The Severn River railway bridge is a heritage-listed railway bridge that carries the Main Northern Line across the Severn River at

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

Glen Innes Severn Glen Innes Severn is a local government area in the New England region of New South Wales, Australia. The council serves an area of and is located adjacent to the New England Highway. The council was formed by the amalgamation of Severn Shire ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia. It was designed by

John Whitton John Whitton (1820, near Wakefield, Yorkshire, England – 20 February 1898), an Anglo–Australian railway engineer, was the Engineer-in-Charge for the New South Wales Government Railways, serving between 1856 and 1890, considered the Father of ...

in his capacity as Engineer-in-Chief for Railways and built in 1886. It is also known as Severn River Railway Viaduct. The property is owned by Transport Asset Holding Entity, an

agency Agency may refer to: Organizations * Institution, governmental or others ** Advertising agency or marketing agency, a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising for its clients ** Employment agency, a business that ...

of the

Government of New South Wales The Government of New South Wales, also known as the NSW Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of New South Wales. It is currently held by a coalition of the Liberal Party and the National Party. The Governmen ...

. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.

History

When John Whitton, Engineer-in-Chief for Railways 1856–1890, extended the Main North Railway from Muswellbrook to Glen Innes, 1870–1884 it climbed through the highest parts of the

Great Dividing Range The Great Dividing Range, also known as the East Australian Cordillera or the Eastern Highlands, is a cordillera system in eastern Australia consisting of an expansive collection of mountain ranges, plateaus and rolling hills, that runs rough ...

into the

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

Region. Gradients were steep, curves were sharp, there was heavy earthworks and some major iron lattice bridges. It was expensive railway construction. When the section from Glen Innes to Tenterfield was planned, economies were made, particularly with bridges. They had to be timber, mostly ballast top timber beam bridges but at three locations larger bridges were required, over the

Beardy Waters Beardy Waters, a Perennial stream, watercourse and part of the Macintyre River, Macintyre catchment within the Murray–Darling basin, is located in the Northern Tablelands region of New South Wales, Australia. Etymology The name of the river de ...

, Severn River and Bluff River. Whitton, a successful railway engineer from England, chose one of

Isambard Kingdom Brunel Isambard Kingdom Brunel (; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859) was a British civil engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history," "one of the 19th-century engineering giants," and "one ...

's timber bridge viaducts built in

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

during the 1850s. The model chosen was the St Germans Viaduct, composed of composite deck Queen post

truss A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure. In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so that the assembl ...

es, with the bottom chords being large iron rods. Whitton's staff redesigned the trusses to be all timber and the viaducts were built during construction of the Glen Innes to Tenterfield section 1884–86. The final section to

Wallangarra Wallangarra is a rural town and locality in the Southern Downs Region, Queensland, Australia on the border with New South Wales. In the , the locality of Wallangarra had a population of 468 people. It is the third-most southerly town in Queens ...

(1888) was mostly easier over plateau country but the crossing of Tenterfield Creek required a large bridge and a timber Queen post truss viaduct was built there also, the fourth between Glen Innes and the

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

border. All four viaducts retain their original fabric. Only two other such timber viaducts were built in this period, the Ingalara Creek railway bridge and the Bredbo River railway bridge on the Bombala railway line.

Description

Located from Central station, the Severn River bridge is a 13-

span Span may refer to: Science, technology and engineering * Span (unit), the width of a human hand * Span (engineering), a section between two intermediate supports * Wingspan, the distance between the wingtips of a bird or aircraft * Sorbitan es ...

timber

viaduct; each span is centre-to-centre of timber trestles. The trusses are deck Queen post copied from one of Brunel's Cornish timber bridges (St Germans), built about 30 years earlier. The condition of the bridge was assessed as fair as at 16 March 2006 due to lack of maintenance since rail services were suspended.

Heritage listing

The Severn River railway bridge was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999 having satisfied the following criteria. The place is important in demonstrating the course, or pattern, of cultural or natural history in New South Wales. The timber Queen post truss viaduct was an economic bridge for the Glen Innes to Wallangarra Railway at a time when the boom years of the 1880s was ending and funding for railway construction was decreasing. The place is important in demonstrating aesthetic characteristics and/or a high degree of creative or technical achievement in New South Wales. Despite a degree of inaccessibility, the timber viaducts over the Beardy, Severn and Bluff Rivers are impressive structures within their rural landscapes. At Tenterfield, the adjacent New England Highway provides easy viewing of the fourth such viaduct. The place has strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group in New South Wales for social, cultural or spiritual reasons. The Main North Railway made a significant contribution to the development of the New England Region from the time of its construction 1882–88, and the four timber viaducts were important items of the railway's infrastructure. The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of the cultural or natural history of New South Wales. The timber Queen post deck viaduct was a significant structure in place of the expensive iron lattice bridges preferred by John Whitton. The viaducts were technically sound and durable, having been built from renowned ironbark hardwood. The place possesses uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of the cultural or natural history of New South Wales. These four viaducts and the two on the Cooma Line are the only ones of their type built. They are a unique class of railway bridge.

References

Bibliography

Attribution