Mount Alexander Road (and its northern section as Bulla Road) is a major road in Melbourne's inner northern suburbs, connecting the northern edges of the city district to just south of

Essendon Airport Essendon Fields Airport , colloquially known by its former name Essendon Airport, is a public airport serving scheduled commercial, corporate-jet, charter and general aviation flights. It is located next to the intersection of the Tullamarin ...

. It was named after its original destination: the Gold Fields of

Mount Alexander Mount Alexander is a mountain located approximately 125 km north-west of Melbourne, near the town of Harcourt. It rises 350 metres above the surrounding area to a level of 744 metres above sea level. Being a prominent local landmark, ...

, now known as Castlemaine.

Route

The road starts as Bulla Road, outside the entrance to the

retail park, crossing

Tullamarine Freeway The Tullamarine Freeway (commonly referred to as "The Tulla"), is a major urban freeway in Melbourne, linking Melbourne Airport to the Melbourne city centre, Melbourne City Centre. It carries up to 210,000 vehicles per day and is one of Australi ...

and

CityLink CityLink is a network of tollways in Melbourne, Australia, linking the Tullamarine, West Gate and Monash Freeways and incorporating Bolte Bridge, Burnley Tunnel and other works. In 1996, Transurban was awarded the contract to augment two exi ...

to the elongated roundabout where Keilor and Lincoln Roads meet in

Essendon Essendon may refer to: Australia *Electoral district of Essendon *Electoral district of Essendon and Flemington *Essendon, Victoria **Essendon railway station **Essendon Airport *Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League United King ...

. It changes name to Mount Alexander Road and continues heading south to

Moonee Ponds Moonee Ponds is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Moonee Valley local government area. Moonee Ponds recorded a population of 16,224 at the 2 ...

as a wide dual-carriageway with a plantation separating northbound and southbound traffic, until it reaches the intersection with Pascoe Vale and Ascot Vale Roads at

Moonee Ponds Junction Moonee Ponds Junction is a bus and tram interchange on the junction of Ascot Vale Road / Pascoe Vale Road and Mount Alexander Road in Moonee Ponds, Melbourne (Puckle Street / Dean Street also meets at the same point). It is located approximately ...

. It continues south as a four-lane single-carriageway road, sharing tram tracks along the roadway through

Ascot Vale Ascot Vale is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Moonee Valley local government area. Ascot Vale recorded a population of 15,197 at the 2021 c ...

, then forming the boundary between Flemington and

Travancore The Kingdom of Travancore ( /ˈtrævənkɔːr/), also known as the Kingdom of Thiruvithamkoor, was an Indian kingdom from c. 1729 until 1949. It was ruled by the Travancore Royal Family from Padmanabhapuram, and later Thiruvananthapuram. At ...

, before eventually crossing

Moonee Ponds Creek Moonee is a coastal suburb of the Central Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. It is part of the local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for ...

underneath the

sound-tube and arriving at the intersection with the CityLink ramps, Boundary and

Flemington Road Flemington Road is a major thoroughfare in the inner suburbs of North Melbourne and Parkville in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It runs for 2 km in a northwest–southeast direction, from the southern end of Mount Alexander Road, Flemington, ...

s in Parkville.

Melbourne tram route 59 Melbourne tram route 59 is operated by Yarra Trams on the Melbourne tram network from Airport West to Flinders Street station. The 14.7 kilometre route is operated out of Essendon depot with Z and B class trams. History Route 59 was first al ...

runs along the majority of the road, sharing traffic lanes with motor vehicles between Flemington Road and Moonee Ponds Junction, and along reserved tracks between Fletcher Street and Keilor Road in Essendon.

Essendon tram depot Essendon tram depot is located on Mount Alexander Road, Travancore, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. Operated by Yarra Trams, it is one of eight tram depots on the Melbourne tram network. Despite the name, the depot is located three kilometres ...

is also located on the road, in the suburb of Travancore.

History

Mount Alexander Road originally ran north from Flemington Road in Parkville to Pascoe Vale Road at Moonee Ponds Junction. 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 ...

) declared a northern extension to the existing allocation as a Main Road in the 1959/60 financial year, from

to the intersection with Bendigo Road (today Keilor Road) and Sunbury Road (today Bulla Road) in northern

. Mount Alexander Road linked Bendigo Road (and the

Calder Highway Calder Highway is a rural highway in Australia, linking Mildura and the Victoria/New South Wales border to Bendigo, in North Central Victoria. South of Bendigo, where the former highway has been upgraded to freeway-standard, Calder Freeway link ...

beyond) to central Melbourne, and was signed as National Route 79 between Essendon and Parkville in 1955; once the Tullamarine Freeway extension to Parkville opened in 1970 and National Route 79 was re-routed onto the new freeway, the old route was replaced with Alternative National Route 79, until it was removed in 1989. Bulla Road was allocated Metro Route 37, extended north from Lincoln Road to Tullamarine Freeway, when the Tullamarine Freeway extension opened in 1970, replacing former Metropolitan Route 40. 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 Mount Alexander Road (Arterial #5824) from Flemington Road in Parkville to the ramps of the "Western Link Tollway" (

's Western link) in Strathmore, south of

; this declaration formally includes today's Bulla Road, but signposts along this section have kept its original name.

Major intersections

Mount Alexander Road is entirely contained within the

City of Moonee Valley The City of Moonee Valley is a local government area located within the metropolitan area of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It comprises the north-western suburbs between 3 and 13 kilometres from the Melbourne city centre, and in June 2018, th ...

local government area.

Gallery

File:MooneePondsSutherlandMemorial.JPG, Memorial to Dr. Sutherland with Mount Alexander Road in the background File:Avenue of Date Palms, Mt Alexander Road, Essendon.jpg

References

Streets in Melbourne Essendon, Victoria Transport in the City of Moonee Valley Flemington, Victoria {{Australia-road-stub

Route

History

Major intersections

Gallery

See also

References