[4] It was named after Sir Herbert Hyland, a popular politician for the Country Party in the Gippsland area.

Highland Highway commences at the intersection of Princes Street and Breed Street in Traralgon and heading south as a two-lane, single carriageway road, nearly immediately crossing the Bairnsdale railway line just east of Morwell railway station, then heads east after a roundabout, then after another kilometre turns south to leave Traralgon's suburbs, curving around Loy Yang's open-cut coal mine, then heads south through Gormandale, through the eastern stretches of the Strzelecki Ranges, to eventually terminate at the intersection with South Gippsland Highway, just north-east of Yarram.

The passing of the Transport Act of 1983[8] (itself an evolution from the original Highways and Vehicles Act of 1924[9]) provided for the declaration of State Highways, roads two-thirds financed by the State government through the Road Construction Authority (later VicRoads).

[3] Hyland Highway was signed as State Route 188 between Traralgon and Yarram in 1990; with Victoria's conversion to the newer alphanumeric system in the late 1990s, it was replaced by route C482.

The passing of the Road Management Act 2004[10] granted the responsibility of overall management and development of Victoria's major arterial roads to VicRoads: in 2004, VicRoads re-declared the road as Hyland Highway (Arterial #6170), beginning at Princes Highway at Traralgon and ending at South Gippsland Highway in Yarram.