Victoria Road Photo Gallery:

NH-M31 (Hume Freeway)

The Hume Freeway (also known as the Hume Highway in New South Wales) is one of the most important roads in Australia, the shortest route linking the country's two largest cities - Sydney and Melbourne.

At the Sydney end of the Hume Highway, the last 10 km of road is also known as Liverpool Road, before it terminates at an intersection with Parramatta Road, in Summer Hill. At the Melbourne end, about 27 km north of Melbourne at the suburb of Craigieburn, the Craigieburn Bypass diverts the Hume Freeway (and the M31 designation) off to the east of the original highway to terminate with the Western and Metropolitan Ring Roads (M80) roughly 15 km north of Melbourne, which allows traffic to travel from Geelong, Pakenham or suburban Melbourne non-stop to Albury. The original alignment of the Hume Highway is Sydney Road, which runs straight south into the heart of Melbourne's CBD, bearing metropolitan route 55.

The Hume Highway travels through the states of New South Wales and Victoria and got its name in the 1920s during a nationwide highway naming scheme. Before this, the road was known as the "Great Southern Road" in New South Wales and "Sydney Road" in Victoria. In 1914 the highway was declared a main road. The road was named in 1929 after Hamilton Hume, a famous explorer in the early 19th century who in conjunction with William Hovell first found an overland route between Sydney and the infant colonial outpost of Port Phillip, the original name of Melbourne.

Over 80% is dual carriageway or motorway standard. The principal towns through which it passes are Liverpool, Campbelltown, Camden, Picton, Mittagong, Goulburn, Yass, Gundagai, Holbrook and Albury in New South Wales; and Wodonga, Wangaratta, Glenrowan, Benalla, Euroa, Seymour and Wallan in Victoria.

Route B400 duplexes with M31 between the Murray Valley Hwy (about 10km west of Wodonga) and High St at Wodonga (where the freeway ends). That is the only duplex along the length of the route.

National Highway, M31 is designated with the VicRoads Internal Number of 1550.

Total Length (Vic):	291 km
Route Numbers:	duplexed with
Duplex information courtesy of Sam Laybutt (ozroads.com.au)

Click inside a box to view that section of the highway: