A drive along the Northern Highway was quite a surprise as I wasn’t expecting it to be as interesting as it turned out to be. If you are looking for an easy road trip in Victoria, one that even the kids will find interesting, then the Northern Highway between Beveridge and Echuca should be on your radar. Come with me as I road trip the Northern Highway.

Northern Highway Facts & Figures

Length of the Northern Highway is 168 km (104 miles)
Towns along the Northern Highway. Starting at the southern end is Beveridge. Then you pass through towns of Kilmore, Pyalong, Tooborac, Heathcote, Elmore, Rochester before ending at the northern end in Echuca.
Time to drive the Northern Highway. In theory you could drive the length of the Northern Highway road trip in about 2.5 hours however, as I discovered, there are plenty of interesting places to stop along the way and discover why these towns exist and the characters that have and do call them home. So it took me all day to drive the Northern Highway. Well, about 6 hours as I stopped in every town. If you don’t have a car of your own you can rent one via DiscoverCars.

The Towns Along the Northern Highway

I started my Northern Highway road trip in Melbourne so I have listed the towns along the Northern Highway from south to north.

Kilmore

Kilmore is one of Victoria’s oldest inland settled towns that dates back to 1837. Many visited as a stop over while travelling north to other areas. And it is still a great stop over. As you drive along the main street you will find lots of old buildings. You could visit the Old Kilmore Gaol and enjoy a coffee in its coffee shop perhaps grab a bite to eat in one of the many cafes and bakeries. Kilmore is home to Assumption College, a prestigious Catholic co-educational secondary day and boarding school.

Kilmore main street

Pyalong and Tooborac

The towns of Pyalong and Tooborac are rather small and seem to appear out of nowhere and then disappear just as fast. These are both towns to service people travelling along the Northern Highway and the farmers. There is a great pie shop at Tooborac if feeling hungry.

Heathcote

Heathcote is one of the biggest towns along the Northern Highway. It is the heart of one of Victoria’s wine regions with some 40 or so wineries with cellar doors and some 70 vineyards. The town of Heathcote is rather large with many old historic buildings with a number of cafes and a couple of wineries in the town. A lot of the wineries are off the Northern Highway on a road that runs parallel with it. It, along with the Northern Highway is very flat and the farming land was very dry – well it was the end of summer when I road tripped along the Northern Highway.

plenty of dry flat land then suddenly a lush green vineyard and winery

Elmore

Next town on this road trip along the Northern Highway is Elmore on the banks of the Campaspe River and is well worth a stop. There is a gorgeous little train station to check out plus a museum with a replica of the Sunshine Harvester. The Sunshine Harvester was invented by Hugh Victor McKay in Elmore. He was a young farmer who decided in 1883-84  it was too hard work working in the fields with equipment that required a number of procedures to harvest grain. So he invented a harvester that would enable grain to be harvested in a single process. The harvester was such a success that he began selling the harvester overseas. And to do this he moved his business with the brandname Sunshine to Melbourne. And the suburb of Sunshine is named after this. My kids found the Sunshine Harvester story very interesting and then we saw one of the original Sunshine Harvester’s in the National Museum in Canberra.

check out the Elmore Train Station and the replica of the Sunshine Harvester in the museum

Rochester

The next town on this Northern Highway road trip is Rochester. I think this was my favourite town because of the beautiful silo art and mural art around the town. I also discovered it was home to ‘Oppy’. Oppy was the nickname of Hubert Opperman (1904-1996) who was and Australian cyclist. He earned international acclaim for his endurance cycling feats in the 1920s and 1930s. Unfortunately World War II ended his riding career however, he continued riding well into his 90s and it was he wife who worried about him that he stopped riding.

Statue of Oppy in a park near the silo art in Rochester

Echuca

The end of this Northern Highway road trip is Echuca. Echuca is a port town on the banks of the mighty Murray River and is twinned with the town of Moama on the other side of the river in New South Wales. It has a lot of history which you will see when you visit the original Echuca Wharf at the Port of Echuca and discover the 19th-century river trade. A ride on a paddle steamer is a must to give you a view of Echuca and the port from the water. Kids of all ages will love this, particularly when the captain allows you to have a turn at steering the paddle steamer!

Are You Ready for a Road Trip along the Northern Highway?