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 15 km section that it shares with the Sunraysia Highway between Donald and Litchfield).

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

LGA	Location	km[7]	mi	Destinations	Notes
Hindmarsh	Dimboola	0	0.0	Western Highway (A8) / High Street (C234) south-west – Horsham, Melbourne, Nhill, Adelaide, Dimboola	Western highway terminus
Yarriambiack	Wallup	20.0	12.4	Horsham-Kalkee Road (C231) – Horsham
	Warracknabeal	39.0	24.2	Henty Highway (B200) south – Horsham, Stawell	Short concurrency with Henty Highway (B200)
		39.8	24.7	Henty Highway (B200) north / Warracknabeal-Rainbow Road (C245) west – Hopetoun, Mildura, Rainbow
		42.4	26.3	Warracknabeal–Birchip Road (C242) – Birchip
Buloke	Litchfield	81.5	50.6	Sunraysia Highway (B220) – Mildura, Donald, St Arnaud	C234 eastern terminus; Sunraysia Highway southbound connects to Borung Highway eastbound
Gap in route
Buloke	Donald	96.5	60.0	Sunraysia Highway (B220) – Mildura, St Arnaud	C239 western terminus; Sunraysia Highway northbound connects to Borung Highway westbound
	Donald–Gil Gil–Jeffcott North tripoint	106	66	Donald–Swan Hill Road (C261) north – Swan Hill
	Wooroonook	124– 125	77– 78	St Arnaud–Wycheproof Road (C271) north – St Arnaud, Wycheproof	Staggered T junctions
	Charlton	138	86	Calder Highway (A79)  – Wycheproof, Mildura, Bendigo, Melbourne	Eastern highway terminus
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi       Concurrency terminus       Route transition

References

See also

• Highways in Australia
• Highways in Victoria

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 Calder Alternative Highway Glenelg Highway Goulburn Valley Highway Hamilton Highway Henty Highway Hopkins Highway Kiewa Valley Highway Loddon Valley Highway Mallee Highway Maroondah Highway McIvor 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

Route map: Bing / Google