Description
Timber and steel Stony Creek Bridge, Nowa Nowa, South East Victoria.
Digital sepia mix from original 9 megapixel RGB file.
The construction of the Stony Creek Trestle Bridge not far from Lakes Entrance, which was part of a 97km extension of the rail line between Melbourne and Bairnsdale to reach Orbost, began in 1916. The terrain was extremely rugged, and the project was reputed to be the most difficult rail project ever tackled in Victoria. It is reputedly one of the highest bridges of its type in Australia. It has twenty-seven 9.1m steel joist spans and a ballasted timber deck. The trestles are tied together at mid-height, with timber A-frame bracing between the trestles in alternate bays. Metal crossheads are also visible.
It is 247 metres in length and over 20 metres in height and is built from Red Iron-bark and Grey Box Timber (very hard). It was decided to build the Stony Creek Trestle Bridge to provide a boost to the regional economy. In the early days of the trestle bridge Steam driven locomotives operated across the bridge until 1957 when diesel locomotives were introduced.
Unfortunately in June of 1964 a train of timber trucks being hauled by a diesel loco was derailed in which 11 trucks laden with timber came off the tracks causing 3 trucks to topple from the bridge and the other 8 toppled during the cleaning up of the site.
