Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

Fremantle Traffic Bridge - an old friend

The Fremantle Traffic Bridge marks the site where people have long chosen to cross the Swan River, probably prior to European settlement. The current structure has been there since 1939, completed just in time for WW2. This was lucky because the previous bridge night not have coped well with the weight of some of the war time traffic.

There have been at least two previous bridges. The first was built with convict labour in 1866. By accounts it was a bit wobbly. In the water on the upstream, northern side of the present bridge can be seen rows of cut-off piles. These may be the remains of the convict bridge because the number of piles, six, in the rows closest to shore, appears to coincide with what can be seen in old photos. The second bridge was built to coexist alongside the first in the late 1890s. It may have been where the present 1939 bridge is.

Like its forebears, the 1939 bridge is mostly constructed from timber. Scores of prime hardwood logs were cut from south west forests and driven vertically into the river bed. They were protected from marine organisms by concrete collars. Then a criss-cross of other logs and beams were fixed as braces and supports.

There's additional steel work too. Some of this might have been added over time, but sitting atop the rows of piles can be seen original steel beams slightly angled with fish plates in the middle to establish the camber of the roadway which eventually capped off the structure. The strong, stiff construction is easy to understand if you sit for a few moments and study it.

Most of the timbers above the waterline look as good as they were the day they were installed. Certainly all the timber above the waterline appears as if it could easily last another hundred years or longer. Telling if there is a similar story behind the concrete collars would require more serious examination by drilling and core sampling, but I'd lay money they are still in good condition.

There is corrosion evident on a variety of metal fixtures and fittings. It doesn't look too serious to me. Nothing that a well planned scheduled maintenance program over time couldn't easily fix. But Western Australian state governments don't have a good reputation for funding scheduled maintenance. They seem to prefer infrastructure projects to be allowed to deteriorate, and then announce a grand replacement scheme with significant benefits to predictable business sectors. It's a grand slam approach. Old, steady and practical is bad - new, fast and very expensive is good.

In May the Labor state government reaffirmed its long held intention to demolish the bridge and build another. This has not been a popular proposition in Fremantle. The mayor has been very opposed to it. Perhaps there will be a reprieve because of the crippling damage to the state's economy through the ongoing gas shortage debacle.

Like the mayor, I've grown up with this bridge. As a teenager I used to fish from the plank walkways beneath it. The walkways are still there and people can still fish from them.

Occasionally in the past there have been tragedies. The tidal race can be very strong, and has claimed people who couldn't swim.

There's a magic quality about being underneath the bridge. It's fairly quiet and relaxing. I particularly enjoy looking at the piles plunging down into the cool green depths.

My final picture is a panorama of the bridge and its upstream environs. It was created last Thursday from seven pictures. All of these images can be clicked up in size at least a couple of times.

© MMVIII Paul R. Weaver.

Click here to visit 'dogandcatwatcher', my YouTube website.

Original still photographs are stored online in a cache at my Panoramio website or my Picasa site. Most of them have a brief description and a link back to a relevant essay. Images on Panoramio can usually be enlarged several times by clicking them.

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Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!

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