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, Victoria, Australia, linking Melbourne Airport to the Melbourne City Centre. It carries up to 210,000 vehicles per day and is one of Australia ...

and

CityLink CityLink is a network of tollways in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, linking the Tullamarine Freeway, Tullamarine, West Gate Freeway, West Gate and Monash Freeways and incorporating Bolte Bridge, Burnley Tunnel and other ...

to the elongated roundabout where Keilor and Lincoln Roads meet in Essendon. 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), Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Moonee Valley Local government ar ...

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 approximate ...

. It continues south as a four-lane single-carriageway road, sharing tram tracks along the roadway through Ascot Vale, then forming the boundary between Flemington and

Travancore The kingdom of Travancore (), also known as the kingdom of Thiruvithamkoor () or later as Travancore State, was a kingdom that lasted from until 1949. It was ruled by the Travancore Royal Family from Padmanabhapuram, and later Thiruvanan ...

, before eventually crossing Moonee Ponds Creek underneath the

sound-tube and arriving at the intersection with the CityLink ramps, Boundary and Flemington Roads in Parkville. Melbourne tram route 59 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 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 passing of the ''Country Roads Act of 1958'' (itself an evolution from the original ''Highways and Vehicles Act of 1924''State of Victoria, ''An Act to make further provision with respect to Highways and Country Roads Motor Cars and Traction Engines and for other purposes'' 30 December 1924
/ref>) provided for the declaration of State Highways and Main Roads, roads partially 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 respon ...

(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 an ...

). A northern extension to the existing declaration of Mount Alexander Road, from

to the intersection with Bendigo Road (today Keilor Road) and Sunbury Road (today Bulla Road) in northern Essendon, was declared a Main Road on 7 September 1960. 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 li ...

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

local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a federated state, state, province, division (politica ...

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, Mount Alexander Road, Essendon File:Mount Alexander Road.jpg, Mount Alexander Road, Moonee Ponds

References

{{Road infrastructure in Melbourne Streets in Melbourne Essendon, Victoria Transport in the City of Moonee Valley Flemington, Victoria

Route

History

Major intersections

Gallery

See also

References