Mungindi Bridge, Barwon River, 1908

Prior to bridges being built, river crossings were often dangerous, especially in times of rain, causing bulk freight movement to be prohibitively expensive for most agricultural and mining produce. This was particularly an issue over the black soil plains of the Barwon/ Gwydir systems . Only the high priced wool clip of the time was able to carry the costs and inconvenience imposed by the generally inadequate river crossings that often existed prior to the construction of trussed bridges.

With specific reference to Mungindi Bridge, some limited information has been obtained from the local publication A History of Mungindi to 1988 published by Mungindi and District Historical Society Book Committee (MDHSBC).

Originally, the ford at Mungindi, located just upstream from the current timber truss bridge, was the principal river crossing, used by two declared “fourty chain” stock routes, one between St George and Mungindi and one between Whyenbah (via Dareel) to Mungindi. A tender was awarded for the construction of the first bridge over the Barwon River at Mungindi in 1878 to the firm of M. and J. Scott (NSW Government Gazette 18/11/1878, p.4680). After considerably delay the bridge was opened in 1881 and consisted of three 75ft Bennett trusses.

The location of the bridge led early entrepreneur Alexander Walker to consider the advantage of opening a store near to the crossing, which he did. This shop was apparently located close to the site of the present Queensland Police Station and at the time, near the customs house which operated until Federation in 1900 (MDHSBC, 1988: 18).

By 1890, Mungindi had been declared a village and it grew rapidly, on both sides of the River through the next two decades. The original bridge remained in use for 33 years before being replaced by the Dare truss bridge. The tender was awarded to the firm of Lawson & Waldro for £2,999 (GG 28/8/1912, p.5360) and through improvements in substructure design only a single trussed span was needed instead of the previous three. Following local agitation a walkway was attached to the bridge on the upstream side in the 1950s allowing safe passage of pedestrians who had previously crossed the bridge via the road deck.

Over a period of time this bridge first served squatters, settlers and drovers, then all persons venturing north and south in all fields of endeavour. Before it was replaced, it assisted in the smooth flow of traffic for the agricultural and pastoral industries carrying over 80,000 livestock annually. This, together with the movement of many tonnes of grain, hay, cotton and wool, gives a true indication of the importance of the bridge. The bridge provided a refuge in times of flood and permitted the closing of the border on more than one occasion (Sol O’Rourke, cited in MDHSBC 1988: 110).