Maroondah Highway

Maroondah Highway (also known as Whitehorse Road from Deepdene to Surrey Hills ) is a major east–west thoroughfare in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, and a highway connecting the north-eastern fringes of Melbourne to Mansfield, at the lower alpine region of Victoria, Australia.

Maroondah Link Highway links Cathkin (on Goulburn Valley Highway) and Yarck (on Maroondah Highway), allowing an easier link to Melba Highway via Yea for Melbourne traffic.

Route
Whitehorse Road/Maroondah Highway commences at the intersection of Cotham Road and Burke Road at Deepdene, and heads in an easterly direction as a four lane, single carriageway arterial road (with on-street tram tracks), through the suburbs of Balwyn and Deepdene; the route 109 tram also runs along this stretch of the road. It continues east through Mont Albert, to the intersection with Elgar Road in Box Hill, where the road widens to four-lane dual carriageway, with trams running down the central median strip (Burke Road and Elgar Roads being the east and west boundaries of Captain Elgar's original two mile square property); the tram tracks terminate at Market Street, a few blocks further on, and it widens further to a six-lane dual-carriageway just beyond at the intersection with Station Street. It continues east through the suburbs of Blackburn and Nunawading to the intersection with Mitcham Road in Mitcham, where Whitehorse Road ends and the road continues east only as Maroondah Highway. It continues north-east past Croydon to the intersection with Mooroolbark and Victoria Roads on the western edge of Lilydale, where it narrows to a four-lane single carriageway road, and runs through Iliydale, after which it becomes a rural highway. There is a moderately steep and moderately twisty section through forest between Healesville and Buxton, and the road then continues through farmland all the way through Alexandra and Bonnie Doon to eventually terminate at the intersection with Midland Highway in Mansfield.

History
In the 1850s, Whitehorse Road was built to be the primary route from Melbourne to Gippsland, a rather circuitous route which went via the Dandenong Ranges. Today the primary route is now via the Monash and Princes Freeways.

The road, when first built, was named Three Chain Road, due to the road width being 66 yd wide.

The traffic led to the establishment of a hotel in Box Hill named the White Horse hotel which had been named for a horse belonging to Captain Elgar, a property owner in the area. It is this hotel of which the road obtained its name. However, the hotel was forced to shut its doors in 1921 when Box Hill became a dry area. A replica of the white horse from the roof of the hotel now stands in the median strip of Whitehorse Road, while the restored original is located in the Box Hill Town Hall.

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. (Main) Healesville Road, from Ringwood through Lilydale to the Yarra River on the western edge of Healesville, and Healesville-Alexandra Road, from the Yarra River to Buxton, were declared Main Roads on 20 October 1913; the rest of Healesville-Alexandra Road from Buxton through Taggerty to Alexandra, and Cathkin-Mansfield Road from Cathkin to Merton, were declared as Main Roads on 16 November 1914; Mansfield Road from Merton through Mansfield to Merrijig was declared a Main Road on 30 November 1914; another portion of Main Healesville Road between Nunawading and Ringwood was declared a Main Road on 3 May 1915; and Yarck Road between Yarck and Koriella was declared a Main Road on 20 September 1915.

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. Maroondah Highway was declared a State Highway in the 1947/48 financial year, from Union Road in Surrey Hills via Lilydale, Healesville, Alexandra, Yarck and Merton to Mansfield (for a total of 116 miles), subsuming the original declaration of (Main) Healesville Road, Healesville-Alexandra Road, Yarck Road, Cathkin-Mansfield Road (between Yarck and Merton) and Mansfield Road as Main Roads. Maroondah Link Highway was later declared as a State Highway on 9 May 1983, subsuming the remaining declaration of Cathkin-Mansfield Road between Yarck and Cathkin as a Main Road.

Maroondah Highway was signed as Metropolitan Route 34 between Deepdene and Lilydale in 1965, later extended to Alexandra in 1986, and signed State Route 153 between Yarck and Mansfield in 1986. With Victoria's conversion to the newer alphanumeric system in the late 1990s, Metropolitan Route 34 was truncated back to Lilydale, and replaced by routes B300 between Lilydale and Coldstream, route B360 between Coldstream and Alexandra, C516 between Koriella and Yarck, B300 between Yarck and Maindample, and B320 between Maindample and Mansfield. Maroondah Link Highway was signed State Route 153 between Cathkin and Yarck in 1986, and was later replaced by 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 declared this road as Whitehorse Road (Arterial #5996), beginning from Burke Road in Balwyn and ending at Union Road, Surrey Hills, as Maroondah Highway (Arterial #6720), from Burke Road to where it meets Midland Highway in Mansfield (this declaration overlaps the Whitehorse Road declaration in its entirety: dual-naming is observed on signposts, but despite ending in Surrey Hills dual-naming has been confusingly signposted as far east as Mitcham Road), and as Maroondah Link Highway (Arterial #6020), from Goulburn Valley Highway in Cathkin to Maroondah Highway in Yarck.