Midland Highway is a major rural highway linking major towns in Victoria, beginning from Geelong and winding through country Victoria in a large arc through the cities of Ballarat, Bendigo and Shepparton, eventually reaching Mansfield[5] at the foothills of the Victorian Alps.

It continues in a north-eastly direction through Daylesford and Castlemaine, where it meets Calder Freeway just outside Harvourt and runs concurrent with it as a four-lane, dual-carriageway road until it reaches central Bendigo, when it narrows to a four-lane, single carriageway road and splits off to run north-east through Bendigo's suburbs of Epsom and Huntly, where it narrows back to a two-lane rural highway.

It meets Hume Freeway at an interchange just south of the town, before continuing in a southerly direction.

In the 1947/48 financial year, another section from Shepparton via Stanhope to Elmore was added,[14] subsuming the original declaration of Shepparton-Tatura Road and also along the former Shepparton–Elmore Road;[15] with the realignment of Northern Highway south of Elmore running to Kilmore instead of to Bendigo declared at the same time,[14] the previous alignment of Northern Highway between Elmore and Bendigo was also added to Midland Highway.

Midland Link Highway was later declared on 9 May 1983 along the former Maindample–Benalla Road,[17][18] to act as a western bypass of Mansfield.