The Moorabool River is a river in

Victoria, Australia Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state with a land area of , the second most populated state (after New South Wales) with a population of over 6.5 million, and the most densely populated state in ...

, that runs past several small towns and areas such as Meredith, Anakie, and Staughton Vale (north-west of

Geelong Geelong ( ) ( Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the south eastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon ...

). The river joins with the Barwon River at

Fyansford Fyansford is a township on the western edge of Geelong, Victoria, Australia, named after Captain Foster Fyans who came to Geelong as a Police magistrate in October, 1837. It is located at the junction of the Barwon and Moorabool rivers. At th ...

Bridges

The river features several historic bridges, many built in colonial bluestone.

Batesford Bridge

Batesford was originally the site of a ford over the Moorabool River. The first bridge at Batesford was built by the Corio and Bannockburn shire councils in 1846. Provided with a tollgate, the wooden bridge was located upstream from the ford, and collapsed in 1847. It was again rebuilt in wood in 1848, and was damaged by flood in 1852 and later repaired. A bluestone bridge was built in 1859, which still exists today as a service road. The current concrete bridge of the Midland Highway was built in 1972 on a new alignment.John, McNeil (1990) ''A Journey to Destiny 1890-1990 100 Years of Cement Manufacturing at Fyansford by Australian Cement Limited''

Fyansford Bridge

The first river crossing at

was again a ford. The first wooden bridge was built downriver from the ford by the Shire of Corio and

Shire of Bannockburn The Shire of Bannockburn was a local government area about west-southwest of Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia. The shire covered an area of , and existed from 1862 until 1994. History Bannockburn was first incorporated ...

in 1854, and was tolled until 1877. It was in poor condition by 1898, with load restrictions being put into place. A new bridge was built nearby in 1900 by

John Monash General Sir John Monash, (; 27 June 1865 – 8 October 1931) was an Australian civil engineer and military commander of the First World War. He commanded the 13th Infantry Brigade before the war and then, shortly after its outbreak, became c ...

and J. T. N. Anderson, the three arch bridge being the largest

Monier Monier is a French name that may refer to the following notable people: * Damien Monier (born 1982), French professional road bicycle racer * Étienne Monier (1889–1913), French anarchist * Evelyn Monier-Williams (1920–2015), English barrister ...

reinforced concrete bridge in world at the time. In 1970 a new bridge was built on the site of the old wooden bridge to cater for heavier traffic on the Hamilton Highway, the 1900 bridge retained for pedestrians.

Geelong Ring Road

Work on the

Geelong Ring Road The Geelong Ring Road (formerly known as the Geelong Bypass and the Geelong Outer Freeway, officially part of Princes Freeway West) is a freeway ring road in Australia beside Geelong's western suburbs from the Princes Freeway at Corio to the P ...

bridge commenced in late 2006. Costing $15.5 million, it carries four lanes of traffic and is the largest bridge on the road featuring 70 beams and 12 piers. The final span was installed on March 6, 2008. It has since been named the Lewis Bandt Bridge.

Moorabool Viaduct

The long

bluestone Bluestone is a cultural or commercial name for a number of dimension or building stone varieties, including: * basalt in Victoria, Australia, and in New Zealand * dolerites in Tasmania, Australia; and in Britain (including Stonehenge) * felds ...

and iron Moorabool Viaduct was opened in 1862 to carry the Geelong-Ballarat railway over the river valley. It remains in use today, having been reinforced with extra steel piers in 1918, to a design of

Victorian Railways The Victorian Railways (VR), trading from 1974 as VicRail, was the state-owned operator of most rail transport in the Australian state of Victoria from 1859 to 1983. The first railways in Victoria were private companies, but when these companie ...

engineer Frederick Esling.

References

External links

* *
Moorabool River at BIRD
(wiki)
People for A Living Moorabool
{{Authority control Rivers of Victoria (Australia) Corangamite catchment Rivers of Barwon South West (region) Rivers of Grampians (region) Geography of Geelong