Best Drives in Australia: The Murray Valley Highway

In prior postings I brought you great drives along the Monaro Highway along with the Alpine Way. Both these drives can be combined into one super drive by extending your journey by traveling the full length of the beautiful Murray Valley Highway. The Murray Valley Highway runs from where the Alpine Way ends at the small hamlet of Khancoban to the major north Victorian town of Wodonga along the Hume Highway:

From Khancoban the highway enters a lush, fertile farming valley lined with beautiful green hills on each side that are over watched by distant peaks of the Snowy Mountains:

Shortly passed Khancoban the highway crosses the Murray River into Victoria:

The Murray River that meanders and snakes through this spectacular country side is more blue and inviting than at any other point during its journey across eastern Australia. Just looking at the waters of this river just made me wish I had a canoe or kayak with me.

Once into Victoria the terrain remains consistent with a lush farming valley lined with beautiful wooded hillsides:

About 15 kilometers from the New South Wales / Victoria border the highway reaches the historical city of Corryong:

Corryong is where the real Man from Snowy River, Jack Riley frequented and is currently buried in a cemetery near the city:

Riley’s grave is not very obvious, but with a little looking you will eventually find it:

He was a simple man that was buried just like everyone else in the cemetery at the time, but became more famous after his death do to the books and movies about his life:

I’m sure there is probably a lot of interesting history from the lives of the people buried in that cemetery, but Jack Riley’s is just the only one we have heard of. I like to think he is just a microsm of a generation of great Australians that settled the area in the late 1800’s. Anyway the cemetery along with the Man from Snowy River museum in town are all definitely worth stopping for and checking out.

Past Corryong the highway continues to follow the lush green valley until it begins to run adjacent to a large lake created by the damming of the Murray River in the area:

The fishing here is supposed to be quite good and there was plenty of campgrounds to be spotted in the area. Past the large lake the highway eventually runs into the busy town of Wodonga. Wodonga is a fairly large town with a population of nearly 50,000 people that most importantly provides access to the Hume Highway to take you back to either Sydney or Melbourne or what other location you may have traveled from to drive the recommended route.

The drive across the Murray Valley highway will take only about 2-3 hours and is worth completing if you are already planning on driving the Alpine Way. If you plan on driving the full course of the Monaro Highway, followed by the Alpine Way, and the Murray Highway you could do it one day if you started early enough, but I highly recommend spending the night somewhere so you can fully experience many of the locations I have listed in my three total postings. The spectacular scenery, views of native wildlife, and the ever changing terrain really make the combined route one of the best drives in Australia.