Borung Highway

The Borung Highway (C234 - Dimboola to Donald section and C239 - Donald to Charlton section) is a 140 kilometre rural highway in western Victoria running in a west-east direction from Dimboola in the west to Charlton in the east. The highway serves little more than connectivity between local communities, and is busiest between the towns of Donald and Charlton (with exception to the section that it shares with the Sunraysia Highway.

History

The more notable features along the highway exist in the pastoral scenery, and the surprising appearance of lakes amongst the rolling hills. Buloke trees (from which the Shire of Buloke gets its name), are a regular feature along the eastern segment of the road.

The Borung Road, running from Charlton to Borung, is often referred to as the Borung Highway, particularly by locals of Charlton. Although it appears the Borung Highway was intended to at least end in Borung, the highway remains a shared single lane roadway without future plans for enhancement.

A curious fact is that the Highway would then have the township of Borung at one end and the former Shire of Borung at the other. The Shire which includes Warracknabeal was originally named the Shire of Borung in 1891 when it was split off from the Shire of St. Arnaud. The name was changed in 1938 to the Shire Warracknabeal due to confusion in mail deliveries with the township of Borung and more recently in 1995 during Victorian Council amalgamations it was changed again to the Shire of Yarriambiak.^[4] The Shire of Borung did not include Dimboola but the larger County of Borung does.

It is notable that very few of the highways in Victoria have Aboriginal names. In the nineteenth century amateur scientist and long serving member of the Victorian Legislative Council W. E. Stanbridge made the most detailed record of Australian Aboriginal astronomy surviving. Stanbridge befriended the Booroung people near Lake Tyrrell, and presented the results to Victoria's Scientific Community^[5] The possibilities are that the Borung Highway was named for this tribe, or as is written in the history of the town of Borung the town "takes its name from an Aboriginal word meaning the broad leafed mallee scrub"^[6]

Major Intersections and Towns

Borung Highway
Westbound	Distance to Dimboola (km)	Distance to Donald (km)	Eastbound
Crossroads Intersection (clockwise from highway) Western Highway to Horsham and Melbourne High Street to Dimboola Western Highway to Nhill and Adelaide
End Borung Highway	1	97	Start Borung Highway
Horsham Horsham-Kalkee Road	21	77	Horsham Horsham-Kalkee Road
Warracknabeal	40	58	Warracknabeal
Horsham, Portland Henty Highway			Horsham, Portland Henty Highway
Stawell, Melbourne Stawell-Warracknabeal Road			Stawell, Melbourne Stawell-Warracknabeal Road
Rainbow Warracknabeal-Rainbow Road	41	57	Rainbow Warracknabeal-Rainbow Road
Hopetoun, Mildura Henty Highway			Hopetoun, Mildura Henty Highway
Birchip Warracknabeal-Birchip Road	43	55	Birchip Warracknabeal-Birchip Road
continues as Borung Highway	83	15	Birchip, Mildura Sunraysia Highway
Start			End
Birchip, Mildura Sunraysia Highway			Borung Highway duplexes with Sunraysia Highway
To Minyip Stawell Donald-Stawell Road	97.5	0.5	To Minyip Stawell Donald-Stawell Road
Borung Highway duplexes with Sunraysia Highway	98	0	Donald
Westbound	Distance to Donald (km)	Distance to Charlton (km)	Eastbound
End	0	41	St Arnaud, Ballarat, Melbourne Sunraysia Highway
Donald			Start
St Arnaud, Ballarat, Melbourne Sunraysia Highway			continues as Borung Highway
Swan Hill Donald-Swan Hill Road	9	32	Swan Hill Donald-Swan Hill Road
St Arnaud, Wycheproof St Arnaud-Wycheproof Road	28	13	Wycheproof, St Arnaud St Arnaud-Wycheproof Road
Start Borung Highway	41	0	Charlton
			End Borung Highway
Crossroads Intersection (clockwise from highway) Calder Highway to Wycheproof and Mildura Calder Highway to Bendigo and Melbourne

References

See also

• Highways in Australia
• Highways in Victoria

v t e Road infrastructure in Victoria Freeways Calder Freeway Goulburn Valley Freeway Hume Freeway Princes Freeway (Geelong Ring Road) Western Freeway Highways Bass Highway Bellarine Highway Borung Highway Calder Highway Glenelg Highway Goulburn Valley Highway Hamilton Highway Henty Highway Hopkins Highway Kiewa Valley Highway Loddon Valley Highway Mallee Highway Maroondah Highway Melba Highway Midland Highway Monaro Highway Murray Valley Highway Nepean Highway Northern Highway Omeo Highway Princes Highway Pyrenees Highway South Gippsland Highway Strzelecki Highway Sturt Highway Sunraysia Highway Surf Coast Highway Warburton Highway Western Highway Western Port Highway Wimmera Highway Bypass routes Old Hume Highway Old Princes Highway Princes Highway (Geelong) Tourist routes Great Alpine Road Great Ocean Road Murray Valley Highway Phillip Island Road