Great Alpine Road

The Great Alpine Road[6] links Victoria's North East with Gippsland, winding through mountains, valleys and forests, and past rivers, vineyards and farms. At a length of 304 kilometres (189 mi), it is Australia's highest year-round accessible sealed road. The section over Mount Hotham rises to an altitude of 1,840 metres (6,040 ft) AMSL.[7] It is blanketed with snow during winter months and must be cleared on a daily basis. Extreme weather conditions can sometimes still result in the road being closed between Harrietville and Omeo.

The road itself has existed since colonial times in some form, but was unsealed for much of its history; its last portions were sealed between Slatey Cutting and Dinner Plain in the 1996-97 financial year (when the road was renamed the Great Alpine Road),[8] and the 12km between Dinner Plain and Horsehair Plain in the 1997-98 financial year.[9]

In 1923 the Country Roads Board (CRB) took responsibility for the Alpine Road between [Harrietville and Omeo, and appointed William Benjamin (Bill) Spargo (1888–1959) as supervisor.[10] He lived in a stone cottage at Hotham Heights, which the CRB expanded, at his request, to accommodate up to twenty visiting skiers. From 1925 the premises operated as a guest-house, Hotham Cottage (Hotham Heights Chalet). This was the forerunner of the Hotham Alpine Resort.

The passing of the Highways and Vehicles Act of 1924[11] through the Parliament of Victoria provided for the declaration of State Highways, roads two-thirds financed by the State government through the CRB. The Ovens Highway was declared a State Highway within Victoria in the 1947/48 financial year,[12] from Wangaratta via Myrtleford to Bright (for a total of 47.5 miles); before this declaration, the road was referred to as (The) Alpine Road.[13] The highway was eventually extended from Bright further along Alpine Road to Harrietville in September 1993.[14]

The Ovens Highway, and the remainder of Alpine Road beyond, was signed as State Route 156 between Wangaratta and Omeo in 1986. With Victoria's conversion to the newer alphanumeric system in the late 1990s, its former route number was replaced with route B500 in late 1996,[8] with the Ovens Highway and Alpine Road from Wangaratta to Omeo, and the southern section of the Omeo Highway from Omeo to Bruthen[15] and then to Bairnsdale, renamed the Great Alpine Road at the same time.[8]

The passing of the Road Management Act 2004[16] granted the responsibility of overall management and development of Victoria's major arterial roads to VicRoads: in 2004, VicRoads re-declared the road as Great Alpine Road (Arterial #4005), beginning at Wangaratta Road at Wangaratta and ending at Princes Highway in Bairnsdale.[17]

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  The Great Alpine Road descending "The Gap" between Omeo and Swifts Creek.
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  The Australian Alps from the Great Alpine Road on Mount Hotham.
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  View from Myrtleford to Mount Buffalo National Park.
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  The Great Alpine Road winds across Mount Hotham, clinging to the side and ridge of the mountain

• Highways in Australia
• Highways in Victoria

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Great Alpine Road.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Great Alpine Road.

"Great Alpine Road – Tourism Victoria". Retrieved 21 July 2011.
"Australian Traveller". Retrieved 10 February 2009.
"Great Alpine Road – Visit Victoria (official tourism website)". Retrieved 20 June 2015.
"Sydney – Melbourne Touring". Archived from the original on 23 February 2009. Retrieved 10 February 2009.
"Victoria's Alpine High Country". Retrieved 10 February 2009.
"NRMA Motoring Services". Retrieved 10 February 2009.
"Discover East Gippsland". Archived from the original on 25 April 2009. Retrieved 10 February 2009.