10 November 2021

A pictorial tribute to Gundagai's Prince Alfred Bridge

| Edwina Mason
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Prince Alfred Bridge

The last days of the old Prince Alfred Bridge viaduct as demolition crews moved in. Photo: Maree Myhill.

On Wednesday, 3 November, excavators moved onto the Gundagai floodplain and demolition of the old Prince Alfred Bridge viaduct began.

Prolific Young photographer Maree Myhill captured images of the work being undertaken, chronicling the loss of the town’s beloved timber structure.

“I’ve driven over this rickety old bridge hundreds of times before the new bridge [Sheahan Bridge] was built, including when a massive flood was flowing underneath it,” she tells Region Media.

“What an amazing feat to build a long bridge of this magnitude in the 1860s. It has always been a part of Gundagai so it’s sad to see it go.”

READ ALSO Gundagai’s historic bridge finally surrenders to the water above

The slideshow below features images of Prince Alfred Bridge from the past and present. Many of the images appeared on the ‘Gundagai and its People’ Facebook page in recent months.

Chris Nicholes was one of those contributors, with his keen interest in the bridges of Gundagai being forged as he worked on both Prince Alfred and Sheahan Bridges. In 2005, he undertook asphalt pavement maintenance on Prince Alfred’s iron river crossing, which is still in use.

Chris then worked on the new parallel Sheehan Bridge for 15 months before it was completed in 2009, providing a dual carriageway for southbound traffic on the Hume Highway. His Ford was the first car to cross the new bridge.

The first Sheehan Bridge was completed in 1977 and has since been since refurbished and carries northbound Hume Highway traffic.

There are plans to memorialise the bridge, of which submissions closed on 31 October.

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peter freeman3:15 pm 12 Nov 21

we should have been smart enough to realised how important in heritage and story terms how important this structure was … and how important to Gundagai and its people it had been over the years

Maree Myhill9:58 am 12 Nov 21

Wonderful tribute to Gundagai’s Prince Alfred Bridge. Thanks Edwina.

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