Gundaroo Bridge over Yass River, 1899

ABOUT THE BRIDGE:

The first Gundaroo Bridge 1879-1900

In 1860, William Affleck, a prominent Gundaroo identity who was instrumental in lobbying for much public infrastructure throughout Gundaroo, began writing letters to the Department of Works regarding the need for a bridge over the Yass River at Gundaroo. A token £500 was apparently placed on the parliamentary estimates for the project; however, no further action was taken (Lea-Scarlett, 1972).

In 1868, a simple log causeway was constructed by local residents across the Yass River to the south of Gundaroo township. However, this structure represented only a temporary solution and the crossing was notoriously treacherous, particularly during periods of high water that often occurred without any real warning (Lea-Scarlett, 1972).

In 1870, the opening of the new Gundaroo thoroughfare, the Marked Tree Road, which significantly increased the coaching and hotel business in the district, highlighted the problem of the unbridged waterways at either end of Gundaroo township. In November 1873, the Yass River rose and completely washed away the log crossing which had been constructed over Gundaroo Creek, to the north of Gundaroo. In 1874 – during local pre-election period – a start was made on a bridge across Gundaroo Creek at what was known as Fairfield Crossing (Lea-Scarlett, 1972).

Affleck continued to campaign for a bridge over the Yass River and finally, in 1877, £2,000 was voted by parliament for a permanent structure. Early in 1878 a contract was allotted to Kingdon, a Goulburn builder, who tendered at about £800 less than the vote by dispensing with high-level approaches. Construction soon began, however, the designed low level of the bridge almost immediately caused problems. William Affleck (1916) visited the site during initial works and recalls:

The superintendent was on the ground and when I saw the height it was to be above the level of the river, I told him it would be swept away by the floods. He as much as told me to mind my own business. I then communicated with the department about the height – a good many of the piles were placed near the site during the correspondence, but none of them had been driven, when down came a flood and swept away several of the piles. That settled the matter, the superintendent saw I was right, and new piles three feet longer were brought, and the work proceeded with till completed.

Several local residents were employed on the construction of the bridge – including Curtis Dyce, descendant of the Gundaroo pioneer Patrick Dyce (Lea-Scarlett, 1972). The work was completed within the year and the new Gundaroo Bridge was opened on March 11. Much planning had been devoted to the opening ceremony with the appointment of a committee comprising notabilities from the Gundaroo district at large and early Gundaroo identities including Arthur Affleck, Patrick Donnelly, Charles Massy, Sandy Dyce, John Cartwright and Joseph Edgar.

The Goulburn Herald covered the event, and the following description of the opening ceremony is taken from an article published in the paper on the 15th March 1879:

Before daybreak, the Yass Oddfellow’s Band arrived in town, waking residents by striking up a tune as they reached the main street and breaking into cheers and hurrahs on their arrival at the Royal Hotel. Throughout the morning band music kept up, first outside the Royal Hotel and then at the Commercial, while busy helpers decked the street in bunting and at noon a procession of about three hundred people on foot, in carriages and on horseback set out from the courthouse headed by Mr. J. Erskine White and his pupils of the public school. At the brightly decorated bridge, ornamented with “festoons of flags under which hung the bottle of champagne, gaily decked with red, white and blue ribbons, to be immolated in the ceremony,” P.J.B Donnelly of Bywong introduced his mother-in-law, Mrs. Charlotte Massy, the lady selected to perform the opening. Commenting that she trusted the floods would not prevail against the structure, Mrs. Massy dashed the bottle against a support and named it the Gundaroo Bridge.

A banquet and ball were held that evening at the Royal Hotel. William Affleck gave a speech during the banquet, stating that although the new bridge was a triumph, representing almost twenty years of urging, he would never rest until he saw the Gundaroo Bridge secured against floods by being provided with high-level approaches.

Affleck was to wait almost another twenty years, however, to see his objective realized, by which time he had moved away from Gundaroo to Strathfield in Sydney.

Nonetheless, the problems caused by the low level of the Gundaroo Bridge during the 1880s and 1890s proved the value of Affleck’s doubts. The shallow approaches to the bridge were frequently cut by floods and even relatively small rises in the Yass River. In 1885, floodwaters significantly damaged the Gundaroo Bridge and by the mid 1890s, the structure was becoming increasing unstable. During the droughts of the late 1890s, bullockies began to drive their teams across the dry Yass River bed rather than trust the rickety structure that spanned it (Lea-Scarlett, 1972).

The second Gundaroo Bridge 1900-2009

William Affleck moved to Strathfield in 1899, however, Alfred Alexander Crowe (proprietor with his wife Jane Carroll of The Star wine saloon and accommodation house), continued his campaign to improve the Gundaroo Bridge over the Yass River. Finally, in September 1899, approval and funds were granted. The work came under the supervision of the NSW Department of Public Works and Percy Allan, Department of Public Works Engineer-in-Chief, prepared the design for a high-level timber truss bridge over the Yass River at Gundaroo. Works soon commenced and the new Gundaroo Bridge was completed in March 1900. This time, however, the bridge was opened without ceremony (Lea-Scarlett, 1972).

The erection of a high-level bridge sought to rectify the mistakes of the past and took into account the ever-present danger of serious flooding throughout the Gundaroo district. As luck would have it, however, in June 1900, an overnight downpour damaged the approaches to the new Gundaroo Bridge requiring repair works to the bridge within its first three months of operation (Lea-Scarlett, 1972).

In May 1925, one of the worst recorded floods in the Yass River occurred. After a period of unseasonably high humidity, warm and insistent rain began to drift in from the east, drenching the whole countryside until every waterway overflowed simultaneously. Low-lying country was submerged and downstream from Gundaroo the Yass River was believed to have exceeded the height of the 1870 flood. The Gundaroo Bridge was seriously damaged during these floods. The southern embankment river was partially washed away, resulting in the collapse of the southern approach span (Lea-Scarlett, 1972) – refer to photographs below:

It was many months before the bridge was restored to full working order. A “flying-fox” apparatus, which consisted of a sort of crude seat slung on ropes, served meanwhile to convey mails, supplies and travellers from the river bank to the remaining sections of the bridge (Lea-Scarlett, 1972).

Early in 1926, further restoration works were undertaken including the construction of two additional approach spans to the northern (Gundaroo) side of the bridge – bringing the number of spans to three. These works served to better allow the flow of water under the bridge during flooding events in an attempt to prevent further flood damage to the structure (Reinhold, 2000).