Kiewa Valley Highway

Kiewa Valley Highway is a rural highway which traverses the Kiewa Valley near the alpine regions of Victoria, Australia, connecting the eastern Wodonga suburb of Bandiana to Mount Beauty, at the foot of Mount Bogong in the Alpine National Park.

Route
Kiewa Valley Highway commences at the intersection with Murray Valley Highway in Bandiana and heads in a south-easterly direction as a two-lane, single carriageway rural highway, mostly following the course of Kiewa River through Kiewa until it reaches Dederang, where it starts to wind through the valleys of the Victorian Alps, eventually terminating at the intersection with Bogong High Plains Road in Mount Beauty. From Mount Beauty, Bogong High Plains Road takes a winding and twisty route via the Falls Creek alpine resort to meet Omeo Highway at Glen Valley.

History
Within Victoria, the passing of the Country Roads Act of 1912 through the Parliament of Victoria provided for the establishment of the Country Roads Board (later VicRoads) and their ability to declare Main Roads, taking responsibility for the management, construction and care of the state's major roads from local municipalities. Dederang Road was declared a Main Road from Dederang to Mount Beauty (and continuing northwards from Dederang to Yackandandah) on 30 November 1914.

In the 1950s the road was sealed and realigned to Mount Beauty to permit the transport of materials for the construction of the Kiewa Hydroelectric Scheme.

The passing of the 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. Kiewa Valley Highway was declared a State Highway in the 1959/60 financial year, from Bandiana via Kiewa and Dederang to Mount Beauty (for a total of 49 miles), subsuming the original declaration of Dederang Road between Dederang and Mount Beauty as a Main Road; before this declaration, this road was also referred to as Kiewa Valley Road.

Kiewa Valley Highway was signed as State Route 191 between Bandiana and Mount Beauty in 1986; with Victoria's conversion to the newer alphanumeric system in the late 1990s, this was replaced by route C531.

The passing of the Road Management Act 2004 through the Parliament of Victoria granted the responsibility of overall management and development of Victoria's major arterial roads to VicRoads: VicRoads re-declared the road in 2004 as Kiewa Valley Highway (Arterial #6790), from Bandiana to Mount Beauty.