WOODEN WONDERS
Regional Victoria’s much-loved wooden bridges are celebrated in a stunning new National Trust publication launched at the Monbulk Creek Trestle bridge at Selby on the Puffing Billy line.
National Trust Chairman, Dianne Weidner OAM, said Wooden Wonders: Victoria’s Timber Bridges by Dr Don Chambers represented 12 years of research and planning.
“Bridges played a key role in Victoria’s social and economic development. Now is the time for them to be celebrated in a magnificent book,” Mrs Weidner said.
“A plentiful supply of durable hardwoods saw most of Victoria’s pioneering bridges built from timber. Eucalypts were especially suited to bridge building, contributing to the emergence of a distinctive Australian style of wooden bridge.”
Mrs Weidner said increasing speed and load limits mean most wooden bridges no longer carried traffic, with the National Trust supporting a strategic intervention to ensure our wooden wonders continue to be a feature of rural Victoria.
“The story of timber bridges is Victoria’s story, reflecting the way our road and rail system developed and the pattern of settlement across the state,” she said.
“Communities across Victoria are showing support for their wooden bridges, with the people of Barwon Heads recently campaigning to secure its bridge's future. In recent years, communities from Keilor to Wandiligong and Dartmoor to Genoa have called on the National Trust for assistance to save local wooden bridges at threat from the wrecker’s ball.
“Yet, for every bridge saved one is lost. The loss of Warrnambool’s Hopkins River bridge, Victoria’s oldest truss bridge, was a major blow to Victoria’s heritage.
“This book highlights the historic, aesthetic, technical and social significance of the bridges, encouraging communities and visitors to appreciate, enjoy, and when necessary rally to save, our wooden bridges.”
Copies of the book are available from National Trust of Australia (Victoria), 4 Parliament Place, East Melbourne 3002, phone (03) 9656 9800 or email info@nattrust.com.au
Price is $49.95 plus $10 postage and packaging.