Sydney Road (in its northernmost part also known as the Hume Highway) is a major urban arterial in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Geography Sydney Road starts at the northern end of Royal Parade at the boundary of Parkville and Brunswick and continues north through Brunswick, Coburg, Coburg North, Hadfield, Fawkner, Campbellfield, Somerton and Craigieburn, where it joins the Hume Freeway. The section passing through Brunswick and Coburg, between Park Street at its southern end and Bell Street near the site of the former Pentridge prison, at its northern end, is Melbourne's longest continuous shopping strip, with an abundance of small businesses and a variety of restaurants and coffee shops, clothing stores, places of worship, and community services. It is well known for its wedding fashion shops, discount shopping and a number of specialist food stores. History Previously part of Hume Highway, the road was bypassed as the main route through northern Melbourne when the Craigieburn bypass opened in 2005; the road name was devolved back to its original identity as Sydney Road as a consequence. As a part of the Hume Highway, the road was signed as National Route 31 in 1954. The Whitlam Government introduced the federal National Roads Act 1974, where roads declared as a National Highway were still the responsibility of the states for road construction and maintenance, but were fully compensated by the Federal government for money spent on approved projects. As an important interstate link between the capitals of Victoria and New South Wales, the Hume Highway was declared a National Highway in 1974. With Victoria's conversion to the newer alphanumeric system in the late 1990s, the section between Craigieburn and Fawkner (where it met the Western Ring Road) was upgraded to National Highway M31; it was left as National Highway 31 south of the ring road along its original alignment into central Melbourne. Once the Craigieburn bypass was opened in 2005 and National Route M31 was re-routed onto the new bypass, the old route was replaced with Metropolitan Route 55 from Craigieburn to the central suburb of Docklands. The passing of the Road Management Act 2004 granted the responsibility of overall management and development of Victoria's major arterial roads to VicRoads: VicRoads declared this road as Sydney Road (Arterial #5733), beginning from Bell Street in Coburg and ending at Brunswick Road, Brunswick in 2004, and as Coburg-Craigieburn Road (Arterial #5500), from