Iron bridges, built in the 1880s in our region
History Notes
Some weeks ago, there was some discussion around the local iron bridges built in this area in the 1880's. There are number of iron bridges which were manufactured in Britain and then shipped to Australia for construction over some of the larger rivers.
In 2003 we received a letter from a retired bridge engineer who had a great interest in the ‘iron lattice’ type of bridge built between 1870 and 1890. He said there were 18 bridges of this type built in NSW. They were "fabricated" in England and Belgium, shipped to Australia, and then transported to site for construction!
Those constructed in our area included bridges over the Namoi River at Manilla and Gunnedah, the Bingara Bridge over the Gwydir in Bingara and the final bridge for our area was divided between Bundarra and Halls Creek. The latter is the short bridge one drives over just before the Gwydir bridge.
Digging a little further into the local histories I have found that Mr. Royce arrived in Manilla in 1883 to erect the Manilla bridge. He is well remembered in Manilla with Royce Cottage. However, on the trail of the Bingara bridge in Trevor Wearne's book there is a reference to bridge building beginning in August, 1884. There were up to 150 men working at Bingara on wages of 10 pence per hour.
The Bingara bridge was opened for traffic on 9th November, 1886. It was a gala day- lots of people to watch Mrs. Campbell cut the ribbon. In fact, my great great grandfather was so angry that his family attended the opening that he was going to sell the sulky and buggy and the horses so they had to stay at home and work!
Clare Schofield, in writing Stepping Stone on the Gwydir, in 1979, devoted a paragraph to the bridge over the river at Bundarra. "The Bundarra bridge, not originally designed to span the Gwydir, was part of a much longer structure, another portion of which was erected further downstream at Bingara." The bridge came to Tamworth by rail and then completed its journey on bullock drays where much trouble was experienced on the Moonbi Ranges.
The other two bridges in our area were at Gunnedah and just out of Boggabri and I am sure their societies can tell their story although I think Mr. Royce may have been overseeing all the local bridges and he certainly did a good job as they are all still standing.