Melba Highway connects the outer eastern

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

Coldstream Coldstream ( gd, An Sruthan Fuar , sco, Caustrim) is a town and civil parish in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland. A former burgh, Coldstream is the home of the Coldstream Guards, a regiment in the British Army. Description Coldstream l ...

, near Lilydale, and the

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

of Yea, in Victoria's Upper Goulburn on the

Goulburn Valley Highway Goulburn Valley Highway is a highway located in Victoria, Australia. The section north of the Hume Freeway is part of the Melbourne to Brisbane National Highway (together with Hume Freeway) and is the main link between these two cities as well a ...

. The road is named after Dame

Nellie Melba Dame Nellie Melba (born Helen Porter Mitchell; 19 May 186123 February 1931) was an Australian operatic dramatic coloratura soprano (three octaves). She became one of the most famous singers of the late Victorian era and the early 20th century, ...

, a famed Australian opera singer of the early 20th century, whose former country estate lies at the southern end of the highway, at the junction of the Melba and Maroondah highways in Coldstream.

Route

Melba Highway starts at the intersection of High Street (

) and Station Street in Yea and heads south as a dual-lane, single-carriageway road, passing through forest and open agricultural land, descending down a steep grade between Glenburn and Dixons Creek to the bottom of the

Great Dividing Range The Great Dividing Range, also known as the East Australian Cordillera or the Eastern Highlands, is a cordillera system in eastern Australia consisting of an expansive collection of mountain ranges, plateaus and rolling hills, that runs rough ...

, through a road junction that links the highway with the nearby towns of Kinglake and Toolangi, a former home of Australian author

C. J. Dennis Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis (7 September 1876 – 22 June 1938), better known as C. J. Dennis, was an Australian poet and journalist known for his best-selling verse novel ''The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke'' (1915). Alongside ...

. It continues south and then west along the bypass around Yarra Glen, then continues south, passing through the alluvial plains of the

Yarra River The Yarra River or historically, the Yarra Yarra River, (Kulin languages: ''Berrern'', ''Birr-arrung'', ''Bay-ray-rung'', ''Birarang'', ''Birrarung'', and ''Wongete'') is a perennial river in south-central Victoria, Australia. The lower stre ...

and the rich

Yarra Valley The Yarra Valley is the region surrounding the Yarra River in Victoria, Australia. The river originates approximately east of the Melbourne central business district and flows towards it and out into Port Phillip Bay. The name Yarra Valley ...

vineyards, before eventually ending at the intersection with

Maroondah Highway Maroondah Highway (also known as Whitehorse Road from Deepdene, Victoria, Deepdene to Mitcham, Victoria, Mitcham) is a major east–west thoroughfare in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, and a highway connecting the north-eastern fringes of Mel ...

Speed Limits

*Coldstream – Yarra Glen 80 km/h *Yarra Glen 50 km/h *Yarra Glen – Glenburn via Yarra Glen Bypass 100 km/h *Glenburn 80 km/h *Glenburn – Yea 100 km/h *Yea 60 km/h

History

The passing of the ''Country Roads Act of 1958'' (itself an evolution from the original ''Highways and Vehicles Act of 1924'') provided for the declaration of State Highways, roads two-thirds financed by the State government through the

Country Roads Board The Country Roads Board was a government authority responsible for the construction and maintenance of main roads in the state of Victoria, Australia between 1913 and 1983. History The Country Roads Board (CRB) was formed to take over responsi ...

(later

VicRoads VicRoads is a government joint venture in the state of Victoria, Australia. In the state, it is responsible for driver licensing and vehicle registration. It is owned and operated through a joint venture between the Victorian government and a c ...

). The road was declared a State Highway in June 1983; before this declaration, the roads were referred to as Yarra Glen-Yea Road and Yarra Glen Road. Melba Highway was signed as State Route 153 between Yea and Coldstream in 1986; with Victoria's conversion to the newer alphanumeric system in the late 1990s this was replaced with route B300. The passing of the ''Road Management Act 2004'' granted the responsibility of overall management and development of Victoria's major arterial roads to VicRoads: in 2004, VicRoads re-declared Melba Highway (Arterial #6300) between Yea and

. The Yarra Glen bypass which opened in May 2010 diverts trucks and other through vehicles. Works also saw the Bell Street/Melba Highway roundabout created along with a new level crossing through the roundabout for the Yarra Valley Railway.Yarra Glen Bypass
''VicRoads''. Retrieved on 15 March 2011.

Major Intersections and Towns

References

Highways in Victoria (Australia) {{Australia-road-stub

Route

Speed Limits

History

Major Intersections and Towns

See also

References