South Gippsland Freeway
Length	6 km
General direction	North-South
From	Doveton, Melbourne
To	Lyndhurst, Melbourne
via	Hampton Park

South Gippsland Freeway is a short freeway linking Dandenong in Melbourne's south-east to other south-eastern destinations, including the Mornington Peninsula and the Gippsland region. The freeway bears the designation M420. Image File history File links Australian_Alphanumeric_State_Route_M420. ... km redirects here. ... Doveton is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. ... Lyndhurst is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. ... Hampton Park is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. ... A freeway is a type of highway that is designed for safer high-speed operation of motor vehicles through the elimination of at-grade intersections. ... Dandenong is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. ... Melbournes Yarra River is a popular area for walking, jogging, cycling, rowing and for relaxing on the banks with a picnic Melbourne (pronounced ) is the second most populous city in Australia, with a metropolitan area population of approximately 3. ... A beach on the Mornington Peninsula A beach on the Mornington Peninsula A beach on the Mornington Peninsula The Mornington Peninsula is a peninsula located south-east of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, surrounded by Port Phillip, Western Port Bay and Bass Strait. ... John Longstaffs Gippsland, Sunday night, February 20th, 1898, depicting the Red Tuesday bushfires that ravaged Gippsland For the electoral district in the Australian House of Representatives, see Division of Gippsland. ...

History

The freeway originally began as an overflow from construction of the Mulgrave Freeway (now the Monash Freeway) in 1970, where the Mulgrave entered a sweeping turn south, crossed Eumemmering Creek in Doveton and officially terminated at Princes Highway just outside of Dandenong. This intersection was later replanned as a proper underpass and the freeway was unofficially extended under the Princes Highway to run a kilometre further south, along the eastern border of Melbourne's Holden factory at the time, to terminate at the original alignment of the South Gippsland Highway where it met Pound Road. Monash Freeway is a freeway linking Melbournes CBD to its southeastern suburbs and the Gippsland region. ... Doveton is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. ... The Princes Highway is a segment of Australias Highway 1 that extends from Sydney to Adelaide, via Melbourne. ... This article is about the Australian car manufacturer. ... The South Gippsland Highway is a highway in Victoria, Australia and connects the city of Melbourne with the South Gippsland region of Victoria. ...

Some years later, due to the unforseen success of this section of the freeway, it was redeveloped and "extended" another kilometre south towards Lyndhurst. The old alignment of the South Gippsland Highway was duplicated and upgraded into the new stretch of the freeway, and a new dual-carriageway alignment of the South Gippsland Highway was constructed approximately a kilometre to the freeway's west. Pound Road was extended a few hundred metres west across a new bridge over the freeway, and Dandenong-bound ramps were constructed. The interchange (Lyndhurst interchange) where the freeway and the old and new alignments of the South Gippsland Highway met Lyndhurst Road (renamed Hastings-Dandenong Road not long afterwards) was reconsructed to allow the freeway to flow further south using an overpass above the realigned South Gippsland Highway: those wanting to follow the highway to Cranbourne or beyond simply used the off-lanes. Lyndhurst is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. ... Panoramic view of the Red Sand Garden, Australian Garden, Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne, Victoria, Australia Cranbourne is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 49 kilometres south-east of Downtown Melbourne (via the M1 and the South Gippsland Highway) and is situated at an elevation of 50 metres above sea-level. ...

The Doveton segment of freeway between Eumemmering Creek and Princes Highway was originally labelled as Mulgrave Freeway, however - even back then - plans were made to later extend the freeway further south-east towards Beaconsfield. Therefore, in the early 1980s, the segment of the Mulgrave Freeway south of Eumemmering Creek was relabelled the South Gippsland Freeway, extending the northern reaches of that freeway officially by about a kilometre.

By 1988, the Mulgrave Freeway - rechristened as the South Eastern Arterial at this stage - had been over time extended and then linked to allow a freeway-style link from the city to Dandenong; this translated into a heavier use of the South Eastern Arterial and by extension the South Gippsland Highway. Not much was done to improve the freeway however, especially for the Doveton segment, which saw traffic volume leap as drivers used it to gain access to Princes Highway east beyond Dandenong and the suburbs beyond. As the entire South Eastern Arterial was designated a State Route 1 shield (later converted to M1), this section was also designated the same route: a metropolitan shield was designated to the stretch south of the Princes Highway beyond to Hastings-Dandenong Road (now Dandenong-Hastings Road). The bridge over the Lyndhurst interchange was eventually duplicated with little fanfare in the early-1990s, leading to increased use of the road, mostly to semi-trailers and the amount of freight using the road to get to the docks in the Westernport district: Dandenong-Hastings Road was yet again renamed the Westernport Highway to reflect this and was eventually duplicated in stages. Image File history File links Australian_State_Route_65. ...

The freeway had its metro shield abolished when Victoria switched to the alpha-numeric route system some years later, and was given the M420 designation for the southern segment of the freeway (which extended to the southern portion of the South Gippsland Highway beyond the Lyndhurst interchange, the Westernport Highway was given the A780 designation): the northern segment still retained the M1 designation until the Southern Eastern Arterial - renamed yet again to the current Monash Freeway - was extended further south-east from Doveton along the planned alignment (the "Hallam Bypass") to Berwick in 2003. The northern segment assumed the M420 designation afterwards. Berwick is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. ...

Interchanges

The South Gippsland Freeway officially begins at the Monash Freeway interchange in Doveton and heads south to become the Westernport Highway at the Lyndhurst interchange:

• Monash Freeway , Doveton: bi-directional (limited)
• Princes Highway , Hallam: bi-directional
• Pound Road , Hallam: city-bound only
• South Gippsland Highway Lyndhurst: bi-directional

The freeway then flows into the Westernport Highway (Dandenong - Hastings Road) . Monash Freeway is a freeway linking Melbournes CBD to its southeastern suburbs and the Gippsland region. ... Image File history File links Australian_Alphanumeric_State_Route_M1. ... Doveton is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. ... The Princes Highway is a segment of Australias Highway 1 that extends from Sydney to Adelaide, via Melbourne. ... Image File history File links Australian_Alternate_Route_1. ... Hallam is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. ... Image File history File links Australian_State_Route_12. ... Hallam is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. ... The South Gippsland Highway is a highway in Victoria, Australia and connects the city of Melbourne with the South Gippsland region of Victoria. ... Image File history File links Australian_Alphanumeric_State_Route_M420. ... Lyndhurst is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. ... Image File history File links Australian_Alphanumeric_State_Route_A780. ...

See also List of Melbourne freeways Melbourne is served by a freeway network which is the earliest and the most extensive in Australia. ...