Great Alpine Road

The Great Alpine Road^[7] links Wangaratta with Bairnsdale, 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.^[8] 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),^[9] and the 12 km between Dinner Plain and Horsehair Plain in the 1997–98 financial year.^[10]

The passing of the Country Roads Act 1912^[11] through the Parliament of Victoria provided for the establishment of the Country Roads Board (CRB, 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. Bright Road from Myrtleford to Bright, and Harrietville Road from Bright to Harrietville, were declared Main Roads on 16 November 1914.^[2]

In 1923, the CRB took responsibility for the Alpine Road between Harrietville and Omeo, and appointed William Benjamin (Bill) Spargo (1888–1959) as supervisor.^[12] 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 guesthouse, Hotham Cottage (Hotham Heights Chalet). This was the forerunner of the Hotham Alpine Resort.

The passing of the Highways and Vehicles Act 1924^[13] provided for the declaration of State Highways, roads two-thirds financed by the state government through the Country Roads Board. Ovens Highway was declared a State Highway within Victoria in the 1947/48 financial year,^[3] from Wangaratta via Myrtleford to Bright (for a total of 47.5 miles), subsuming the original declarations of Bright Road and Harrietville Road as Main Roads; before this declaration, the road was also referred to as (The) Alpine Road.^[14] The highway was eventually extended from Bright further along Alpine Road to Harrietville in September 1993.^[15]

Ovens Highway and Alpine Road, from Wangaratta to Omeo, along with the southern section of Omeo Highway from Omeo via Bruthen^[16] to Bairnsdale, was renamed the Great Alpine Road in late 1996;^[9] the southern terminus of Omeo Highway was truncated to Omeo as a result.

Ovens Highway, and the remainder of Alpine Road beyond, was signed as State Route 156 between Wangaratta and Omeo in 1986; Omeo Highway was signed as State Route 195. With Victoria's conversion to the newer alphanumeric system in the late 1990s, and with its recent declaration as Great Alpine Road, its former route numbers were replaced with route B500 in late 1996.^[9]

The passing of the Road Management Act 2004^[17] 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.^[4]

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

• Highways in Australia
• Highways in Victoria