of route C412
Yarra RangesTecoma28.117.5Glenfern Road – Rowville
Belgrave29.718.5  Monbulk Road (C404 north) – Monbulk, Lilydale
   Belgrave–Gembrook Road (C404/C412 east) – Gembrook, Narre Warren
Terrys Avenue (west) – Tecoma
Eastern terminus of highway
Route C412 continues east along Belgrave-Gembrook Road
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See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Victorian Government Gazette". State Library of Victoria. 5 November 1913. p. 4812. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
  2. ^ a b c "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.
  3. ^ a b c "Burwood Highway" (Map). Google Maps. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
  4. ^ a b c VicRoads. "VicRoads – Register of Public Roads (Part A) 2015" (PDF). Government of Victoria. pp. 1027–1028. Archived from the original on 1 May 2020. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
  5. ^ An Act relating to Country Roads State of Victoria, 23 December 1912
  6. ^ An Act to consolidate the Law relating to Country Roads State of Victoria, 30 September 1958
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ "Victorian Government Gazette". State Library of Victoria. 30 June 1983. p. 1984. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
  9. ^ "Victorian Government Gazette". State Library of Victoria. 20 June 1990. pp. 1865, 1867. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
  10. ^ "Victorian Government Gazette". State Library of Victoria. 28 October 1993. pp. 2902–3. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
  11. ^ "VicRoads Annual Report 1992-93". VicRoads. Melbourne: Victorian Government Library Service. 29 September 1993. p. 42.
  12. ^ 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.