Redesdale Bridge

Last updated

Redesdale Bridge
Redesdale Bridge 001.JPG
Coordinates 37°00′57″S144°32′28″E / 37.0158°S 144.5412°E / -37.0158; 144.5412 Coordinates: 37°00′57″S144°32′28″E / 37.0158°S 144.5412°E / -37.0158; 144.5412
Carries[C326] Heathcote-Kyneton Road
Crosses Campaspe River
Locale Redesdale, Victoria, Australia
Characteristics
DesignWrought Iron truss
Total length60 metres (196 ft 10 in)
Width14.3 metres (46 ft 11 in)
Longest span54.7 metres (179 ft 6 in) [1]
History
Opened1868
Location
Redesdale Bridge

The Redesdale Bridge is one of the oldest iron lattice-truss bridges in Victoria, Australia. The Redesdale Bridge is a wrought iron and timber structure with bluestone abutments, located over the Campaspe River near the town of Redesdale. [2]

Contents

History

The bridge was completed in January 1868, despite a carved commemoration stone having the date 1867. [3] In early 2015, the name of Redesdale Bridge was adopted by the Office of Geographic Names and formally gazetted in the Victorian Government Gazette on 19 March 2015. [4]

The trusses for the bridge were originally imported for the Hawthorn Bridge over the Yarra River connecting the suburbs of Richmond and Hawthorn in 1859. [5] The ship Herald of the Morning , at the end of its second voyage to Australia in 1859, whilst bringing 419 immigrants and a mixed cargo that included the wrought iron trusses, caught fire and sank in Hobsons Bay. [6] As a result, the Hawthorn bridge was delayed for several years while new trusses were made and shipped out to Australia. [7]

Ten years later the original trusses were salvaged from the Herald of the Morning at the bottom of Hobsons Bay [8] and sold privately to the Melbourne foundry Langlands & Co. [3] The wreck was advertised for sale on 29 November 1859. [9] Two hundred tons of ironwork were purchased by the goldfields shires of McIvor and Metcalfe for £1000. Prominent Melbourne engineer T B Muntz designed the bridge and a contractor named Doran won the construction contract. The final cost of the bridge was £6274. [3]

The bridge was constructed with a divided-lane through-truss design created specifically for the difficult river crossing and unique in Victoria. The trusses were originally intended for a deck truss design, but were adapted to allow their use as through trusses with stiffening arches connecting them above the roadway. Two separate roadways with an intervening stone pillar separating them have caused problems for modern traffic. The road deck is made with longitudinal timber planks on large timber cross girders that are supported on the lower chords of the trusses. [3]

Similar bridge

Whereas the huge lattice truss girders of the Redesdale Bridge had been imported from England in 1859, the colonial engineering works which had in the meantime developed to service reef and deep lead mining were quite capable of supplying such products for the Central Victorian, Glenmona Bridge, by 1870. [10]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iron Cove Bridge</span> Bridge in New South Wales, Australia

The Iron Cove Bridge is a heritage-listed road bridge that carries Victoria Road (A40) across Iron Cove, linking the Sydney suburbs of Drummoyne to Rozelle in the City of Canada Bay local government area of New South Wales, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hawthorn Bridge</span> Bridge in Melbourne, Australia

The Hawthorn Bridge crosses the Yarra River, five kilometres (3.1 mi) east of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, connecting Bridge Road and Burwood Road. It is the oldest extant bridge over the Yarra River and is one of the oldest metal bridges in Australia. It was constructed in the early wave of major new infrastructure funded by the Victorian gold rush. Designed by Francis Bell, it is a substantial riveted, wrought iron, lattice truss structure, with bluestone abutments and piers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saltwater River Rail Bridge</span> Bridge in Victoria, Australia

The Saltwater River Rail Bridge is a large steel arch truss railway bridge completed in 1858 and crossing the Maribyrnong River on the Melbourne to Footscray railway in Melbourne, Victoria. It had the longest span of any bridge in Victoria for thirty years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pyrenees Highway, Victoria</span> Highway in western Victoria, Australia

Pyrenees Highway is a rural highway in western Victoria, Australia, linking Glenelg Highway in Glenthompson to Calder Highway in Elphinstone. It intersects with the region's major road freight route, Western Highway in Ararat, in addition to Midland Highway in Castlemaine and Sunraysia Highway in Avoca. It was named after the Pyrenees ranges the highway runs through. This name covers many consecutive roads which are not widely known to most drivers except for the easternmost section, as the entire allocation is best known by the name of its last constituent part: Maroona–Glenthompson Road, Mortlake–Ararat Road and Pyrenees Highway proper. This article will deal with the entire length of the corridor for sake of completion, as well to avoid confusion between declarations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murrumbidgee River railway bridge, Wagga Wagga</span> Bridge in New South Wales, Australia

The Murrumbidgee River railway bridge is a former railway bridge that carried the Main Southern railway line across the Murrumbidgee River in Wagga Wagga, Australia. The original bridge, erected in 1881, was replaced in 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Redesdale, Victoria</span> Town in Victoria, Australia

Redesdale is a town in central Victoria, Australia. It is located partly in the City of Greater Bendigo local government area and partly in the Shire of Mount Alexander. At the 2016 census, Redesdale and the surrounding area had a population of 240.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Queens Bridge (Melbourne)</span> Bridge in Melbourne, Australia

The Queen's Bridge is a historic road bridge over the Yarra River in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The bridge was built in 1889 and has five wrought iron plate girder spans, and is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register. The bridge was built by contractor David Munro, and replaced a timber footbridge built in 1860.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denison Bridge</span> Bridge in Bathurst, New South Wales

The Denison Bridge is a heritage-listed footbridge over the Macquarie River in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is the fourth oldest metal truss bridge existing in Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hawthorn Railway Bridge</span> Bridge in Melbourne, Australia

The Hawthorn Railway Bridge is a steel truss bridge that crosses the Yarra River 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) east of Melbourne between Burnley and Hawthorn stations on the Alamein, Belgrave and Lilydale railway lines. It was built for the Melbourne and Suburban Railway Company and is the oldest extant railway bridge over the Yarra River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francis Bell (engineer)</span> British railway engineer

Francis Bell, was a British railway engineer, who worked extensively in Australia, and was involved in a number of important railway construction projects and bridges.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prince Alfred Bridge</span> 1860s wrought iron truss bridge in Gundagai

The Prince Alfred Bridge is a wrought iron truss and timber beam partially-disused road bridge over the Murrumbidgee River and its floodplain at Middleton Drive, Gundagai, Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council, New South Wales, Australia. The heritage-listed road bridge was designed by William Christopher Bennett and built from 1864 to 1867 by Francis Bell. It is also known as Prince Alfred Bridge - Iron Road Bridge and Iron Bridge over Murrumbidgee River at Gundagai. The iron bridge is owned by Transport for NSW and the timber viaduct is owned by Crown Lands. The bridge was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 5 July 2019 and on the Register of the National Estate on 21 March 1978.

Herald of the Morning was a three-masted square-rigged sailing ship, built in 1853 or 1854 at Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, expressly for the Australia run. The contemporary Melbourne press described her as 'a fine ship of 1292 tons register'

McMillans Bridge, is a riveted wrought iron open web truss bridge, located over the Woady Yaloak River on the Rokewood-Skipton Road between Rokewood and Werneth on a historical route between Geelong and the 1850s goldfields at Ararat and Streatham.

Pitfield Bridge, is a riveted wrought iron, Warren truss road bridge, located over the Woady Yaloak Creek on the Rokewood-Skipton Road near Pitfield in Victoria, Australia. The bridge was originally constructed in the late 1850s, by the Woady Yallock Roads Board, and modified later in the century by construction of a large riveted wrought iron truss span.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glenmona Bridge</span> Bridge in Victoria, Australia

Glenmona Bridge is a riveted wrought iron lattice-girder deck-truss road bridge on the old route between the Ararat and central goldfields over the Bet Bet Creek at Bung Bong, Victoria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johnston Street Bridge</span> Bridge across the Yarra River in Melbourne, Australia

Johnston Street Bridge is a concrete road bridge crossing the Yarra River between the Melbourne suburbs of Abbotsford and Kew.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murray River railway bridge, Albury–Wodonga</span> Bridge in New South Wales, Australia

The Murray River railway bridge is a heritage-listed Australian railway bridge over the Murray River on the Main Southern line south of Albury in the City of Albury, New South Wales, and on the North Eastern line north of Wodonga in Victoria. The bridge was designed by John Whitton and built from 1883 to 1884 by J. S. Bennett, with iron work supplied by Westwood, Baillie, England. It is also known as the Rail Bridge over Murray River, Albury–Wodonga and the Albury Lattice Railway Bridge and Murray River Underbridge. The bridge is owned by RailCorp, and maintained by the Australian Rail Track Corporation as part of its lease of the line. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999 and added to the Register of the National Estate on 18 April 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old Cobram-Barooga Bridge</span> Historic site in New South Wales, Australia

Old Cobram-Barooga Bridge is a heritage-listed former road bridge and now footbridge over the Murray River at Barooga-Cobram Road, Barooga, New South Wales, Australia. The bridge links Barooga with Cobram, its sister town in Victoria. It was designed by Ernest de Burgh (engineer) and the New South Wales Department of Public Works and built from 1900 to 1902. It is also known as RMS Bridge No 3247. It is owned by Transport for NSW. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 1 April 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Macquarie River railway bridge, Dubbo</span> Bridge in New South Wales, Australia

The Dubbo rail bridge over Macquarie River – Wambuul is a heritage-listed railway bridge on the Main Western line across the Macquarie River, located west of the Dubbo central business district in New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by John Whitton as the Engineer-in-Chief for the New South Wales Government Railways. The bridge was built during 1884 by Benjamin Barnes, with ironwork by Cochrane & Co, Middlesborough, England. The railway bridge is also known as the Dubbo Lattice Railway Bridge. The property is owned by Transport Asset Holding Entity, an agency of the Government of New South Wales. The bridge was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999 and was listed on the Register of the National Estate on 18 April 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lachlan River railway bridge</span> Bridge in New South Wales, Australia

The Lachlan River railway bridge is a heritage-listed former railway bridge which carried the Blayney–Demondrille railway line over the Lachlan River at Cowra, Cowra Shire, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by John Whitton in his capacity as Engineer-in-Chief for Railways. The bridge was built from 1886 to 1887 by contractors Fishburn & Co. It is also known as the Cowra Rail Bridge over Lachlan River and the Cowra Lattice Railway Bridge. The property is owned by Transport Asset Holding Entity, an agency of the Government of New South Wales. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.

References

  1. "National Trust Register citation B1541".
  2. O'Connor, Colin (1985). Spanning Two Centuries: Historic Bridges of Australia. Brisbane, Queensland: University of Queensland Press. ISBN   978-0702217982. p.106.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Redesdale Bridge, Victorian Heritage Register (VHR) Number H1419, Heritage Overlay HO230". Victorian Heritage Database. Heritage Victoria. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  4. "Redesdale Bridge". Victorian Government Gazette. G11.
  5. National Trust Register citation B1541 Retrieved2015-04-01"
  6. State Records Authority of New South Wales: Shipping Master's Office; Passengers Arriving 1855 - 1922; NRS13278, 9X98-1000 reel 406, Transcribed by Gloria Sheehan, 2005 Archived 2012-05-05 at the Wayback Machine
  7. Victoria, Hansard, 1859-60, p. 1063, Legislative Assembly, 3 May 1860 (Smith and Service); also Hansard (Legislative Assembly) 1861, p. 368 (Smith) and p. 1083 (Brooke)
  8. HERALD OF THE MORNING, VHR Number S330
  9. "Advertising" The Argus 24 Nov 1859: 2. Web. 3 Aug 2012
  10. "Glenmona Bridge". 3 September 1999.

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Redesdale Bridge at Wikimedia Commons