A vision where travellers make their way along the Old Hume Highway with a map in hand and a new song playing is becoming a reality.<\/p>\n
VicRoads has come on board to help add the highway between Wodonga and Melbourne to a book titled The Old Hume Highway, History Starts with the Road.<\/p>\n
The publication was release in 2013 but only covered the road between Sydney and Albury.<\/p>\n
Even the smallest thing uncovered could make the biggest difference.- Frank Burke<\/p>\n
Non-profit charity group Old Hume Highway 31 negotiated the book’s revision with VicRoads and the RMS.<\/p>\n
VicRoads North Eastern Region director Bryan Sherritt said the body would provide $25,000 for the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Old Hume Highway 31 project has the potential to boost tourism and economic turnover in the communities that have been bypassed by the Hume Freeway,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe promotion of these communities will encourage motorists to take more breaks, grab some food or a coffee, and see what the highway towns have to offer.\u201d<\/p>\n
The charity organisation, headed by Frank Burke, has been pushing for the road to become a travel path similar to Route 66 in America.<\/p>\n
Since initial discussions last July, a CD with a song titled We’re Going Everywhere has produced by the makers of the well-known track I’ve Been Everywhere.<\/p>\n
The song includes the names of 86 towns along the highway.<\/p>\n
Now, Mr Burke is putting a call out for historic photos, artefacts and documents to be included in the book.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have contacted every historical society between Melbourne and Wodonga asking for input,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe highway is the road around which Australia was built and it’s the things we don\u2019t know which we are hoping to find.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven the smallest thing uncovered could make the biggest difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
The long-term aim is to get cars back on the old highway rather than bypassing regional towns on the freeway.<\/p>\n
The Wodonga Historical Society is sifting through old photos for the book.<\/p>\n
Society secretary treasurer Uta Wiltshire said hopefully members of the public will also have stories to tell about the travel route.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe book is great for people who are interested in history and have the time to get off the freeway,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the greatest stories is the 90 degree bend at the corner of High Street and Elgin Boulevard.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the highway and trucks had to do the turn.\u201d<\/p>\n
For more information visit oldhumehighway.com.au.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A vision where travellers make their way along the Old Hume Highway with a map in hand and a new song playing is becoming a reality. VicRoads has come on board to help add the highway between Wodonga and Melbourne to a book titled The Old Hume Highway, History Starts with the Road. The publication … Continue reading “The Old Hume Highway brought to life”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hume"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.onradio.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.onradio.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.onradio.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.onradio.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.onradio.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.onradio.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3098\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.onradio.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.onradio.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.onradio.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}