Glenmona Bridge is a riveted
wrought iron
Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag Inclusion (mineral), inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a ...
lattice-girder deck-truss road bridge on the old route between the
Ararat and central goldfields over the
Bet Bet Creek
Bet Bet Creek in west Victoria starts below Ben Major, Victoria (west of Lexton) at an elevation of 479m and ends at an elevation of 165m flowing into the Loddon River at the Laanecoorie Reservoir. The Bet Bet Creek drops around 314m over its 8 ...
at
Bung Bong, Victoria
Bung Bong is a locality in Victoria between the towns of Avoca and Maryborough. The locality is divided, with the Western section in the Pyrenees Shire and the Eastern section in Shire of Central Goldfields. The Bet Bet Creek (which separates ...
.
History
The bridge was built in 1871 to replace an 1857 timber bridge that was destroyed in the statewide floods of 1870. Those super-floods devastated much of the state's road network, and resulted in a redesign of many river and creek crossings, to raise the roads above flood levels not seen before.
The continuous trusses are 46.6 metres long and the piers are quite tall at 10.1 metres high.
[http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/places/result_detail/67724 National Trust Database, Glenmona Bridge] It is the third-oldest of its type in Victoria. Its location is directly south of the new bridge over the Bet Bet on the Pyrenees Highway.
The timber deck and handrails were destroyed in a bushfire on 14 January 1985.
Similar bridge
Whereas the huge lattice truss girders of the
Redesdale Bridge in
Redesdale, Victoria
Redesdale is a town in central Victoria, Australia. It is located partly in the City of Greater Bendigo local government area and partly in the Shire of Mount Alexander. At the , Redesdale and the surrounding area had a population of 240.
Hi ...
, had been imported from England in 1859, colonial engineering works had, in the meantime, developed to service
reef
A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral or similar relatively stable material, lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic processes— deposition of sand, wave erosion planing down rock out ...
and deep lead mining, and were quite capable of supplying such products for the Glenmona bridge, by 1870.
Significance
The bridge is registered on the
Victorian Heritage Council database and with the
National Trust of Australia
The National Trust of Australia, officially the Australian Council of National Trusts (ACNT), is the Australian national peak body for community-based, non-government non-profit organisations committed to promoting and conserving Australia's Ind ...
.
and the Shire of Pyrenees heritage overlay.
The
Pyrenees Shire Council has documented the Glenmona Park homestead on Glenmona Road, Bung Bong, at the Bet Bet Creek, in the ''Avoca Heritage Study: 1864 - 1994'' - Volume 3.
See also
*
Bung Bong, Victoria
Bung Bong is a locality in Victoria between the towns of Avoca and Maryborough. The locality is divided, with the Western section in the Pyrenees Shire and the Eastern section in Shire of Central Goldfields. The Bet Bet Creek (which separates ...
*
Pyrenees Highway, Victoria
Pyrenees Highway is a rural highway in western Victoria, Australia, linking Glenelg Highway in Glenthompson to Calder Highway in Elphinstone. It intersects with the region's major road freight route, Western Highway in Ararat, in addition ...
*
Redesdale Bridge
References
External links
Avoca and District Historical Society Prior website of the Avoca and District Historical Society* Colin O'Connor, Spanning Two Centuries, Historic Bridges of Australia. University of Queensland Press, 1985. p. 103
1859 establishments in Australia
Road bridges in Victoria (Australia)
Bridges completed in 1859
Bridges completed in 1871
Victorian Heritage Register
Truss bridges in Australia
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