4 posts tagged “bridge”

Yesterday I visited the city for the first time in quite a while. It reminded me why I avoid trips there, too noisy and busy. While I was there I had a walk through the park on Observatory Hill which has always been one of my favourite places. I noted how the view towards the harbour wouldn't have changed much in the 76 years since the bridge was built. It is quite different on the other side on the harbour with the office buildings on North Sydney dominating the view. Dawes Point and the Rocks area between the camera and the bridge is the oldest part of Sydney and fortunately was protected from development during the Green ban period of the '70s.

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For those unfamiliar with the size of the bridge the second view shows a train passing through the pylon closest to the camera.

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A few days ago I posted some photos of the bridge over the Hawkesbury River. Near where I took the photos there was a post sticking out of the shallows near the bank. It was nothing unusual accept for the fact that it was encased with a sheet of copper. Most people would not realise what it was if they were not familiar with the history of the area.

Before the bridge I showed there was a low level timber bridge that served those living on the western side of the river. It was removed when the current bridge was built about 1905. However if you look carefully there is a fair bit of the original bridge remaining. The post is part of this bridge so it must be at least 150 years old, quite old for Australia.

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A little further up the bank there are some more substantial remnants.

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What do you do when you are building a railway, you have a river to cross and the budget is very tight, most of the line is being built with second hand materials. One possibility is find an existing bridge and hang your railway on the side. That is what was done here in the 1920's when the Richmond line is western Sydney was being extended. In the 50's when the line closed the roadway was widened and now you can't tell from above that it is two bridges. But from below it is clear what was done.

The original road bridge, built in 1905, has heritage significance in its own right see here for more info but the addition of the railway makes it unique.

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Place names in Australia have a variety of origins but the two most common would be those of British origin and those derived from the names used by the first Australians. This has given us a wonderful mix of names many visitors find both familiar and foreign. It also has given us many names whose pronunciation is not obvious.

When I was young we had a relative who delighted in mis-pronouncing names to confuse and intrigue us kids. Some were easily decoded like Wagger  Wagger but others not so simple. He often spoke of holidays in northern NSW near Warchoppy. Some names weren't so easy to disguise so he would totally change them. The following photo was taken at a place he always called Yow Yow.

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OK so the photo name gave it away. The others are Wagga Wagga, (pron. wogger wogger) and Wauhope (pron. war-hope).