Formally known as the Omeo Highway prior to 1998, The Great Alpine Road between Bairnsdale and Omeo was based on a trail blazed in 1841 by cattlemen from the Monaro Region of NSW seeking to extend summer pastures in the high country. The track saw hundreds of miners, families and packhorses endure the most rugged terrain to reach newly found gold mining areas. The road from Bairnsdale to Omeo took the traveller two days on horse back or four days on foot to complete. Today the same journey takes one and a half hours. The first motor vehicle travelled the Omeo Highway in 1906. The Bairnsdale to Omeo trip was terminated at Swifts Creek due to mechanical failure as a result of the severe condition of the track.