Western Freeway (Victoria)
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| Western Freeway | |
 |
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| Length | 115 kilometres |
| General direction: | West-East |
| From: | Burrumbeet, Victoria |
| To: | Deer Park, Melbourne |
| Towns along highway: | Ballarat, Ballan, Bacchus Marsh, Melton |
Western Freeway, M8 is freeway linking Melbourne to Ballarat. It branches off from the Western Highway (having come originally beyond the Victorian/South Australian border outside Adelaide) at Burrumbeet, 22 kilometres north-west of Ballarat, and ends officially in Deer Park, in the outer western suburbs of Melbourne, where it reverts back to a multi-laned dual-carriageway highway. Both the freeway and Western Highway beyond Ballarat are part of the National Highway network for the Melbourne-Adelaide route.
The Western Freeway subsumes and bypasses most sections of the older Western Highway. Former bypassed sections of the Western Highway are generally designated sequentially from C801 to C805, or (oddly enough) still keep the old National Route 8 shield (within suburban Melbourne).
Deer Park is planned to be bypassed by 2008 with the construction of the Deer Park Bypass from Rockbank, terminating the freeway at Western Ring Road which links it to all other Melbourne and interstate freeways and the CBD.
Towns along the way include:
- Bacchus Marsh
- Ballan
- Bungaree
- Ballarat
