Freeways in Victoria

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Melbourne in Victoria is served by a freeway network which is the earliest and the most extensive in Australia.

[edit] History

As early Melbourne grew beyond the Hoddle Grid, the city stretched out in fingers along rail and tram lines, often with bits and pieces of open country in between. In the 1950's and 1960's, as private car ownership rose, beyond the limits of tram and rail lines, newer suburbs were built. This led to congestions between the suburbs and the CBD.

As Melbourne extended, planners and politicians decided that the roads could no longer cope. The 1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan calls for construction of an extensive network of freeways. The Victorian government were advised by American highway planners and it sent its road engineers to the US. The resulting network is probably the most extensive in Australia.

Unlike many American cities Melbourne had an extensive public transport network and opposition to the plan grew, arguing that money is better spent on public transport upgrades, particularly to areas of Melbourne poorly served by public transport such as the outer east. This led to clashes including the showdown in 1977, over the plan to build the F19 freeway through Collingwood and Fitzroy. In the fiercest battle, protesters barricaded Alexandra Parade. Although the resulting Eastern Freeway was finally built, many road projects were shelved and freeway building largely went quiet until the mid 1990s. One notable exception was the South-Eastern Arterial which was constructed under the John Cain Labor government. The party had a policy of no new freeways, but the road was desperately needed to link the existing Mulgrave and South-Eastern freeways. The result was multi-lane highway with traffic lights at every major intersection. This created traffic chaos, the road being dubbed Melbourne's longest carpark. It was eventually upgraded to freeway standard, and incorporated into the Monash Freeway.

Freeway construction was resumed in the 1990s; for example the Western Ring Road, CityLink and others. These freeways joined the others into a continuous and extensive network.

[edit] Impacts on Melbourne

Where they were built, population growth followed, as Melburnians moved away from the crowded inner and middle suburbs to cheaper outer suburbs; for example, Monash Freeway and Mornington Peninsula Freeway led to explosive growth of population in the south east and the Mornington Peninsula.The completion of Western Ring Road spurred housing growth in the western suburbs.

Melburnians in general are divided over the freeways; supporters crying "progress and growth" and detractors lamenting for example, the destruction of habitats and the loss of peace and tranquility along the freeway path and at the ends where the freeway traffic is spilled onto local roads. The relative lack of spending on public transport infrastructure has also caused criticism as it is at odds with the governments Melbourne 2030 agenda which promotes development along existing transport infrastructure with reduced dependence on cars.