Calder Highway

Calder Highway New South Wales–Victoria

Calder Freeway facing Mount Macedon

Type	Highway
Length	561 km (349 mi)
Route number(s)	B79 (2013-present) Silver City Highway - NSW/Vic. Border A79 (1998-present) NSW/Vic. Border - Calder Freeway M79 (1998-present) south of Ravenswood South Duplexes: (1998-present) Bendigo - Harcourt State Route 40 (Keilor - Niddrie)
Former route number	National Route 79 (? - 1998 / 2013) in Vic. / NSW respectively National Route 79 (? - 1998) Gisborne Bypass; Diggers Rest - Niddrie Freeway Route 90 (1975-1989) Keilor - Niddrie
NW end	Silver City Highway Curlwaa, New South Wales Vic/NSW Border
	Sturt Highway Mallee Highway Sunraysia Highway Borung Highway Midland Highway Midland Highway Pyrenees Highway Melton Highway Western Ring Road
SE end	Tullamarine Freeway Niddrie, Melbourne
Major settlements	Mildura, Ouyen, Charlton, Bendigo, Harcourt, Malmsbury, Kyneton, Woodend, Macedon, Gisborne, Diggers Rest, Sunbury
Highways in Australia National Highway • Freeways in Australia Highways in New South Wales Highways in Victoria

Calder Highway is a highway in Australia, linking Melbourne in Victoria, to Bendigo and Mildura and the Victoria/New South Wales border on the way to Broken Hill. It continues through New South Wales to Broken Hill, Tibooburra and the New South Wales/Queensland border as the Silver City Highway, posted as route B79 as far as Broken Hill.

The highway is called the Calder Freeway south of Bendigo where it has been upgraded to freeway-standard, superseding sections of the original Calder Highway. It has been extended in phases from the southern end to Ravenswood South subsuming the older Calder Highway stretches. The Victorian Government completed the duplication of the Calder Highway from Melbourne to Bendigo to freeway conditions on 20 April 2009.

The Calder Highway was named after William Calder, who was chairman of the Country Roads Board (CRB) from 1913 to 1928. The CRB was renamed Victorian Road Construction Authority and is today known as VicRoads.

The highway was originally allocated a National Route 79 shield. With Victoria's conversion to the newer alphanumeric system in the late 1990s this was altered to an A79 designation for the highway portion, M79 designation for the freeway portion into Melbourne, and the New South Wales section allocated B79 in 2013.

Originally, the Calder Highway (an undivided highway) started at the end of Keilor Road in Niddrie. In the early 1970s the road was upgraded to freeway standard together with the Tullamarine Freeway, ending in Keilor East in suburban Melbourne and rejoining the Calder Highway. By the early 1980s the Freeway was extended to Keilor and then rejoined the Calder Highway. However, it was not until the 1990s that work began to duplicate the rest of the highway to Bendigo.

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